Gentlemen of Fortune Day

The comedy, filmed in 1971 by director A Serov from a script by G Danelia and V Tokareva, is included in the golden fund of Soviet cinema The film "Gentlemen of Fortune" became a bestseller long before its release Books with text printed for the actors, to the director’s surprise, twice disappeared from the set without a trace Fans of the talent of Danelia and Tokareva read them to the core The loving relationship between the 33-year-old writer and the famous screenwriter, actor and director contributed to a deep mutual understanding This had a positive effect on the result of their work: the film was literally dismantled into quotes On December 13, 1971, the premiere of “Gentlemen of Fortune” took place at the Rossiya cinema in Moscow The success of the comedy was brought by a strong team of authors and cast: E Leonov, S Kramarov, G Vitsin, A Propanov, R Muratov and others During the first year of release, the film was watched by 65 million viewers “And I’m not a prosecutor to have a heart-to-heart talk with you!”, “It’s not a small thing for you to pick your pockets,” “Walk your horse, walk your horse, you fool!” went to the people The script proposal that V Tokarev and G Danelia brought to Mosfilm was called “Recidivist” In the film that appeared 2 years later, almost nothing remained of the original plan Few people know that, according to G Danelia, the “best comedic actors” of that time - R Bykov, A Mironov and Yu Nikulin - should have starred in the film But for various reasons they refused to participate in the project Therefore, Evgeny Leonov, instead of the police major, played the role of Troshkin’s teacher L Durov auditioned for the role of Khmyr, but Danelia, at the request of his superiors, approved Georgy Vitsin The film also featured such talented actors as O Vidov, N Olyalin, E Garin The head of the kindergarten, where the good-natured teacher Evgeniy Ivanovich, who looked like the famous repeat offender Associate Professor, worked, was played by Lyubov Sokolova At that time she was the wife of G Danelia, and their son Nikolai was growing up in their family It is unknown how the famous actress, who has almost 400 film roles to her credit, experienced the passion of V Tokareva’s husband This fact did not affect the skill of her playing The future director and actor I Ugolnikov starred in a cameo role as kindergarten student Igor Wardrobekeeper Prokhorov was played by Pavel Springfeld, who was remembered by the audience for the films “Hearts of Three”, “Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin”, etc The actor died in October 1971 from heart failure, never knowing that the comedy had become a popular film The filming of "Gentlemen of Fortune" was remembered by the creative team for many oddities and funny moments Thus, E Leonov was terrified of riding camels; S Kramarov and G Vitsin sat between the humps Instead of a “ship of the desert”, the performer of the role of the Associate Professor was carried on his back by one of the members of the film crew To imitate the saliva of a camel taken from the zoo, which was well brought up and did not want to spit in the face of Diagon, foamed shampoo was used, for cement - onion essence with bread leaven Prison vocabulary appeared in the film thanks to director A Seroy He studied with Danelia at the Higher Screenwriting Courses, but instead of a diploma he received a prison term in 1958 Gray became jealous of his fiancée for one man and beat him, after which he ended up in the hospital with injuries The perpetrator of the fight was given 6 years in prison for causing grievous bodily harm Having been released early after 4 years, Gray married Marina, who was waiting for him It was difficult to find a job with such a stain on my biography Danelia patronized his friend by inviting him to “Gentlemen of Fortune” In addition to the contribution of his directorial talent to the comedy, Sery enriched the film with thieves’ jargon: “I’ll kick you out of blink!”, “Push bullshit,” “I’ll tear your mouth!”, “Well, get out of here!” gave the film a special flavor The comedy was approved by Soviet censorship due to the fact that Secretary General LI really liked it Brezhnev and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs NA Shchelokov The film was released in December 1971, which became a real gift to millions of fans of funny and kind cinema