Kidnapping, Caucasian Style

Infobox Film
name = Kidnapping, Caucasian Style


caption = Film poster
director = Leonid Gaidai
producer = Mosfilm
writer = Yakov Kostyukovsky
Moris Slobodskoy
Leonid Gaidai
narrator =
starring = Aleksandr Demyanenko
Natalya Varley
Yuri Nikulin
Yevgeny Morgunov
Georgy Vitsin
Vladimir Etush
Frunzik Mkrtchyan
music = Aleksandr Zatsepin
cinematography = Konstantin Brovin
editing =
distributor = Mosfilm
released = April 1, fy|1967
runtime = 77 min.
country = USSR
language = Russian
budget =
gross =
preceded_by = Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:169872
imdb_id = 0060584

"Prisoner of the Caucasus, or Shurik's New Adventures" ( _ru. "Кавказская пленница, или Новые приключения Шурика", translit|"Kavkazskaya plennitsa, ili Novie priklucheniya Shurika"), also known as "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" is a Soviet-era Russian comedy film dealing with the theme of bride kidnapping. It was directed by Leonid Gaidai and is the last film featuring the trio Coward — Fool — Experienced (Georgy Vitsin — Yuri Nikulin — Yevgeny Morgunov). The premier of the film was on 1 April 1967 in Moscow.

Plot summary

A kind, yet naïve, student named Shurik (Demyanenko) goes to a place in the Caucasus to learn the ancient customs of the locals and falls in love with a girl called Nina (Natalya Varley). Her uncle (Frunzik Mkrtchyan) sells her as a bride without her knowledge and arranges to have her kidnapped by the eccentric trio: Coward, Fool and Experienced. After a failed attempt, the uncle decides to trick Shurik into helping with the kidnapping - telling him that it is a traditional custom and that it was Nina's own wish. Shurik goes through with the kidnapping, and does not figure out what has really happened at first, but with the help of a friend he manages to rescue Nina from her captors.

Casting of main characters

*Aleksandr Demyanenko as Shurik ( _ru. Шурик)
*Natalya Varley as Nina (Нина)
*Vladimir Etush as comrade Saakhov (товарищ Саахов)
*Frunzik Mkrtchyan as Nina's uncle
*Ruslan Akhmetov as Edik
*Yuri Nikulin as Fool (Балбес)
*Georgi Vitsin as Coward (Трус)
*Yevgeni Morgunov as Experienced (Бывалый)

Production

"Kidnapping, Caucasian Style" followed the success of Leonid Gaidai's previous film Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures, which featured some of the same characters (Shurik and the trio Fool, Coward and Experienced) and was largely successful within the Soviet Union.cite news|title=В плену у "Кавказской Пленницы"|date=2006-04-08|url=http://info.trud.ru/trud.php?id=200604080620601|accessdate=2007-02-18|language=Russian|publisher=Trud - interview with script writer Yakov Kostyukovsky]

According to one of the writers, Yakov Kostyukovsky, Gaidai has decided that the trio (Fool, Coward and Experienced) have been used up and did not want to feature them again; he was only convinced to feature them again by Kostyukovsky and co-writer Slobodskoy.

The censors of Goskino did not like the film and were ready to keep it from playing. But by chance Leonid Brezhnev, the ruler of the Soviet Union at the time, saw the film and liked it so much that he had rewatched it several times. The censored reconsidered and the movie was allowed to be shown.

Reception

The film was hugely popular, topping the Soviet box office of 1967 with 76.54 million viewers. [cite web|title=Кавказская пленница или Новые приключения Шурика|publisher=KinoExpert.ru|url=http://www.kinoexpert.ru/index.asp?comm=4&num=23|accessdate=2007-02-18|language=Russian]

Trivia

Vitsin (Coward) was known to improvise many comedic moments for his character and the directors never minded it, with an example in this movie being when the trio are standing on the road, arm in arm, trying to make the car Nina is in to stop. Coward, being a coward, and being portrayed by Vitsin, starts whimpering and crying, trying to get away from the other guys' arms, not wanting to be run over. In a climax he falls to the ground on his knees whimpering, but when the car stops, he jumps up all excited.

Another example is when Nina was chased by the trio, she ran into the forest, and dropped her yellow table cloth that she used as a dress. Vitsin (the Coward) runs by and sees it and starts yelling like a little girl, hopping up and down out of fright, but then only realising that it was the table cloth, he acted brave and picked it up, only being interrupted with Nina and the other two from the trio running out of the forest being chased by a bear.

References

ee also

*Cinema of the Soviet Union
*List of Russian films
*List of Soviet films of the year by ticket sales
*Soviet classic movies
*Bride_kidnapping#In film

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060584/ IMDB page]
* [http://www.mk.ru/newshop/bask.asp?artid=135502 Московский Комсомолец] (Russian language interview with Yakov Kostyukovsky)
* [http://www.world-art.ru/cinema/cinema.php?id=4278 World art page] (Russian language review)