So much average

Load of rubbish!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Aleksandr Ptushko might be recognizable to western audiences from the riffing of reedited versions of his movies (e.g., "Sampo" retitled "The Day the Earth Froze") on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). I understand that the original versions of these movies are worth seeing, not the sort of movies that MST3K would heckle. His "Alye parusa" ("Scarlet Sails" in English) is an impressive one. It's based on Aleksandr Grin's 1923 novel of the same name, and I understand that Grin's work enjoyed a renaissance under Khrushchev's thaw. The movie doesn't have the most complex story, but it's enjoyable enough for its hour and a half. One might interpret it as a look at the desire to break free of one's confines, whether Assol's peasant world or Arthur's aristocratic world.So, it's not any sort of masterpiece, but I recommend it. Probably the neatest thing about the movie is the filming locations around the Black Sea.Assol. That name has gotta make lots of English-speakers giggle.

This is simply the most beautiful and romantic film ever made. Even stranger, it was directed by Alexnadr Ptushko, known for his fantasy films and spacial effects. I guess he wanted a change of pace from his overblown spectacles. He succeeds beautifully.This early 20th century novella is a classic in Russia yet, like The Wizard of Oz, the film is far better than the book. The two leads are outstanding and the girl who plays Assol is stunning! The musical score should be recorded. What a pity this is not known in the West.If you like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Random Harvest, The Bishop's Wife, One Way Passage and Somewhere in Time - and believe in miracles - this is the crown jewel.

"Alye Parusa" aka "Scarlet Sails" (1962) which is a screen adaptation of one of the most beautiful romantic, poetic, and charming books ever written (the link to the book "Scarlet Sails" by Alexander Green is provided on the Message Board for this film) is one of my favorite movies since childhood. It's been many years since I saw "Scarlet Sails" but it still has the same power over me. Watching it again recently, I realized how incredibly beautiful it is, how wonderfully directed by "Walt Disney of the Soviet Union", Alexander Ptushko who had made such masterpieces as "The Stone Flower", "Sadko" (1953), "The Tale of Tsar Saltan", "Ruslan and Ludmila, "The New Gulliver", and many more. The film tells the story of a little girl named Asole , who meets a wizard one day. He tells her that sometime in the future a ship with red sails will arrive -- to take her away to a new, happy life. She holds onto this prediction in spite of taunts and the ridicule of her neighbors… Ruscico DVD is great. The film's images are fresh and joyful. The DVD includes Russian version with subtitles and dubbed to English and French versions. 16 years old Anastasiya Vertinskaya whom you may remember as Ophelia in Kozintzev's Gamlet plays Asole – it was her first role ever. Vaslily Lanovoy plays Arthur Grey , the young nobleman who dreamed of becoming a sea captain since he was a boy and who made Asole's dream come true by creating a miracle for her, the only miracle she had been waiting for all her life:"I have come to the person who is waiting only for me. I want only her, perhaps for the precise reason that thanks to her I have been able to understand one simple truth, that so-called miracles are made with one's own hands.""But there are other miracles: a smile, gladness, forgiveness, and a word which is needed and said in time. To experience them is to possess everything. As for Asole and me, we will remain forever in the glow of scarlet sails created in the depths of a heart that knows what love is…"

"The Scarlet Sails" is one of the most beautiful and romantic tales I know. The movie follows Alexander Green's novel perfectly. It presents the story about how a miracle can happen when faith and love join together. A small girl was told once that a noble prince will come for her on a ship with scarlet sails. She believed the story and kept this faith even when she grew up. She was considered strange, the town's people laughed at her and her life wasn't easy, but she managed to preserve a golden heart and pure eyes of a child. And when a brave young captain saw her, he fell in love with her and decided to fulfill her dream.This movie is for everyone who has a romantic soul and believes in miracles. It's very air is full of beauty, dream and poetry and it has a lot of Christian motives in it, though this may seem strange when speaking about a Soviet movie. But it is so, because eternal virtues that this movie is about are common for all people, whether they are Russian or not. I highly recommend "The Scarlet Sails" for family viewing and for those everlasting romantics that world would have been so dull without.Rating: 10/10