The novel on which this film is based has a scene set at Hampton Court Palace's hedge maze 12 miles (19.3 kilometres) from London on the River Thames. In two previous dramatizations of this novel (British productions in 1956 and 1975) the hedge maze is really a challenge. In this Russian production, however, the hedge maze isn't a hedge maze at all, but is a rock walled maze and a rock-walled maze of only about chest height. So it isn't really challenging, at all.....as you can see the shoulders and heads of the characters as they get lost in this maze, but one can easily see where the dead ends are.
That's representative of the differences that this Russian film has with British productions; i.e., more of a make-believe and very light-hearted tone to the film. This Russian film's opening is also akin to a bedtime story introduction of sorts. The first 19 minutes of this film has the lead star (Andrei Mironov) in his apartment living room talking to his cook and thinking aloud about his 2 fellow friends and how exercise is good for health. He also speaks directly to the camera during this introduction and occasionally during the later parts of this musical film, too. Yes, it is a musical of sorts, too, with 6 or 8 songs weaved into the 2 hours and 8 minutes of this comedy.
The ratings of this film rank it higher than the 1956 British production and that's why I watched this film, but I must say that the 1956 British film was far more enjoyable even though both of these films are not wonderful films. The 1956 film has its silly side like this Russian version, but the 1956 film's characters do develop a bit over the course of that film and if I was going to re-watch one again it would certainly be the 1956 version.
