Counterplan (film)
Counterplan () is a 1932 Soviet drama film directed by Sergei Yutkevich and Fridrikh Ermler. The film's title song, "The Song of the Counterplan", composed by Dmitri Shostakovich with lyrics by the poet Boris Kornilov, became world famous. Shostakovich's composition, with new lyrics by Jeanne Perret, would be used shortly after in the notable song of the French socialist movement, "Au-devant de la vie". The same theme can be found before in Igor Stravinsky’s "Petrushka" and Sergei Taneyev’s first symphony. Shostakovich was to use the piece again in his "Poem of the Motherland" (1947 ), another film entitled "Mitchurin" (1948) and his 1958 operetta "Moscow, Cheremushki!". In 1942 the song was given English words by Harold J. Rome under the title "United Nations on the March" and in this guise it was featured as the choral finale to MGM's patriotic war-time musical "Thousands Cheer" (1943). That same year, Leopold Stokowski made an orchestral arrangement of the song and this was given the title "United Nations March". This film could be considered a Stalin propaganda film. The plot involves an effort to catch "wreckers" at work in a Soviet factory.