Beregis avtomobilya

By current standards it is really ridiculous to call it a "black comedy". "Death Becomes Her" and "Pulp Fiction" are black comedies. And among the Russian ones "Deja vu" is a good candidate. So, here goes problem number one. Being rather light-hearted it lacks colour badly (suppose they could make it in colour back in 1966). And sometimes it lacks style (the background voice making wise comments in a "TV news" manner is a downer). This is very subjective fault-finding but quite decisive to me. There are no complaints regarding the actors' performance and the story is fine with its "Robin Hood" touch. There are many memorable scenes ("Hamlet" performance, the Soviet shopping, a funny monologue about "our" Shakespeare, etc.) and tons of enjoyable sayings. Most these things are, unfortunately (or fortunately), can be easily understood by older Russian people (especially of older generations) only. As to people from other countries (and even younger Russian audience) – there will be some problems in catching its tune. Just to expand on this matter: for Russians, the movie is one good piece of entertainment, nostalgia, and a historical lesson (clothes, relations between people during the Soviet era, first businessmen a la "spekulianti", Soviet "drama clubs", etc.). For the rest of the world... - hardly. If you live in some sort of USA, was born there, have been living there your whole life, have just watched this movie and ready to give it a 10 right away with a frank heart, post me a few lines please.

It is a good movie but not great. Upon the DVD box it is written: "popular videos". It really belongs to that class of movies - "Russian popular videos" that is.

If it were in colour and without that bumbling voice behind the camera, the mark from my side would have been better.

Quite objectively, it is 6 out of 10 (but there should be a place for this film in the national top 1000 of course). Thanks for attention.

This amazing story may well be considered fantastic. Modest and shy insurance agent, amateur theater actor Yuri Detochkin turns out to be an implacable fighter for justice. However, for justice, represented by the actor of the same theater, and in the world-the investigator Podberezovikov, this Robin Hood is a dangerous, cunning, inventive and elusive criminal...

The absence of reviews here prompts me to say a few words. I saw this in a cinema in Moscow in 1966 [despite date above], a popular film there at the time. I couldn't follow all the dialogue at the time, but I recall being struck by the believability and humanity of the whole thing. Russian public were right on the side of the anti-hero, though he was no swashbuckler and the ending is dispassionate. This was still during the time of the Soviet thaw, and Moscow was heaving with American tourists. Life was better for Russians and things were looking up. The old gallant Soviet war heros had become less interesting, and the time was right for someone more complex, surfacing, perhaps, from the rich literary tradition. A perfect Geroi nasha vremeno - my theory anyway. I'd just like to see it again before giving it a rating!

Just a great movie portraying the genres most often used in movies at that time: love, light humour. Smoktynovsky is perhaps not the ideal choice for the role (Ryzanov originally wanted Nikylin for this role, but the latter was currently in the also great comedy - Diamond Arm), yet he is very good. There are many funny quotes in this film, better understood if you understand Russian, a ton of small funny moments which just make you grin. The cast gives an outstanding performance. Back to Smoktynovsky again, I'll describe the movie for you a bit. He is an honest insurance agent who steals and sells cars from unfairly rich people, and gives the money to foster homes. His best friend is a detective trying to find the thief. After he learns the shocking truth, he obviously does not want Detochkin (Smoktynocsky's hero) to be punished severely.

Beware of the Automobile. What would a Russian say when you mentioned it in front of him? I'm a Russian myself and I know. When someone mentions the movie's name, the other person would go babbling on about the storyline, every single detail from start to end. He would imitate highly enjoyed moments in the highly enjoyed film. He would repeat memorable quotes (which sound funnier in Russian). And he would go asking everyone if they knew interesting facts about the interesting film.

With non-Russians, however... well, to be honest I don't know. I have this movie on VHS in Russian and I never showed to an English speaking person before, but I think that even some non-Russian people will be fascinated by this film. I certainly am. I watch this movie whenever I get the chance. And I always love it, no matter how many times I've watched it.

The director, Eldar Ryazanov is a highly-loved Russian director and has directed a lot of classical Russian films, not one which I don't like. Go Ryazanov! Go Beware of the Automobile! Go whoever watched this film! Go whoever enjoyed it! Rating: 10/10