Wednesday, August 11, 2021

The Diamond Arm (USSR, 1969)

One of the better Soviet comedies. Kind of a typical mainstream 1960's comedy except for the anti-religious elements. It had gags you'd never see in an American movie back then. 

Yuri Nikulin goes on a cruise and becomes embroiled in a smuggling operation.

The trouble for criminals in the USSR was that there was no legitimate way to get rich. If you had a lot of money, it was obvious you were up to no good. They raised this point in The Little Golden Calf, the sequel to The Twelve Chairs, by Ilf and Petrov, and it came up at the end of Gorky Park. They find a way around it in this movie. 

I still hear people claim that the Soviets tried to paint their country as perfect and utterly free of crime, but half the Soviet movies I've seen were crime movies, especially Kidnapping, Caucasian Style.

The DVD I watched had both the dubbed and subtitled version.



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