konstantinkliushkin

Unlike most other American movies, this film was able to get on the screens of Soviet cinemas in 1952. Moreover, as a "trophy". Apparently, before the United States entered World War II, this film first came to Germany. Well, from there, as part of other trophies, it got into the Soviet Union. True, this film was shown to the Soviet cinema audience under the changed name: "The Fate of a Soldier in America". If Soviet distributors could only know that after about 40 years, the fate similar to the fate of the heroes of "The Roaring Twenties" would be experienced by the soldiers of the Soviet army, who, by the will of the communist leaders, were involved into the war in Afghanistan! Absolutely having no idea why. The phrase of one of the characters in the film, said about soldiers of the American army who returned from the fronts of the First World War, that they supposedly had a picnic in Europe, literally coincided in meaning with the phrase thrown already in real life by a Soviet doctor to crippled warrior: "I did not send you to Afghanistan." The plight of many Afghan war veteran soldiers who were sent to war by one state and returned to a completely different country was often mentioned and written in the media at the turn of the 80s - 90s, in the so-called "era of glasnost and perestroika". Then the topic was slowly "damped down." Exactly - the topic, not the problem itself. Of course, the scale of the problems of the American soldier of the 1920s and the Soviet "Afghan" warrior is incommensurable. The Americans returned from the war to a country in which only the Prohibition was just introduced. Our soldiers had to return to a country where the social system has completely changed. But the consequences of the changes that had to be adapted, and everyone adapted differently - unemployment, crime, inflation, etc. and etc. - both there and here turned out to be common.

In Polish the movie was called "Jak rozpetalem druga wojne swiatowa". Translated into Russian, the name of the film looks like - "How I Unleashed World War II". But in our country it was released under the title "The adventures of Dolas the cannoneer". Judging by the extremely small number of reviews on this film on IMDB and on the complete absence of references to this film on the Rotten Tomatoes website, this picture is practically unknown in the world. Except, perhaps, for Poland and Hungary. There is no data on the demonstration of the film in the USSR, but I definitely remember that I watched it being pupil of of either the 6th or 7th grade, i.e., somewhere in the beginning of 70-s. And the second time I watched this movie recently. And it was interesting to compare my impressions with me then, half a century younger, and today. I remember that then I laughed wildly at the session. A lot of funny moments in this movie. Today, voluntarily or involuntarily, other points attracted attention. Well, firstly, I remember exactly that then, in the beginning of the 70s, the film consisted of two episodes and lasted a total of somewhere from two and a half to three hours. The full version, which I watched recently, lasts almost 4 hours and consists of 3 episodes. This is how much was cut out of the film by Soviet censorship! Weigh roughly - a whole third of the film. However, neither then nor today would I be able to sit in the movie theater for 4 hours on this film. It's good that now there is a lot of opportunities to watch movies at home on the couch. Secondly, during a recent viewing, I drew attention to a phrase uttered by one of the female characters when the action took place in Yugoslavia: "The Germans will be here soon. They have already occupied Hungary." Then, in childhood, my friends and I did not pay much attention to this phrase. Of course, bad fascists occupied good Hungary. This is today, when we know that Hungary was the original and most faithful satellite of Nazi Germany and fought against the Red Army until the very end, when even the Germans themselves began to give up, this phrase cuts the ear. Since the Nazis had no need to "occupy" Hungary. At least, in 1939-1940. Thirdly, I do not remember whether the episode with the Polish officers in the POW camp was present in the version that was shown in Soviet times, or not. Most likely not. Now compare with numerous photo documents about the camp conditions for Soviet officers in German camps for POWs. And as they say, feel the difference. Such a comparison is especially relevant today, when some Polish, and not only Polish, politicians decided to attribute the beginning of the World War II exclusively to Germany and the Soviet Union. However, I think that everyone who watched this film in the 70s and watched it today will be able to find other changes in their impressions.

In the West, sometimes the number of stars employed in a picture is used as a measure of the merits of a film. If this criterion could be applied to the "Marriage", it would probably be recognized as one of the most worthy films of the century. In fact, the film features: 11 people's artists of the USSR, 2 people's artists of the RSFSR, 4 honored artists of the RSFSR. Moreover, not all were indicated in the credits. Of course, at the time of the film's creation, many of its actors did not yet have all the regalia that they had been awarded for their entire creative lives. But we are not talking about official ranks and awards, but about the highest level of talent of the star collective assembled by Isidor Annensky. This team, combined by a talented director with the genius of Chekhov, ensured the creation of a film masterpiece for centuries. A masterpiece in which each frame, each episode, each replica is a separate work of art. Due to the historical features of the moment the picture was released, it did not participate in film festivals. What festivals in 1944?! Judging by the lack of reviews of professional Western film critics, the picture is poorly known in the West. Perhaps only in 1945, in the wave of the allied mood, it was shown in the United States and some European countries. And that's it. So, once again, you can sympathize with the audience of Western countries, which, due to the most severe censorship, are deprived of the opportunity to see some Soviet film masterpieces.