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| Images courtesy of Mosfilm |
Nine years before making the most rewatched and popular
television film in the history of the Soviet Union with the New Years Eve
screwball romantic comedy The Irony of Fate or his claustrophobic
dramedy Garage, Soviet Russian writer-director-actor Eldar Ryazanov
singlehandedly launched what became known as the Soviet political satire film
with his sendup of the film noire subgenre Watch Out for the Automobile or
as it is commonly known here Beware of the Car. Based on a screenplay cowritten by Ryazanow
and Emil Braginsky and produced by Mosfilm, the film became a tragicomic
stepping-stone for Letter Never Sent actor Innokenty Smoktunovsky and
dared pose the question of noble thievery in a distinctly Soviet world. Though parodying film noir, this multiple
award-winning Brezhnev-era work which derives its title from traffic signs in
parking garages wound up being the number one Soviet film of 1966 as well as
granting the lead actor Smoktunovsky the Best Actor prize.
Yuri Detochkin (Innokenty Smoktunovsky) is a Soviet
insurance agent who incognito steals expensive cars from corrupt government
officials as well as scammers out of dismay for the police forces’ inability to
curtail the crimes. On the side he works
as a stage theater actor and is entrenched in a production of Hamlet alongside
his friend Detective Maksim Podberyozovikov (Oleg Yefremov) unaware of his car
thieving. While navigating his
double-life including courting his bus-driver girlfriend without ever presenting
any plans to settle down and trying his hand at stealing from a retail
embezzler, Yuri gets sloppy and doesn’t cover his tracks that well with his
Detective pal investigating the stolen cars which point to his acting friend as
the chief culprit. However, Detective
Maksim faces a dilemma when he comes to find out Yuri instead of pocketing the
cash sold all the cars and transferred the money to various orphanages
throughout the city.
Humorous and heartbreaking, entertaining but ultimately an
unexpected emotional experience, the fourteenth film in Eldar Ryazanov’s career
paved the way for what would or wouldn’t become the American action film series
Gone in 60 Seconds which also saw an insurance agent secretly stealing
cars. A swift box-office leader in
Soviet cinema history, this loose reimagining of Robin Hood as car thief
is something of a composite character creation with influences such as Don
Quixote, Charlie Chaplin and Prince Myshkin worked into the film. Initially blocked by authorities concerned
people would start stealing one another’s cars before it was reworked and given
the green light, the film is characterized by a juxtaposition of the car
thief’s daytime world and the sneaky night life comprised of car chases. A key aspect involves the GAZ-21 Volga car
model which was an elite Soviet vehicle at the time, a detail director Ryazanov
found difficulty getting past the censors.
Lensed by two cinematographers including Anatoliy Mukasey
and A Little Doll cameraman Vladimir Nakhabtsev in crisp black-and-white
(avoid the director’s colorized version if possible), Beware of the Car ranges
from luminously bright to dimly muted in nighttime shadows when it isn’t
following tense car chases. The score by
The Way to the Pier composer Andrei Petrov in his first collaboration
with Ryazanov achieves a pseudo-film noir score that’ll make western viewers
think of The Third Man replete with brassy horns and subtle string
rumblings. An ensemble piece with many
actors though primarily focused on Innokenty Smoktunovsky as the eccentric but
noble Yuri Detochkin and Oleg Yefremov as his Detective friend sharing the
stage with him while investigating the car thieving, performances across the
board for Beware of the Car are strong with Smoktunovsky exuding
sincerity in his eyes and smile.
A box office leader in Soviet cinemas circa 1966 and winner
of Australian, British and Columbian film awards, Mosfilm and Eldar Ryazanov’s Beware
of the Car was the first Soviet satire of its kind and as such presented a
challenge for authorities but proved to be a hilarious tearjerker for
audiences. While the eventual 1984 named
People’s Artist of the USSR wanted primarily to make serious films instead of
comedies, with Beware of the Car Ryazanov figured out a way to tackle
both genres as one new entity. From
there, the director tackled a variety of real-world issues
including his alcohol infused New Years romance The Irony of Fate
followed by Office Romance two years later. Unlike the work of Leonid Gaidai which leapt freely into escapist fantasy, the films of Eldar Ryazanov though funny are
definitely grounded in then-Soviet reality and tried to use comedy to provoke discussion
about more serious social topics.
--Andrew Kotwicki
