Marketic
It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.
UnowPriceless
hyped garbage
Murphy Howard
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
sol-
Mistaken for a professional contrabandist, a bumbling tourist is given an arm cast full of smuggled goods and inadvertently becomes a government spy after going to the police in this energetic Soviet comedy. Once voted as the funniest Russian comedy of time, 'The Diamond Arm' certainly does an impressive job incorporating various forms of humour. The first five minutes, for example, play out as a dialogue-free silent comedy, but later on there are also pratfalls, sight gags and lines that crack with wit. At its zaniest, the chief smuggler has a red tinted dream in which he is tormented by a laughing black cat (!), though the most amusing moments come from characters narrating their thoughts out loud, whether it be the protagonist's paranoia over a taxi ride or his wife's concern that he is cheating on her. Less successful are the film's attempts at satire - or perhaps this angle is just lost on a western viewer. By some accounts, the film offers a sharp and biting parody of life under the Soviet regime, but ostensibly, it is just an offbeat motion picture about things going incredibly wrong. Yuriy Nikulin (reportedly a former circus clown) does okay as a man out of his depth, wearing the much sought-after cast, but the best moments are had by Andrey Mironov as the actual contrabandist who was meant to be given the cast. Whether it be repeatedly failing to knock Nikulin unconscious during a fishing trip, being kicked in the mouth during a drunken dance or fondling the precious cast, Mironov is simply sensational in a rather thankless role.
alexmsq
That is the words of that song:http://www.miditext.ru/lyrics/ru/02/rabits.html Sings Nikulin itselfAlso it is not usual to foreigners that curse: Live by the one salary!Usually salaries in USSR was not very large that time. Many people had 2 or 3 salaries on 2-3 workplaces to have tolerable income.Also house-managers had function of paparazzi, informers and Party organization mans. And the distribution of State Lottery tickets was not mandatory but strongly recommended. State possessed credits from people that way.And in 1961 currency reform was realized. Money had been denominated by 10:1. So 500 rubles by old and new (money) were totally different sums.
Michel Bozgounov
I watched this movie as a small boy. I liked it. Then I watched it again, as a bigger boy. I liked it again :) Then I found it nowadays on video... was tempted to watch it again... and liked it again :-)This is classics! It's good! It's... yes, it's way too Russian......but because I know Russian language, and Russian culture a bit, too, I could understand almost all of the movie's plot, and jokes, and sometimes (too Russian?;) humour.The movie is real good. It has good plot, good acting, it's directed good, it has good music... I've given it 9/10 stars. It's worth watching! But... beware - maybe you wouldn't understand it. Because it's way too Russian? Maybe. Well, you can try, at least...I really enjoyed it:)One word-summary: recommend! ...for whoever want to try it:)
Beranto
Simply the BEST Russian comedy.
