Gentlemen of Fortune


Gentlemen of Fortune is a 1971 Soviet crime comedy film, filmed at Mosfilm and directed by Aleksandr Sery. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Savely Kramarov, Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, and Radner Muratov.
The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1972, drawing 65.02 million box office admissions.

Plot summary

The movie follows the story of an amiable kindergarten principal named Troshkin who looks exactly like a cruel criminal nicknamed Docent that has stolen Alexander the Great's helmet at an archaeological excavation. Docent and his gang are caught by police, but Docent is imprisoned in a different jail than his mates. Since Troshkin looks identical to Docent, the police send him undercover to prison with the real criminals to get information about the stolen helmet. He must pretend to be the real felon Docent, so in order to be convincing, Troshkin, a well-educated and good-natured man, has to learn slang and manners of criminals.

Cast

The film was directed by Aleksandr Sery who had just come out of prison. Georgiy Daneliya assisted him and wrote the script. Sery used his prison experience to design many situations in the movie, and he also introduced numerous expressions from Russian criminal slang.