Why Gaidai deprived Vysotsky of the role of Ostap Bender and what introduction was cut from the "Caucasian Captive"

Today marks the 94th anniversary of the birth of the brilliant director Leonid Gaidai, who went down in the history of Russian cinema as the creator of the genre of folk comedy. Before him, film studios produced exclusively ideologically verified, mostly mournful films about party meetings and the development of virgin lands. But Gaidai, who adored Charlie Chaplin since childhood, always sought not to instruct the viewer, but to entertain. His paintings are the same as he was — lively, cheerful, bold.

(11 photos in total)

Like many outstanding creators, Gaidai took a lot from life. He read newspapers and magazines in huge quantities. I used to spend hours on vacation in the attic, digging through old periodicals in search of original ideas. The plot for the "Caucasian Captive" was born from a note about a bride kidnapped in Transcaucasia, and Gaidai conceived the comedy "Diamond Hand" when he read an article in Pravda about smugglers who took valuables abroad in plaster.

Some episodes occurred in the past with Gaidai himself. For example, the scene of the distribution of alcoholics, parasites, hooligans for work contracts in "Operation Y ..." is based on real events. In 1942, the future director served in Mongolia, in a unit where horses were broken for the front. Once an officer arrived to recruit volunteers for the active army — the soldiers lined up on the parade ground:

— Who's in the artillery? Gaidai blurted out. — Who's in the cavalry? — I am! — Gaidai again. — Yes, you wait, let me read out the whole list! — the military commissar got angry.

It is believed that Gaidai created Shurik in his own image and likeness. Awkward bespectacled, naive and very decent. In his youth, accompanying the girl to the house, Gaidai liked to play all sorts of comical scenes, and when he entered the VGIK, he read a poem about the girl Lida.

Selecting an actor for the main role for "Operation Y...", the director rejected dozens of candidates (including Yevgeny Petrosyan). Then someone from the film crew suggested Alexander Demyanenko, who was unknown at that time. Gaidai looked at the photos, found an external resemblance and personally flew to Leningrad to negotiate with the actor.

Leonid Gaidai and Alexander Demyanenko.

By the way, initially, according to the script, Shurik was not Shurik, but Vladik. But the censors did not approve the name: Vladik is Vladlen, and Vladlen is Vladimir Lenin. It is impossible, they say, to call a comic hero by the name of the leader of the world proletariat. Gaidai did not argue about trifles, although he was usually irreconcilable in the unequal struggle against censorship.

Probably the most vivid story about how the director defended bold plot moves is connected with the film "The Diamond Hand". Goskino did not like the scenes with prostitutes, Gorbunkov's drunkenness, the carelessness of customs officers and much more. Gaidai came up with a trick: he added footage of a nuclear explosion at the end and told the commission that he agreed to remove any scenes except this one.

— Why do you need an explosion in comedy? — the censors asked quite reasonably. — Have you really forgotten about the most difficult international situation? — the director threw up his hands. — Imperialism is brandishing a nuclear club!

As a result, the explosion was cut out, everything else was left.

But, of course, not everything could be saved from the scissors of politicians. For example, "The Caucasian Captive" in the original version opened not with shots of Shurik riding on a donkey, but with a scene from which the commission members grabbed their heads and accused the film crew of hooliganism.

That's what Gaidai wrote together with Nikulin. The coward approaches the board fence and, looking around, draws the letter "X" with chalk. Then the Idiot appears and adds "Y". The policeman who saw this outrage whistles with all his might, but the Idiot, not at a loss, adds: "... a pre-artistic film."

On the set, Gaidai not only did not resist the original ideas of the artists, but also encouraged them. On the set of The Caucasian Captive, he gave out champagne for invented jokes. As a result, Nikulin earned 24 bottles (he, for example, offered to inject sleeping pills to a Seasoned Person not with an ordinary syringe, but with a hefty one, which he himself got in the circus), Morgunov — 18, and Vitsin only gave one, and even that to his comrades — he was a convinced teetotaler.

By the way, "The Caucasian Captive" was not by chance the last film in which the legendary trinity appeared. Towards the end of filming, Morgunov showed up to watch the footage drunk in the company of girls, and even began to defy the director. Gaidai kicked him out, and an understudy was filmed in the remaining scenes.

If Gaidai believed that it was necessary to be principled, he did not hesitate. Auditions for the role of Ostap Bender for the film adaptation of "12 chairs" were painful. Mironov, Evstigneev, Gaft did not fit… They took Alexander Belyavsky, but it soon became clear that he was not a brilliant combinator. And then it dawned on the assistants: "Maybe I should call Volodya Vysotsky? That will be a success!" Gaidai seized on the idea. Vladimir Semyonovich was great at the auditions, and he was approved. But on the first day of filming, he did not come to the set — he went on a spree. Then Gaidai announced: "I won't shoot Vysotsky," and the role went to Gomiashvili.

It also happened that Gaidai saw a certain actor in the image of one of the heroes. Sometimes I had to persuade this actor by hook or by crook. From an interview with Nina Grebeshkova, the widow of Leonid Iovich: "To me, this woman from the Diamond Hand seemed so correct and boring, she already reduces her teeth (Grebeshkova plays Gorbunkov's wife in the film — Ed.). I'm stubborn — I won't play. Lenya said that he had found another actress, and left for filming. Suddenly he calls from Sochi: he's sick, he needs to go out urgently. Of course, I came, his health was undermined from his youth. And there it turned out that I was still Gorbunkov's wife. Okay, I said, I'll play."

Perhaps enough stories about Gaidai for today, and so they overdid it. Leonid Iovich did not like the hype around him, even on his birthday he rarely arranged lavish festivities. For all his genius, he was a modest man. There are few of them now.