The catchphrases from old Soviet films are so widespread that it is difficult to find the source. So from which film - "in short, Sklifosovsky", not everyone can immediately remember. The words, first uttered by the character of the comedy Leonid Gaidai, have become truly popular. The expression is often used when it is necessary to tell the speaker that it is necessary to speak shorter and to the point.
Best Soviet Comedy
The film "The Caucasian Captive, or Shurik's New Adventures" of 1966 has long become one of the most popular in the country. Despite the fact that due to censorship, it was repeatedly necessary to change not only the script and text, but also even the names of the characters, the comedy was a tremendous success. At the box office in 1967, the picture took first place, in the Soviet Union only for the first year it was watched by 76.54 million viewers. It became the last, where together the famous comedy trio of small crooks appeared: Trus - Dunce - Experienced (George Vitsin - Yuri Nikulin - Evgeny Morgunov).
The film has become an inexhaustible source for lovers of apt expressions and almost all has been parsed into quotes. For many fans of Gaidai’s work, there wasn’t even a question of which movie “in short, Sklifosovsky” or, for example, “I feel sorry for the bird”.
The scene with the famous phrase
The episode, whence the phrase “shorter than Sklifosovsky” went to the people, many viewers remembered well. In the scene, attempts to rescue the main character - the beautiful Komsomol member Nina from captivity, two liberators penetrate Comrade Saakhov's summer house. Disguised as medical workers, the ambulance driver Edik and Shurik offer local crooks Trus, Dunce and Experienced to get vaccinations against foot and mouth disease. As a doctor of the sanitary and epidemiological station, Edik gives them lectures on the terrible consequences of the disease, in anticipation of the action of sleeping pills, which they injected into them under the guise of a vaccine.
Dunce, trying to stop the flow of boring and useless information, says: "In short, Sklifosovsky." From where the phrase then came into widespread use in the country, becoming a synonym for such expressions as: “enough water to pour” and “closer to the point”. The episode was remembered by many viewers by the size of the syringe, which was injected experienced.
Where is used
The expression “in short, Sklifosovsky” (from where the phrase is often not mentioned) is widely used in articles, books and spoken language. In common usage, in some cases, transforming into “shorter than Skleikosovsky” or “shorter than Sklekhosovsky” when the family name is distorted, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes simply because of ignorance of the original. And now the phrase is used when in soft form it is necessary to ask the speaker to speak more specifically and shorter.
In the Soviet Union, thanks to this catchphrase, the Moscow Ambulance Institute named after N.V. Sklifosovsky first of all became famous. And the unpronounceable surname of an outstanding Russian doctor became famous throughout the country. In one of the institute’s guides it is written that the Russian’s favorite phrase in a dialogue with an uninteresting and tiring interlocutor is: “In short, Sklifosovsky.” Where does this phrase come from, of course, is mentioned in the text. Because it is now popular.