At all times in different countries it was believed that art is the voice of the people. The development of technological progress made it possible to achieve a significant increase in the quality of films in the 1950s. The increasing popularity of cinema has led to an increase in cinema attendance. Fans of cinema, who made up the bulk of the country's population, were exposed to the educational influence of this art form.
Art is an irresistible force
Possessing a sharp extraordinary mind, in the past a scout, Leonid Gaidai was able to see the small, hidden behind the big. In the film "Diamond Arm", the director used this technique. Behind the cute innocent comic adventures of Semyon Semenovich Gorbunkov, the senselessness of human existence in the conditions of the Soviet regime is shown in allegorical form.
The movie “The Diamond Arm” (c. 1969), which was released on cinema screens, is a comedy film that has revealed numerous flaws in the socialist system in the country. From the first frames, the viewer is immersed in the atmosphere of a fairy tale. In those days, a walk outside the country was a pipe dream. The ban on traveling abroad was popularly called the Iron Curtain. What is the film "Diamond Arm" about? The director built the plot on the fact that the main character S. S. Gorbunkov, a simple employee, gets the opportunity to go on a tourist cruise outside the country. And this is ridiculous.
Great mockingbird
Gaidai Leonid Iovich gained fame as one of the best Soviet filmmakers. At 18, when young Leonid was not volunteered for the front, he got a job as a stage worker at the Moscow Satire Theater. The future director took an active part in his life. He went on tour with the theater, watched all the performances of the theater.
In 1942, L. Gaidai went to the front. Demobilized due to injury, he entered the Irkutsk Drama Theater. In 1949 he left for Moscow and entered VGIK. His first films were not a comedy genre and brought him a lot of trouble.
One of the first films of the young director “Groom from the Other World” taught the future luminaries to skillfully veil their thoughts. The persecution of censorship for a long time left him without work. This was enough to change the genre of all of his subsequent paintings.
Director Leonid Gaidai managed to captivate the audience in the comedic mood of the film. Having succumbed to a comic presentation, few thought about the fact that the films created by him can be used to study the quality of life of Soviet people.
Departing from a realistic image of the flaws of society, L. Gaidai unexpectedly won. His paintings went with a bang. Each new film was accepted by the viewer with approval. Despite the cool reviews of the artistic council, his paintings were popular. The “Diamond Hand”, the director of which, Leonid Gaidai, was still not so famous during its release on the screens, became a real masterpiece of cinema. The viewer accepted the comedy from the first viewing. To many, she sunk into the soul so much that the desire to look at it again and again always won.
The Russian man, who did not miss the chance to laugh at himself, took the picture as a joke. The film was revised at every opportunity. Replicas of the characters of the film were retold and used in everyday life.
People say about the captivating soul of people - folk. If it was customary to speak about films like that, then The Diamond Arm, the director of which worked wonderfully, would be the first Russian national film. Not a single picture in the history of Soviet cinematography has enjoyed such a stunning success.
About the plot
The script of the film was originally called "Smugglers." It is based on a case from real life, published in a journal called "Abroad." The note told about criminals who tried to transfer gypsum valuables across the border. So the idea of creating a film on this topic came up.
An inconspicuous employee, working as a senior economist at Dneproryba, is going on a cruise on a snow-white liner Grigory Svetlov. Quite by accident, with him in the same cabin there is someone Kozodoev Gennady Petrovich, a criminal element who uses a trip with a selfish purpose - to bring smuggled values.
Semyon Gorbunkov, who accidentally found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets into a binding related to the transportation of diamonds across the state border. Throughout the film, the main character, tormented by remorse of an honest Soviet citizen, tries to get rid of the prosecution of criminals who want to regain their jewelry.
The adventures taking place with Gorbunkov reveal the complete indifference of state bodies to the fate of man. Semen Semenovich, used by police as a bait to capture criminals, driven to despair, begins to look into the bottle, his family is crumbling, public organizations that do not understand his condition are spreading unseemly rumors about him.
Footage where the assistant manager puts up a lightning ad: “Shame on the drunkard and the brawler” lasts only a few seconds, but the completely insane state of the prosecutor is clearly visible. The picture is literally saturated with similar incidents, peeped in everyday life.
The phrase of the house manager from the lips of Nonna Mordyukova: “Our people don’t take a taxi to the bakery” sounded like a sentence. The luxurious life for a decent family man is a taboo. After the arrival of Gorbunkov, the manager came to visit him. The four-time asked question “What do you have with your hand, Semyon Semenovich” remained unanswered. Dissatisfaction with the gift in her performance eloquently hints at the self-serving inclinations of the civil servant. The comedy is literally full of such eccentric jokes that focus on the cornerstones of society.
Diamond Hand: Heroes, Cast
The comedy script was written under Yuri Nikulin. The choice was not in doubt. Yuri Nikulin was approved for the role of Gorbunkov.
An innate sense of humor could not but lead Yu. Nikulin to comedy films. In the role of Gorbunkov, he successfully combined the irony and good nature of a simple Russian man. Thanks to the painting “Diamond Hand”, the artist gained fame as a living legend of Soviet cinema.
The great comedian was not limited to cinema. Since childhood, he dreamed of working in a circus. In the early 70s, Yuri Nikulin became not only popular, but also a favorite guest actor. Work in the circus somewhat limited his cinematic activities. Sometimes, due to the workload in the circus, he had to abandon significant roles.
Georgy Vitsin, Valery Nosik and even Mikhail Pugovkin auditioned for the role of Gesha Kozodoev. The director stopped at the charismatic Andrei Mironov and did not lose. His manner of playing as a smuggler helped the artist to fully reveal his talent. After the movie was rented, the actor became a public favorite.
In important roles
The wife of Yu. Nikulin Tatyana starred in the role of a guide, and 10-year-old Maxim Nikulin played a “walking on the waves” boy who helped Gesha get out of the island.
The magnificent performer Anatoly Papanov, familiar to everyone from the famous thriller “12 Chairs”, where he played Ippolit Matveevich Vorobyaninov, perfectly showed the permissiveness of the criminal world. With surprising simplicity and ease, the comic nature of the situation in its execution is perceived.
The role of Gorbunkov’s wife in the film was played by the wife of L. Gaidai Nina Grebeshkova, a magnificent actress who got into the cinema by chance. As a schoolgirl, she dreamed of becoming a primary school teacher. After visiting her friend, she met the poet Vladimir Lugovsky, who invited her to try herself as a movie actress. Already in the first year, Nina Grebeshkova starred in her first film. On the third - she was invited to Leningrad. So began her movie career. The magnificent actress dreamed of playing the house manager in Diamond Hand. She even scandalized with her husband due to the fact that he offers her the role of "marmalade creation."
Svetlana Svetlichnaya, a seductive beauty from a restaurant, was born to be an actress. Already in kindergarten she attended a drama club. On her first attempt at VGIK, she was lucky enough to study with future movie stars. The short but very vivid and expressive role of Anna Sergeyevna in the film by L. Gaidai made her the most recognizable movie actress. Svetlana Svetlichnaya was remembered by the audience as the first girl to perform striptease on the screens of Soviet television.
One day
Not for nothing in the credits for the film the viewer's attention is concentrated on the fact that “The Diamond Hand” is “a movie novel from the life of smugglers with a prologue and epilogue, a crime comedy”. Carefully looking at them, you understand the director’s idea. The eloquent prologue, starting with a view of the overseas countries from the observation deck with a concrete fence, implies the futile desire of the Soviet people to go there. From the tower, the director takes the viewer to Baku streets, where there are street children, a frightened woman in a hijab, and a pesky pestering prostitute, and two pharmacists waiting for a client. In other words - "rotting capitalism."
A plaster hand with diamonds red line runs through the entire film with the insistent edification that every trouble is waiting for every Soviet person abroad. And when he returns, his "pernicious influence of the West" will necessarily appear in his behavior.
Some ins and outs
Gorbunkov goes on a cruise. The landing scene was shot in the Odessa port. In the frames of the scene where the family escorts the main character, two motor ships are visible: “Victory” and “Russia”, repainted as “Mikhail Svetlov”. Gaidai Leonid Iovich was very kind to the work of his beloved poet. The desire to perpetuate his name was dictated by the choice of the name of the liner. The shooting took place against the backdrop of "Russia". For the scenes on the deck, Victory was activated. It was on this ship that the song “Island of Bad Luck” was performed, which later became a hit. In one of the frames in the background, lifebuoys with the inscriptions "Mikhail Svetlov" are visible. They were also repainted specifically for the shooting.
Many popular directors and screenwriters in films left for themselves small, maybe even inconspicuous roles. After all, artists see and remember everything, but they remain behind the scenes and are soon forgotten. In Diamond Hand Leonid Gaidai played the role of a drunken alcoholic, who is taken by the police in the film.
A journalist Leonid Pleshakov starred in a scene on the steps of an underground toilet. He got on the set with the goal of interviewing Yuri Nikulin, who was granted six months leave for filming as an exception.
Some episodes in the film were filmed specifically to censor. Particularly noticeable was the removal of the epilogue from the film in return for the fact that all other undesirable moments in the tape will remain. The director deliberately inserted shots with an atomic explosion into the epilogue, which were absolutely not glued to the plot of the film. Gaidai’s expectations were justified: the explosion at the request of the artistic council was deleted, and important episodes were preserved.
The catchphrases from The Diamond Arm
Made a sensation in cinematography, the painting “The Diamond Arm” is literally full of sparkling phrases that still live in the colloquial speech of the Russians. The wish: “So that you live on one salary” turned out to be one of the worst. Earnings in the country have not reached the size that makes the life of a worker carefree.
Varvara Sergeyevna, who bought a hundred lottery tickets, ordered to distribute them “among the residents of our housing office” and immediately declared a threat: “If they don’t take it, turn off the gas,” which is still relevant today.
“Looks like morality,” Gesha objects to the harassment of a street prostitute. How consonant with the statement that “there is no sex in the Soviet Union”!
“We’ll be at our place in Kolyma, we ask for mercy” - a frank allusion that criminals have a place in the zone.
The phrases from The Diamond Arm that have become winged are filled with a deep sociopolitical meaning. The scene in the restaurant “Weeping Willow”, where “even teetotalers and ulcers” drink at someone else’s expense, and to the point that “doesn’t matter to us”, shows that it was possible to get away from the realities at that time except for a bottle. And this is at best.
Location
Where was the Diamond Arm shot? Some scenes of the film were shot in Moscow, in the pavilions of Mosfilm. Adventures abroad took place in Baku. The fall on a watermelon peel happened near the house number 8/1 on the main street in the city of Ichari Shyahar. Not far from this place is now a cafe called "Diamond Arm". Waiters with loud exclamations "Damn it" still invite passersby to visit the institution.
Moscow is not the only place where they shot The Diamond Arm. The pursuit of Gorbunkov took place in the forest of Pavlovskaya Sloboda. The bulk of the film was shot in resort areas of Russia. Hotel "Horizon", which played the role of the hotel "Atlantic", where an innocent pretty seductress invited Gorbunkov, was on Krupskaya Street in Adler.
The trip to Dubrovka was filmed on 29 km of the Krasnopolyanskoye highway. The white rock, where Senya and Gosha fished, is located in the Tuapse district and is called the Kiseleva rock. The underwater ridge along which Gesha got out of the island, as before in the same place. Shooting of the "Diamond Arm" took place on the territory of the children's pioneer camp "Eaglet". He gave filmmakers the opportunity to shoot some fishing scenes.
The opinion of critics
“The Diamond Arm” (directed by L. Gaidai) was perceived with coolness by the artistic council. Critics considered N. Mordyukov too indecent, and A. Mironov grimacing, Yu. Nikulin - unconvincing, and A. Papanova - dim. S. Svetlichnaya turned out to be too seductive, and the picture, in their opinion, was neither.
Despite the conclusion of the artistic council, the premiere of the film was received with enthusiasm by the audience. Diamond Hand is the best crime comedy in Russian television. Shown topical moments of those everyday days were very close to the viewer. Today they have not lost relevance. Presented in a humorous form, the plot came to consciousness, understood and appreciated.