Georgi Vitsin Movies
Though Russian actor Georgi Vitsin was primarily known as a film comedian, he was initially trained as a stage dramatic actor at the Moscow Art Theatre (MKHAT) and N.P. Khmelev's Actors Studio. After entering the film industry in 1945, he played the great writer Nikolai Gogol in Belinsky (1951). The famous film director Grigori Kozintsev, who was reportedly planning to give Vitsin the title role in Hamlet (1964), backed out when the actor had gained popularity in the slapstick comedies Samogonshchiki (The Moonshiners) and Pes Barbos I Neobychnyy Kross (Barbos the Dog and an Unusual Cross-Country Run) by director Leonid Gaidai. Those movies depicted the misadventures of three incompetent small-time crooks (the other two were played by Yuri Nikulin and Yevgeny Morgunov). The infamous trio had proved so successful that Gaidai featured it in his subsequent comedies Operatsiya "Y" I Drugie Priklyucheniya Shurika (The Operation "Y" and the Other Adventures of Shurik) (1965) and Kavkazskaya Plennitsa (Kidnapping Caucasian Style) (1966). Among Vitsin's other celebrated comedic roles are Sir Andrew in The Twelfth Night (1956), Balzaminov in Zhenitba Balzaminova (The Marriage of Balzaminov) (1965), Khmyr in Dzhentlmeny Udachi (The Gentlemen of Fortune) (1972), and Tyutyurin in Neispravimyy Lgun (The Compulsive Liar) (1973). In 1990 the actor was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Soviet Union. He stopped making movies in the mid-'90s and only occasionally appeared in concerts with standup routines. A long-time yoga devotee, Vitsin kept practicing even in his later years, which, according to some doctors, might have had a negative effect on his health. ~ Yuri German, Rovi
- 1973
This Russian adventure drama tells of 19th-century explorers in the Arctic region who go in search of a valley where a legendary lost community lives. Some of them are looking for gold. The last report of this paradisiacal community was from the explorer Sannikov, almost 400 years before. After a number of adventures, they discover the legendary warm land they seek. Their presence is resisted by the people's shaman. When one of the explorers, in his greed for gold, accidentally sets off an avalanche, it alters the climate of the region, and it begins to freeze, soon to be lost forever. This film is based on the book by a famed scientist and explorer, Nikolai Obruchev, and was very popular in Russia at the time of its release; its two songs became hits. This subsequently became a cult film, and two of the actors who appear in it, Vladislav Dvorzhetsky and Oleg Dal, died young and became cult figures in their own right. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vladislav Dvorzhetsky, Georgi Vitsin, (more)
- 1971
It is 1927, and a former noblewoman's son-in-law (Sergei Filippov) hears from her deathbed that during the revolution, ten years ago, she hid the family jewels in one of a set of twelve chairs. He teams up with a charming con man (Archil Gomiashvili) to find all twelve. This film, told in a sly, slapstick style, holds many surprises as it recounts their desperate efforts to find the jewelled chair of the set, which has been scattered to the four winds. The story is based on the satirical Russian novel The Twelve Chairs which offered a keen, humorous depiction of certain Soviet types during the so-called NEP (New Economic Policy), which allowed certain entrepreneurial activities to take place. This novel has been the subject for many films -- including one by Mel Brooks--and was the basis for a popular Russian TV mini-series. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Archil Gomiashvili, Sergei Filippov, (more)
- 1971
Alexandr Sery's comedy Gentlemen of Fortune concerns a kindergarten teacher who bears a striking resemblance to a master thief. When the bad guy swipes a helmet that belonged to Alexander the Great, the teacher uses his brains and his looks to attempt to retrieve the item. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yevgeny Leonov, Georgi Vitsin, (more)
Sent to the mountain region of Caucasus to study the local folklore, Shurik (Alexander Demyanenko) falls for beautiful student Nina (Natalya Varley). Then some crooks persuade him that she is already engaged to another man and, according to the ancient tradition, she should be kidnapped by the groom. Only later does Shurik realize that he has inadvertently become part of a plot to force Nina to wed a corrupt local bureaucrat (Vladimir Etush). He and his friend then devise an ingenious plan to rescue the girl. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Alexander Demyanenko, Natalya Varley, (more)
- 1965
Shy clerk Vitsin concocts daydreams about becoming a general, a czar or a great lover and meeting a beautiful woman in this comedy. When he does finally marry a large, old, rich woman he realizes his dreams may never come true. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Georgi Vitsin, Lyudmila Shagalova, (more)
In a case of classic body-switching, a group of sorcerers appear in a modern-day small town and trade bodies with four schoolmates to live life as if they were young again in the children's fantasy A Tale of Time Lost. While the magical evildoers head off to school and wreak havoc in their young bodies, the now aged kids retreat to a decrepit house where they hatch their plan of revenge. With time running out, the kids have only one chance to reverse the effects of time before they are stranded in these bodies forever. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi
- Starring:
- Grisha Plotkin, Oleg Anofriev, (more)
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