Zdravstvuyte, ya vasha tyotya! (1975)

Unemployed and homeless Babbs Baberley (Alexander Kalyagin) is being chased by the police who attempt to arrest him for vagrancy. Babbs finds himself in a rich house, where he encounters ... See full summary »

Director:

Viktor Titov

Writers:

Brandon Thomas (play), Viktor Titov

Stars:

Aleksandr Kalyagin, Tamara Nosova, Tatyana Vedeneeva

Cast

Credited cast:
Aleksandr Kalyagin	...	Babbs Baberley
Tamara Nosova	...	Donna Rosa d'Alvadorez
Tatyana Vedeneeva	...	Ela Delahay (as T. Vedeneyeva)
Valentin Gaft	...	Brasset, Lackey
Mikhail Lyubeznov	...	Charley Wyckham
Oleg Shklovsky	...	Jackie Chesney
Mikhail Kozakov	...	Colonel Francis Chesney
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan	...	Judge Kriegs
Galina Orlova	...	Betti
Tatyana Vasileva	...	Annie
Viktor Gajnov	...	Policeman (as V. Gajnov)
Vladimir Korovkin	...	(as V. Korovkin)
Nikolai Tagin	...	(as N. Tagin)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Aleksandr Makarov
Anton Makarov	...	(as A. Makarov)

Storyline

Unemployed and homeless Babbs Baberley (Alexander Kalyagin) is being chased by the police who attempt to arrest him for vagrancy. Babbs finds himself in a rich house, where he encounters Charlie and Jackie. Babbs' unsuccessful attempt to disguise himself as a woman gives Charlie and Jackie an idea. By threatening to surrender Babbs to the (successfully bribed) police, they force their unexpected visitor to dress once again as a woman and pass himself for Donna Rosa d'Alvadorez, Charlie's millionaire aunt who is expected to arrive with a visit from Brazil. Charlie and Jackie want Babbs to seduce Judge Criggs (Armen Dzhigarkhanyan) with the irresistible charms of a millionaire widow and to trick the Judge into giving his nieces, Annie and Betty, a permission to marry Charlie and Jackie.

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Plot Keywords:

cross dressing | farce | based on play | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Soviet Union

Language:

Russian

Release Date:

26 December 1975 (Soviet Union)

Also Known As:

Здравствуйте, я ваша тётя!

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ekran

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Playhouse 90: Where's Charley? (1957)

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Soundtracks

Lyubov i bednost
Music by Vladislav Kazenin
Original Lyrics by Robert Burns
Russian Lyrics by Samuil Marshak
Performed by Aleksandr Kalyagin

User Reviews

More fun than the wild monkeys of Brazil...

For this 1975 Soviet TV adaptation of a farcical play that was first performed in 1892, director Viktor Titov seems to have held the style, basic premise, and setting to a higher level of importance than the exact details of Brandon Thomas' "Charley's Aunt." And that appears to have been a good move -- the film is hilarious.

As we're in England around the turn of the century, the whole thing becomes a kind of tribute to the entertainment and style of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. And the opening sequence that nearly places its comic star Aleksandr Kalyagin in scenes with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Max Linder, Harold Lloyd, &c sets the tone perfectly for what is to come -- a wild, almost absurdist ride in the style of the great silent movies of the 1920s and 20s.

I've read that the cast and crew were allowed to improvise sequences and work in a party-like atmosphere during filing; that doesn't surprise me as it really seems to come through in the finished product. The performers are uniformly hilarious as well, especially Kalyagin as a supremely unladylike female impersonator and Oleg Shklovksy, who maintains an ever-funner level of complete, infuriated seriousness throughout. But for some reason the one who cracked me up the most was Valentin Gaft as the butler Brasset, who projects an inhumanly high level of deadpan not-giving-a-damn.

In short, simply hilarious from good slapstick and frenetic surrealism.