Frühling auf dem Eis

"Frühling auf dem Eis" shows a large number of well known Austrian actors and the ensemble of the Vienna Ice Revue, world-famous at a time when I was young. I know well all the skaters from their appearances in the fifties, especially Eva Pawlik, starring in "Frühling auf dem Eis". I can well remember that she was not only a wonderful sportswoman and actress but also a doctor of philosophy. All Europe loved her in the fifties.

"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.

... 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.

"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.

I love this movie because it shows Austria´s figure skating queen Eva Pawlik. I remember to have seen her in the programme of the Vienna Ice Revue in Brussels in 1961 when I was 5 years old. I dreamed the dream of being such a great show-star by myself. In "Frühling auf dem Eis" I saw her again when I was about twenty years old in a retrospective on TV. Although her skating style may look a bit old fashioned to us now she is still a strong personality on the ice and also as an actress in the frame story. It is worth mentioning that she is - as an actress - not worse than the "real" actors. It would have been impossible the other way round - for actors cannot learn how to skate within a few weeks. Besides, "Frühling auf dem Eis" is one of the few movies in the history of films in which an internationally successful skater (Pawlik was runner-up at the 1948 Olympics) plays the main role in a movie. I can only remember the legendary Sonja Henie from Norway who did so and the German couple Marika Kilius and Hans-Juergen Bäumler. Even the great Kati Witt only played a main role on the ice and not in the frame story of a movie.