Frühling auf dem Eis

I am 95 years old, so I have seen almost all figure skating stars of the twentieth century. I saw most ice shows in Vienna, especially those with Austrian World Champion Felix Kaspar, Austrian Olympic Champion Herma Szabo, Austrian double Olympic Champion Karl Schäfer and the Olympic runner-ups Ilse and Erik Pausin. After World War II there was again a lot of exhibition skating in Vienna, with double Olympic Champion Dick Button and Austrian Olympic runner-up Eva Pawlik who was entitled the "Pawlowa on the ice". When I watch the movie "Frühling auf dem Eis" with Eva Pawlik (who was also a good actress) all the marvellous figure skating impressions come back to my mind. I love this movie because it is part of Austria´s figure skating history that is unique in the world.

"Frühling auf dem Eis" is a must for everyone interested in the history of figure skating and ice-revues. The skaters open a dream world of colours and dance. Eva Pawlik, in the fifties Austria´s most popular figure skating queen, is shown in a large number of roles on the ice (as a doll as well as a ballerina) and also in the leading role in the movie´s frame story. It goes without saying that the skating style looks old-fashioned from the present point of view, but taking into account that the film is more than half a century old you can imagine that the style was very modern at that time, especially as compared with the Hollywood movies with Sonja Henie. So "Frühling auf dem Eis" with the ensemble of the legedary Vienna Ice Revue is from a certain point of view a historical cultural document. That is why it seems more valuable to me than other movies produced in 1950.

... above is my email address so as to enable you to contact me if you want to - I know a great deal about figure skating history because I have learned so many details during the time my mother was the first female figure skating sportscaster for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation ORF. Besides, I wrote a book about the Vienna Ice Revue.

You can forget about most old movies, but you should not forget about "Frühling auf dem Eis". The special emphasis on the elements of art and entertainment in Eva Pawlik´s figure skating is what makes this document of European show business history that outstanding.

"Frühling auf dem Eis" ("Spring On the Ice") shows an ice revue with wonderful dancing scenes of the past. Recommended to figure-skating historians who want to analyze the skating style of the past on the one hand and to older people who want to look back on the other hand. The scenes that have mostly impressed me are the oriental scene with Eva Pawlik as a slave (the combination of skating and pantomime) and the Viennese Waltz at the end of the film. You can see how much the sport has developed within the last six decades. It is remarkable, however, that Pawlik's pirouettes actually were as fast as they are in the free programs of the present world's elite. The frame story is to some extent a sort of necessary evil of the whole movie. The figure skater Eva Pawlik, however, does her job well not only on the ice but also as an actress. In one of the commentaries on IMDb someone points out that it would have been more difficult for an actor or an actress to skate than it was for a artistically talented skater to act. I agree with that.