Volga - Volga (1938)

Director:

Grigori Aleksandrov

Writers:

Nikolay Erdman (writer)
Vladimir Nilsen (writer)

Release Date:

16 May 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Cast

  (Credited cast)

Igor Ilyinsky	...	Byvalov
Lyubov Orlova	...	'Strelka' Petrova
Pavel Olenev	...	The Water-Carter
Andrei Tutyshkin	...	Alyosha Tutishkin
Sergei Antimonov	...	The Steamboat Captain
Vladimir Volodin	...	The Pilot
Mariya Mironova	...	The Secretary
Vsevolod Sanayev	...	The Lumberjack
Emmanuil Geller
Nikita Kondratyev	...	The Waiter
Ivan Chuvelyov
Anatoli Shalayev	...	The Boy Musical Prodigy (as Tolya Shalayev)
Andrei Dolinin	...	The Militia Man (as A. Dolinin)

Also Known As:

Волга-Волга (Soviet Union: Russian title)

Runtime:

104 min | USA:108 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S

Company:

Mosfilm

Movie Connections:

Featured in East Side Story (1997)

The most patronising film ever made?

One can well understand why this nonsensical film was alleged to have been Stalin's favourite. The working-class people in it are depicted as simple-minded yokels; up from the country and gob-smacked at the wondrous technology and luxury of the Big City. (The scene where, like naughty school children they explore a cabin on a luxury liner, complete with white telephone, beggars belief, and I'm surprised that Soviet people didn't pelt the screen whenever it was shown, but no doubt that would have landed them in a gulag). Based around a song writing competition held in Moscow, we see a group of factory workers on leave in order to take part. One of their number has composed a song and hopes to enter it. After various capers around the city, a gust of wind carries off his precious song, and so, dejected and forlorn, our gang turn up to watch the contest, crest-fallen that they are no longer participants. But hey, what's this? The winning song is announced, but nobody knows who wrote it because it was found in the street, and... yes, you can guess the rest. As if this stomach-churning kitsch were not enough, (although it was nice to see them win after traipsing around Moscow all day like slavish imbeciles going ga-ga at every new innovation they stumble across, although none of them thought to ask why they haven't got all these luxurious life enhancements in their neck of the woods), there is a tagged on reprise to what you think is the film's finale when the ensemble cast all come back on screen again in a chorus line, and remind us that it's great to have a laugh and a joke, but tomorrow we will all have to be back at our jobs, toiling away to help build the New Jerusalem!! The sheer condescension of this movie's whole premise makes a mockery of working people, and shows perhaps more than many others, (albeit on a subconscious level), how well and truly betrayed the revolution was, and how well and truly shafted Soviet working-class people were to think that they were going to be allowed to inherit their own earth. How strange that this rubbish should have emanated from a country that allegedly put the interests of working people first, and a powerful film that did do just that, 'Salt of the Earth', should have emanated from the bastion of Capitalism. Makes you think.