This time I’m going to review my all-time favorite Soviet comedy, and before I do that, I’ll mention that my outfit of the day was inspired by this film. There was a lot of plaid going on in the movie, hence, it inspired me to wear a plaid shirt of my own, pairing it with a cheer skirt for a mixed look!
I really love plaid and I like how it pairs with this cheer skirt. And the shoes, too!!!
Now, onto the movie! 🍿 Today I’ll discuss why I love this film so much. There were no English subtitles available for this film, as it was all in Russian. But I managed to understand the plot just fine by simply watching!
The Unamenables (1959), stars Nadezhda Rumyantseva, Yuri Belov, and my celeb crush Aleksey Kozhevnikov. As I mentioned in the previous post, these are my favorite Soviet actors and seeing them all together in this film is what made me immediately love them!
Nadia – a young, active girl from a factory (Rumyantseva) is assigned to look after her workmates – two idlers who only waste everyone’s time (Belov and Kozhevnikov). At first, the boys avoid Nadia like the plague, seeing that she is trying to reform them and make them better workers, but as the film unfolds, they all three grow attached to each other.
Literally the first two minutes of the film already had me laughing. We’re introduced to the film showing Tolya (Belov) literally dancing his way into the factory alongside his best friend Victor (Kozhevnikov), both of them clearly not giving a fat flying fig newton that they are late for work and it’s evident that all of their co-workers are pissed.
While Nadia is responsible for making Tolya and Victor better workers, in the rest of her time, she is very much enamored by Volodya – a strong, athletic and good worker. He likes her, too. But it doesn’t take long for him to get irritated that she spends most of her time hanging out with the troubled boys of the factory.
One of the best scenes in the film is at a carnival, where we get a musical number! Victor and Tolya do a duet and sing a cute little song for Nadia. Shortly after, Tolya breaks out dancing in front of everyone and the crowd loves him. Nadia is full of cheers but then breaks away to go sneak a peek at Volodya, who is about to do some epic diving in the community swimming pool.
We’re brought to the diving pool, where Volodya is performing his high dive and otherwise showing everyone how awesome he is. Nadia is glowing, impressed by him, and then we get Tolya and Victor walking up behind her, clearly irritated that she snuck off to go watch Volodya swim. I get that Volodya has like a Soviet James Dean thing going on, but come onnnnnnn Nadia!!!! Literally the two most adorable guys in probably the entire gosh dang USSR were just SERENADING you, and you run off to find Volodya. Arrrgh!!!!!!!!!!!
As we get towards the end of the film, it’s clear that Tolya and Victor are not the idlers everyone thought them to be. In fact, they are some of the hardest workers, when it comes right down to it. Nadia sees this for herself, and what I appreciate most about this film, is that the film is about friendship. By the end of the film, Nadia, Victor and Tolya are the best of friends – the film literally ending with them running out of the factory, holding hands.
So that’s it for my review!! The Unamenables is one of those films that I never get tired of watching, and it warms my heart every time. ❤️ I can watch other Soviet comedies and enjoy them immensely, but not to the degree of this film. I’m so glad I discovered it!
See yaaaa!!!
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