The Diamond Arm
A cinematographic novel in two parts from the life of smugglers
Бриллиантовая рука (1969)
Production
Revenue
$2 258
Director
Scenario
Moris Slobodskoy
Composer
Aleksandr Zatsepin
Actors
Yuriy Nikulin
Semyon Semyonovich Gorbunkov
Nina Grebeshkova
Nadezhda Ivanovna Gorbunkova
Nonna Mordyukova
Varvara Pliushch
Svetlana Svetlichnaya
Anna Sergeyevna
Anatoliy Papanov
Lyolik
Andrey Mironov
Gennadiy Kozodoyev
Stanislav Chekan
Mikhail Ivanovich, captain
Vladimir Gulyaev
Volodya, lieutenant of militsiya
Short description
A modest Soviet office worker, Semyon Gorbunkov, takes a foreign cruise with his wife's blessing. In a southern port city, a smuggling ring led by a boss called Lyolik and his associate Gennadiy Kozodoyev is waiting for a courier who is supposed to collect a consignment of diamonds and carry it home inside a plaster cast. A mix-up at the meeting point puts Gorbunkov in the courier's place, and he is fitted with the precious cast without knowing what it holds. The criminals must then get the plaster back, while the police use Gorbunkov as bait to catch them. His wife's suspicions at home add to his troubles.
Leonid Gaidai directed the film, his fourth feature, following Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style. He wrote the screenplay with Moris Slobodskoy and Yakov Kostyukovskiy, and the cast is led by Yuriy Nikulin as Gorbunkov, with Nina Grebeshkova, Nonna Mordyukova, Svetlana Svetlichnaya, Anatoliy Papanov and Andrey Mironov among the 53 credited performers. Released on 28 April 1969 by Mosfilm, the 94-minute comedy was a major popular success in the Soviet Union.
On TMDB it holds a rating of 7.7 out of 10 from 348 votes, indicating enduring affection for the film decades after its release. Its songs and comic characters remain widely remembered in Russia.
What's left behind the scenes
- During a conversation with the building manager, Gorbunkov mentions that he has been to London, where everyone considers the dog to be man's best friend. However, at the beginning of the film, his wife Nadya says that this is his first time going abroad. It is impossible that Semyon Semyonych visited London during the cruise, as the cruise route would then be inconceivable (Istanbul, then London). Most likely, the cruise took place in the Mediterranean Sea.
- When Kozodoev arrives at the clinic where Gorbunkov's cast was supposed to be removed 'quietly and without fuss,' he is wearing women's clothing—a skirt. But once inside the clinic, he is already in pants and a tank top.
- In the scene where Mironov's character invites Senya fishing, he approaches the table holding a popsicle, but a few seconds later, it turns into scoops of ice cream in bowls.
- The core of the plot (smugglers and the fight against them) diverged from reality—according to Soviet law, it was permissible to bring up to 10 kg of gold or gold jewelry into the country without hindrance, but any operations by individuals involving foreign currency values, including gold and precious stones, were considered criminal offenses. Starting in May 1959, cases of smuggling and currency operation violations were handled not by the police, but by the KGB of the USSR. In July 1961, a decree was adopted providing for the death penalty for certain types of so-called 'currency crimes.' (The Rokotov-Faibishenko-Yakovlev case).
- In the episode where Gennady Kozodoev wakes up after a nightmare involving a black cat and S.S. Gorbunkov's flying hand, there is a sausage broken into two pieces on a plate on the bedside table. In the next shot, the sausage is gone from the plate, and a fork has appeared instead.
- A poster for Eldar Ryazanov's film 'Zigzag of Luck' (1968) flashes on screen; in that movie, Nikolai Romanov (the chef) played the role of an orange buyer.
- The taxi's license plate—'28-70 OGO'—is a prop and contains a joke: the OG series belonged to the Orenburg region and only went up to OGE, while 28-70 was the price of a bottle of vodka before the 1961 monetary reform (28 rubles 70 kopecks).
- Mironov played his scene on the island so naturally that a real rescue boat rushed to his aid upon hearing his cries of 'Save me! Help! Mommy!'
- During the filming of the fishing scene, after another failed take (due to cameraman Igor Chernykh), a freezing Anatoly Papanov (the water temperature was around +8 °C) popped out of the water and barked at the cameraman: 'You idiot, ptoo!'. This was captured by accident, but Gaidai included the episode in the film.
- The phrase 'And our building manager is a friend of man!' was added during the dubbing stage. During filming, Mordyukov says 'man' instead of 'building manager' (this is clearly visible by his lip movements).
- Volodya Trynkin, mentioned by Ladyzhensky (in the restaurant scene)—"Look at those whiskers—he's the spitting image of Volodya Trynkin, the spitting image!"—was a real person and a classmate of Leonid Gaidai.
- According to Nina Grebeshkova, she came up with the phrase "The fur coat can wait!", which her character says during an interview with a radio reporter. This was prompted by real-life events: two cars were allocated to Mosfilm, and Gaidai paid for one of them using money he had set aside for his wife's fur coat.
- The "foreign language" spoken by Kanevsky's and Spiegel's characters is gibberish invented by Kanevsky. The word "mordyuk," which appears several times, was added by Gaidai after he had a quarrel with Mordyukova on set. The phrase "berezina komanit" was coined by Kanevsky, based on his wife's maiden name, Anna Berezina.
- Gorbunkov's lead role was written specifically for Nikulin. Soyuzirk granted Nikulin a six-month leave of absence, something that had never been done before.
- Actress Svetlana Svetlichnaya performed the first striptease in the history of Soviet cinema. However, by order of the authorities, the striptease scenes were ruthlessly cut for television broadcasts.
- It was in "The Diamond Arm" that audiences saw Mordyukova with short hair for the first time. It was actually a wig, as Mordyukova never had short haircuts.
- Pugovkin auditioned for the role of Lyolik, the second bandit-smuggler.
- The film crew stayed at the Hotel Gorizont, where a prop room was set up in the basement. The prop room housed a "double" of Nikulin—a papier-mâché figure of Gorbunkov. This figure was meant to be dropped from a height of 500 meters during the scene where Semyon Semyonovich falls out of the trunk of a Moskvitch. While sweeping the basement, a cleaning lady lifted a sheet and was stunned: "Nikulin" was lying before her. Within an hour, news of the beloved artist's "death" spread throughout the city. Upon learning of this, Nikulin called Moscow to warn his mother not to worry.
- Leonid Gaidai appears in the film three times, including in the role of the drunk man being taken away by the police, and in the scene featuring Kozodoev's dream, where his hand is shown.
- The song performed by Svetlana Svetlichnaya's character is sung by Aida Vedishcheva. She also performed the title song in Gaidai's film "Kidnapping, Caucasian Style."
- The film contained many excerpts that were considered 'obscene' for that time. Gaidai placed an atomic bomb explosion as the final scene. During the preview, this literally shocked the censors; they ordered the explosion to be removed, but in exchange, the other scenes were preserved, which was exactly what Gaidai had hoped for.
- A KGB captain was assigned to the film crew for the entire duration, although the script had already passed through all levels of censorship before filming began. Here are just a few of the censors' requirements: make the role of the police more prominent, shorten the restaurant episode featuring the celebration for the Chief, remove the scenes with the Young Pioneers congratulating him, remove the lines 'as the Chief says, the main thing in our business is socialist realism' and 'the party and the government were held back a year,' and in the monologue of the building manager Plyush ('And you know, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out tomorrow that your husband secretly visits a synagogue'), replace the last word with 'mistress' (however, this replacement was made only in the audio track and not in the footage, so the word 'mistress' does not match the actress's articulation).
- The pistol that Police Lieutenant Volodya hands to Gorbunkov is an Italian Beretta, 1934 model.
- After Gorbunkov is brought home drunk from the restaurant, his wife takes off his trousers. S.S. Gorbunkov's socks are grey with diamonds. In the morning, the socks are a different color and have no pattern.
- In the scene where Semyon Semyonovich Gorbunkov steps on a watermelon rind and falls, Leonid Kanevsky filmed the part instead of Yuri Nikulin. This was because Nikulin simply could not land his foot on the rind correctly, and the fall looked unnatural. The substitution remains visible: a brown shoe steps on the rind, but the legs flying up are wearing black shoes.
- The boss's car is a Moskvitch-408.
- The car wash where Gesha and Lyolik cornered Gorbunkov was specially built for the filming of the movie in the center of Sochi. After filming, it was put into regular operation.
- The Mosfilm GAZ-21 Volga became the famous 'taxi to Dubrovka.' Previously, this same car, converted into the taxi used by Efremov's character, appeared in the film 'Three Poplars on Plyushcha Street' (1967) and in 'Beware of the Car' (1966) as the car Detochkin used to evade pursuit. Today, this Volga can be seen at the Mosfilm cinema concern museum.
- Two vessels, the 'Pobeda' and the 'Rossiya,' were used as the motor ship 'Mikhail Svetlov.' The motor ship 'Rossiya' is shown in the scene of boarding the cruise at the port. The scene where Andrei Mironov sings the song about the Island of Misfortune was filmed on the deck of the motor ship 'Pobeda'.
- The scene in which Gorbunkov is left speechless after meeting a grim character with a skull medallion on his chest on the restroom steps was filmed in an underground restroom located at the entrance to the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Leisure, from the Leninsky Prospekt side. The role was played by Leonid Pleshakov, a journalist for Ogonyok magazine.
- A phrase coined by Gaidai flashed in the film's credits: 'The film studio thanks the citizens who provided gold and diamonds for the filming.' After watching, viewers would approach the director and ask, 'Did many people actually give their diamonds?'
- Nina Grebeshkova and Iya Savvina both wanted to play the wife of the main character, Gorbunkov. Preference was given to Grebeshkova, Gaidai's wife.
- Vitsin, Nosik, Rudin, and Pugovkin all vied for the role of Kozodoev.
- Nikulin Jr. played the role of the 'boy walking on water.' He struggled with the scene for a long time. As soon as Mironov wound up his leg to kick, the boy would already start falling into the water; it was obvious that Maksim was anticipating the blow. They filmed seven takes this way. Finally, Gaidai announced loudly: 'That's it, in the next take, Andrey will not kick Maksim, he will simply walk past.' But Gaidai quietly whispered to Mironov: 'Kick him like before. And hit him harder.' Maksim calmly bent over with his fishing rod and suddenly received a powerful kick... He fell into the water and nearly screamed: 'What are you doing, Uncle Andrey?!' The scene was captured.
- The entire Nikulin family appeared in the film: his wife Tatyana played the tour guide, and his son Maksim played the boy walking on water.
- Filming took place from April 25, 1968, to October 31, 1968.
- The scenes set in Turkey were filmed in Baku, Sochi, and Novorossiysk. Filming also took place at the Mosfilm studios, in Moscow, and in the Moscow and Smolensk regions.
Similar movies
8.2/10
8/10
8/10
8/10
7.9/10
7.9/10
7.8/10
7.7/10
7.6/10
7.6/10
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
