A pretty good operetta by Pyrev, starring his wife and Yevgeni Samojlov, this one has some good numbers -- startling to see them performed by a chorus of soldiers in the snow -- some nice war footage as Samojlov calls in an artillery strike in the snow, and three, count 'em, three tacked on endings, including the obligatory Thanks to Stalin ending as they finally meet at 6PM after the war. Everyone winds up being insufferably noble and fouling things up so that what would seem to be a properly tragic ending gets sorted out nicely.
If it weren't for the fact that it's in black & white, everyone speaks Russian and there are real war scenes, it reminds me of the sort of oversaturated musical that Fox was making in this period starring Betty Grable and John Payne. Heck, second lead Ivan Lyubeznov makes me think of Jack Oakie!
If it weren't for the fact that it's in black & white, everyone speaks Russian and there are real war scenes, it reminds me of the sort of oversaturated musical that Fox was making in this period starring Betty Grable and John Payne. Heck, second lead Ivan Lyubeznov makes me think of Jack Oakie!