
Leonid Gaidai
Directing
Biography
Leonid Iovich Gaidai (Russian: Леони́д Ио́вич Гайда́й; 30 January 1923 – 19 November 1993; Svobodny) was a Soviet comedy film director, screenwriter and actor who enjoyed immense popularity and broad public recognition in the former Soviet Union. His films broke theatre attendance records and were some of the top-selling DVDs in Russia. He has been described as "the king of Soviet comedy".
Known For

Fitil is a popular Soviet/Russian television satirical/comedy short film series which ran for about 500 episodes. Some of the episodes were aimed at children, and were called Фитилёк, Fitilyok, Little Fuse. Each issue contained from the few short segments: documentary, fictional and animated ones. Directed by various artists, including Leonid Gaidai who presented his famous trio of Nikulin, Vitsin and Morgunov into the cast. It was called in USSR as "the anecdotes from the Soviet government".
Fuse

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When Idols Were Gone

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Legends of Cinema

A diamond smuggling operation goes wrong when an ordinary Soviet citizen becomes unwittingly involved, and the criminals are forced to court him to retrieve their diamonds.
The Diamond Arm

The film consists of three independent parts: "Workmate", "Déjà vu" and "Operation Y". The plot follows the adventures of Shurik, the naive and nerdy Soviet student who often gets into ludicrous situations but always finds a way out very neatly.
Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures

Shurik, a kind but naïve ethnography student, falls in love with the intelligent, athletic and beautiful All-Union Leninist Young Communist League member Nina. He has a rival in the wealthy comrade Saakhov, who concocts a kidnapping scheme to force Nina to marry him.
Kidnapping, Caucasian Style

A scientist builds a time machine and accidentally sends his apartment complex manager and a petty burglar to 16th century Moscow, while Tsar Ivan the Terrible travels to 1973.
Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession

Filmed in the context of the fortieth anniversary of the creation of the Komsomols, the League of Young Communists, tells the story of three youth delegates from the League in 1918, who must make the dangerous journey to Moscow during the civil war to participate in League’s congress.
The Wind

A former aristocrat Ippolit Vorobyaninov leads a miserable life in Soviet Russia. His mother-in-law reveals a secret to him - she hid family diamonds in one of the twelve chairs they once had. Vorobyaninov in cooperation with a young con artist Ostap Bender start a long search for the diamonds.
12 Chairs

Three stories based on O. Henry novels. (1) Bob Tidball recovers $30,000 in pristine credit cards from a bandit’s sack and races across the plains until his horse breaks its leg. Forced to mount Dodson’s stallion, he’s ambushed and killed by “Shark” Dodson, who seizes the entire loot. (2) A thief slips through a third-floor window to steal a stack of bills from a sleeping gentleman’s dressing table. When the homeowner awakens and raises only one hand against the revolver—his other immobilized by a sudden rheumatic attack—the would-be robber reconsiders his plan. (3) Sam and Bill, two small-time grifters short $2,000 for their swindle, decide to kidnap Ebeneger Dorset’s young son. They demand exactly that sum as ransom, setting in motion a desperate bargain.
Strictly Business

When mysterious Russian bandit named Artist came in USA, brave Russian special agent Fyodor Sokolov runs to States for defeat evil master.
There's Good Weather in Deribasovskaya, Or It's Raining Again in Brighton Beach

In Eastern Finland, in Liperi to be exact, Anna-Liisa Ihalainen asks her husband Antti to get some matches from the Ihalainen household. Unfortunately that trip takes a little longer than expected...
For the Matches

This is the second silent (save for a song) slapstick comedy short about adventures of Worldly, Coward, and Fool. In a small hunting lodge three friends are making illegal moonshine. Bottled "product" fills shelves quickly. Life is good. But their dog Barbos doesn't understand that bringing a moonshine condenser coil to a police station is a bad idea...
Bootleggers

The film includes three short stories based on the stories of Mikhail Zoshchenko: "Crime and Punishment", "Fun Adventure", and "Wedding Event" about the negative phenomena of the provincial life of the young country of the Soviets: stupidity, drunkenness, money-grubbing, lack of spirituality.
It Can't Be!

Adventurous comedy about a bunch of people hunting the winning lottery ticket.
SportLotto - 82

The station keeper Kruglikov was exiled to a remote Siberian village many years ago for shooting his superior, a general, who demanded that he go with him as a matchmaker to Kruglikov's favorite girl, Raya. A political exile is brought to the station. She turns out to be Raya. For a few minutes the former bride and groom were together, and then she was taken away again.
A Weary Road

An interesting voyage through the Soviet television and film industry.
Sovershenno seryozno

Student Shurik has just two hours before the beginning of the exam and he has no lectures notes.
Obsession

This is the very first silent slapstick comedy short about adventures of Worldly, Coward, and Fool. What's more fun: fishing with worms, or dynamite? Three friends decided to have a blast! Unfortunately their dog Barbos just loves playing fetch. And this time that stick was used for blast fishing. Barbos saw people throwing a smoking stick in a water, and fetched it right back to his owners. The "unusual cross" part begins when owners try to outrun the dog with dynamite.
Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross

A funny comedy about a very adventurous day in a life of Stepan Molodtsov - a very responsible young man.