Gentlemen of Fortune
Gentlemen of Fortune () is a 1971 Soviet crime comedy film, filmed at Mosfilm and directed by Aleksandr Sery. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, Savely Kramarov and Radner Muratov. The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1972, drawing 65.02 million box office admissions. Plot summary. The movie follows the story of an amiable kindergarten principal named Troshkin who looks exactly like a cruel criminal nicknamed Dotsent (Доцент, literally "associate professor") that has stolen Alexander the Great's helmet at an archaeological excavation. Dotsent and his gang  are caught by police, but Dotsent is imprisoned in a different jail than his mates. Since Troshkin looks identical to Dotsent, the police send him undercover to prison with the real criminals to get information about the stolen helmet. He must pretend to be the real felon Dotsent, so in order to be convincing, Troshkin, a well-educated and good-natured man, has to learn slang and manners of criminals. Production. The film was directed by Aleksandr Sery who had just come out of prison. Georgiy Daneliya assisted him and wrote the script. Sery used his prison experience to design  many situations in the movie, and he also introduced numerous expressions from Russian criminal slang (known as "fenya"). References to other films. The film references "Three Poplars in Plyushchikha". In one scene, the Sad Sack says: "We are sitting here like three poplars in Plyushchikha!" – when the three prison escapees are sitting in an empty sports stadium. After this film, the phrase "Like three poplars in Plyushchikha" became a famous quote.