Brilliantovaya ruka (1968)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Leonid Gaidai

Writers:

Leonid Gaidai (writer)
Yakov Kostyukovsky (writer)

Release Date:

November 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Family | Thriller

Plot:

Semyon Gorbunkov goes on a cruise. In Istanbul, he slips and breaks his arm. What he didn't know is...

Plot Keywords:

Cruise | Black Cat | Police Investigation | Surrealism | Singing

Cast

Yuri Nikulin	...	Semyon Semyonych Gorbunkov / Senya
Nina Grebeshkova	...	Nadezhda Gorbunkova
Andrei Mironov	...	Gennady Kozodoev
Anatoli Papanov	...	Lyolik
Stanislav Chekan	...	Captain Mikhail Ivanovich
Vladimir Gulyayev	...	Lieutenant Volodya
Nonna Mordyukova	...	Superintendent
Svetlana Svetlichnaya	...	Anna Sergeyevna
Roman Filippov	...	Man in the Restaurant
Grigori Shpigel	...	Main Foreign Smuggler
Leonid Kanevsky	...	Assisstant Foreign Smuggler
Igor Yasulovich	...	Dog Owner
Maksim Nikulin	...	Boy, 'Walking on Water'
Aleksandra Lisyutina	...	Gorbunkov's Daughter (as Sashenka)
Aleksandr Khvylya	...	Weeping Willow' Maitre dHotel

Also Known As:

Бриллиантовая рука (Soviet Union: Russian title)
The Diamond Arm (USA) (video box title)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Finland:S

Company:

Mosfilm

Trivia:

The well-known quote of the film, "I won't be surprised if we are to find out your husband is secretly seeing a mistress," was originally, "I won't be surprised if we are to find out your husband is secretly going to synagogue." However, the Communist Party Committee of Ideology banned the phrase, because they felt it was "too anti-Semitic for the USSR". The phrase was re-dubbed, however, the original meaning can be easily spotted by looking at actors lips.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: The first part of the film takes place in what is supposed to be Turkey. But the streets are filled with signs in Arabic script, which Turkish does not use.

Quotes:

Lyolik: Drinking champagne in the morning is only for aristocrats. Or degenerates.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ivan Vasilevich menyaet professiyu (1973)

Soundtrack:

Pesnya o zaytsakh

Bright and honest snapshot of the socialist society.

It is a crime film with no cruelty, that presents a bright and very honest snapshot of the everyday life of an average soviet citizen and of his morale. The invasion of the capitalist valuables into the socialist society produces very funny situation. The film is not ideologically inclined: You feel sympathy towards both victims, criminals and police. You laugh both at human greediness, vices of the bureaucracy and the naivety of average Russians of that time. The film itself has influated the Russian language. Many of witty phrases from this film have already become proverbs.