Yep, we’re going to try again.  Back in November of last year, we posted on this blog a now almost-infamous mystery photo that we have here at the Library; it’s the photo we call “Photo #33” a.k.a. “Two Dudes” a.k.a. “Are You Sure They’re Dudes?”  And while we haven’t identified that picture yet, we are THRILLED with the response we got!  Thanks to you all!

So, as mentioned, we are going to try again with one of our other unknown photos.

Please see above.  What is it?  Where it is from?

Like all our prior mystery photos, this photo arrived from that same collection of movie, TV and music (and, sometimes, other) stills.  It, too, has flummoxed us forever.  Unlike the other remaining “unknowns” that we have, however, this pic is not of a person, per se, but seems to be from the production of…something.  A film?  A TV program?  A very well-illustrated children’s book?  We don’t know.

Many have said that this still looks like a treatment/adaptation of the Russian folk tale “Baba Yaga,” and, while it does, we haven’t been able to source it back to any specific filmed version of the story, American or other.  (Bear in mind while the majority of the photos in this collection came from the US we have also, from time to time, found photos from Europe and elsewhere.)

As with that photo from last month, this one (Photo #59, as we like to call it), has also inspired some internal debate regarding its details:  in the picture, are these puppets?  Are they actors wearing elaborate masks (that hand sure looks human)?

(By the way, the color tinting on the photo is how it arrived to us.)

A couple of things to pay attention to that might help with its identification:  note the keys hanging in the back and the jagged edge of the knife blade, almost like a lightning bolt.

Please let us know your thoughts!  Please help us solve this mystery!  And thanks!