Comedy "Striped Flight": actors. Interesting facts about filming a comedy

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

In 1961, one of the most memorable comedies of Soviet cinema, "Striped Flight", was released on the big screens. During the year of its release, it was watched by more than thirty-two million viewers throughout the Union. This is not surprising: such a stir for the film "Striped Flight", the actors of which for the most part were already recognized stars, was provided by a non-trivial script and shooting with wild animals.

History of the making of the film

It's amazing that the idea of making a film appeared spontaneously, but, like many projects of those years, thanks to top management. In 1959, the King of Nepal visited the USSR. As expected, the Soviet delegation after the official events decided to show the guests the sights of the capital. We went to museums and exhibitions, and finally decided to watch a performance at the circus.

A trainer Margarita Nazarova with her pets just performed on Tsvetnoy Boulevard. Nikita Sergeevich liked the number so much that after the performance he decided to express his delight to the fearless trainer personally. Margarita was invited to the government box. Nikita Sergeevich told his guest what fearless women we have in our country, and expressed the idea that films should be made about such people. Naturally, the idea of the "leader" was immediately written down by the subordinates of the first secretary, and a year later Lenfilm was looking for a screenwriter and director to shoot the picture.

Director and screenwriter

At Lenfilm, a year later, a film about a young trainer and her pets was on the schedule. The writing of the script was entrusted to the young author Viktor Konetsky. Surprisingly, the screenwriter himself based the story on a real incident that happened in his life. Once he had to travel on a ship with two polar bears that got out of their cages and walked around the ship, terrifying the crew. Of course, it was decided to add a love line to the plot - but how could it be without it?

The film was directed to Vladimir Fetin, who had only a few projects under his belt. The film "Striped Flight", for which the actors were not yet selected, turned out to be the first large-scale project of a young man. At a meeting of the Goskino committee, he expressed his conviction that the film would be good if one of the film crew and actors survived.

Storyline

The film "Striped Flight" (the actors and roles of the picture turned out to be very original) "hooked" the viewer with a non-trivial plot.

Events unfold in the mid-50s of the last century on the ship "Eugene Onegin", which was returning from a foreign voyage. The ship is carrying, among other things, an unusualcargo - exotic animals for the country's zoos. Inexplicable things begin to happen on the liner: the sailors' clothes disappear, not everything is going smoothly in the galley (the crew gets borscht with hardware), someone makes a mess in the cabin … Oleg Petrovich, the first officer, blames the barmaid Marianna, the captain's niece, for what is happening. Gleb Shuleikin is also on the ship - a cook who, due to certain circumstances, introduced himself as an animal trainer (or rather, he was introduced). One fine day, the chief mate's chimpanzee, who was the cause of all the trouble, releases the lion and tigers from the cages, and they, as if nothing had happened, begin to roam the ship, and the pseudo-tamer can do nothing.

The actors of the film "Striped Flight"

Many interesting stories are connected with the casting for the main and secondary roles in the film. Many actors refused to play when they found out that their colleagues on the set would be … tigers and lions. As a result, the film "Striped Flight", the actors and roles of which captivated the viewer from the first frames, stalled at the initial stage of filming. To make people and animals look organic in the frame, it was decided to extend the rehearsals for some time. The "artists" got used to each other on the old ship "Matros Zheleznyak" for several months. The film "Striped Flight", the actors of which, to put it mildly, turned out to be "motley", decided to shoot in the pavilions of "Lenfilm" and during the flight from Odessa to Batumi on the ship "Fryazino".

Starring: Evgeny Leonov (Shuleikin), Margarita Nazarova (Marianna), Ivan Gribov (captain Vasily Vasilievich), Alexei Smirnov (Knysh) and Vladimir Belokurov (boatswain) and Ivan Dmitriev (senior mate Oleg Petrovich). In the episodes in the film "Striped Flight", the actors and roles of which turned out to be very colorful, several stars of domestic cinema were involved. So, director Fetin managed to attract Vasily Lanovoy, who during this period was on vacation in Odessa. And Alisa Freindlich agreed to play the role of the barmaid.

Interesting facts

Margarita Nazarova, before filming this film, took part in several films with animals as an understudy.

Evgeny Leonov during the filming periodically panicked because of the fear of working with tigers. The bathroom and cage scenes are legendary. Initially, it was decided to shoot the scene in the bathroom, protecting the actor from the animal with armored glass. But it gave glare in the camera. Therefore, the director decided to remove the glass without informing Leonov himself. So the bathroom escape scene was completely unrehearsed.

The episode when Shuleikin is in a cage, and angry animals attack him, was re-shot several times, as the tigers indifferently passed by and did not react to the artist in any way. Then they gave Leonov a pig in a cage and asked him to prick him with a fork so that he squealed piercingly. From this squeal, the animals ran to the cage and began to violently pounce on the shelter.pseudo-tamer.

The film "Striped Flight", the actors of which during the filming were sometimes in a state of panic, and sometimes even refused to go on the set, after the release on the big screens brought popularity to all its heroes without exception.

Ten tigers, one lion and a chimpanzee were involved in the filming process. By the way, a monkey named Pirate turned out to be a very talented actor, but he was brought to the set during the mating season, so his half came with him. In between filming, the chimpanzee gently hugged and stroked his girlfriend, and then went back to work.

On the set of the film, unfortunately, there were some casu alties. Lev Vasya was old and very sick, he refused to take sleeping pills, so it was decided to shoot the poor fellow. In the scene where the team is dragging the beast, it is already dead.

Awards

June 27, 1961 on the big screens came the film "Striped Flight". The actors, whose photos filled all the magazines and posters after the release of the picture, woke up as real celebrities.

In 1973 the film won the Silver Medal at the Calcutta Film Festival. The film "Striped Flight", the actors of which for the most part became luminaries of Russian cinema, was also released in Germany.