Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1971
Gentlemen of Fortune
Buy Gentlemen of Fortune now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Gentlemen of Fortune' is a 1971 Soviet crime comedy film, filmed at Mosfilm and directed by Aleksandr Sery. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, Savely Kramarov and Radner Muratov.
The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1972, drawing 65.02 million box office admissions.
Plot summary
The movie follows the story of an amiable kindergarten principal named Troshkin who looks exactly like a cruel criminal nicknamed Dotsent (, literally 'associate professor') that has stolen Alexander the Great's helmet at an archaeological excavation. Dotsent and his gang are caught by police, but Dotsent is imprisoned in a different jail than his mates. Since Troshkin looks identical to Dotsent, the police send him undercover to prison with the real criminals to get information about the stolen helmet. He must pretend to be the real felon Dotsent, so in order to be convincing, Troshkin, a well-educated and good-natured man, has to learn slang and manners of criminals.
Cast
* Yevgeny Leonov as Yevgeny Ivanovich Troshkin and Beliy (Dotsent)
*Georgy Vitsin as Gavrila Sheremetyev (Sad Sack)
* Savely Kramarov as Fedya Yermakov (Cross Eyes)
* Radner Muratov as Vasily Alibaba
* Erast Garin as professor Maltsev, archeologist
*Natalya Fateyeva as Lyudmila, professor's daughter
*Oleg Vidov as Lieutenant Slavin
* Nikolay Olyalin as Colonel Verchenko
* Anatoli Papanov as chess player in hotel
* Lyubov Sokolova as kindergarten principal
*Pavel Shpringfeld as Prokhorov the cloakroom attendant in theater, criminal (partly voiced by Viktor Fainleib)
*Aleksei Vanin as reformed criminal (voiced by Oleg Mokshantsev)
* Zoya Vasilkova as Masha the sweeper woman
* Roman Filippov as Nikola (Nicky) of Peter (vulgar name for Saint-Petersburg), brutal guy in jail
* Anatoly Yabbarov as Mityai, criminal
* Galina Mikeladze as street singer (singing voice by Larisa Mondrus)
Production
The film was directed by Aleksandr Sery who had just come out of prison. Georgiy Daneliya assisted him and wrote the script. Sery used his prison experience to design many situations in the movie, and he also introduced numerous expressions from Russian criminal slang (known as 'fenya').
References to other films
The film references 'Three Poplars in Plyushchikha'. In one scene, the Sad Sack says: "We are sitting here like three poplars in Plyushchikha!" when the three prison escapees are sitting in an empty sports stadium. After this film, the phrase "Like three poplars in Plyushchikha" became a famous quote.
References
Buy Gentlemen of Fortune now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1971