55 years ago, in 1968, the first film adaptation of the work Ilfa and Petrova – two-part film “The Golden Calf” directed by Mikhail Schweitzer.
During the filming of the performer of the role of Ostap Bender Sergei Yursky others tortured me with advice on how to play the “great strategist” correctly. He could not feel at ease either in a hotel, or in a restaurant, or even on the street – there were “promotional directors” everywhere.
“Remember, Bender never smiled!”
Yursky, who at that time served in the Leningrad BDT, had to live on trains, since the shooting took place at Mosfilm. It is no coincidence that in one interview that he gave during the filming, Sergei Yuryevich said that he and Bender had a common feature – railway sickness. “Remember, when Bender had no housing, he got on a train and traveled for weeks,” Yursky said. “I have accommodation, but since the start of filming I have spent 50 nights on trains running between Leningrad and Moscow.” At the same time, fellow travelers, knowing that Yursky was acting in the role of a “great strategist”, literally tortured the artist with advice. So, once the actor, after a performance in Leningrad, got into the “Red Arrow” in order to be on the set in Moscow in the morning. His fellow traveler introduced himself as an engineer from Odessa and immediately began to outline what the film “The Golden Calf” should be like. It was two in the morning when he categorically declared to Yursky: “Well, now we will rehearse with you!”
Yursky was saved by a knock on the door of their compartment. “I only have two words,” said the stranger. “And remember, Ostap Bender never smiled!”
Advice on how best to play the protagonist of the novels Ilf and Petrov pursued Yursky not only on the train. He could be approached in a hotel, in a restaurant, or just on the street. Letters were sent to the studio: “If the film does not contain all the scenes of the novel, I will complain to the central newspapers.”
Papanov almost fell ill
By the way, all the scenes of the novel were not really in the film. From the final version, everything related to the character of Vasisualy Lokhankin, who was played by Anatoly Papanov. Prior to that, Papanov played Koreiko in the theater. I would love to do it on screen. However, director Schweitzer cooled the artist’s ardor with the words: “You can’t be a millionaire with such a texture.” Therefore, instead of the role of an underground millionaire, Papanov got the role of Vasisualy Lokhankin. It was Varvara’s wife who left him, and he went on a hunger strike, lying on the couch. At the same time, he visited the buffet at night. “We filmed a scene of a hunger strike,” Papanov said. – In my socks, I ate meat at the buffet at night with a terrible noise. So, at this very tasty place, we did an awful lot of takes. And I had to swallow three or four kilograms of meat …. And I almost got sick.
However, these more than five minutes, in which the story of Lokhankin was told, were not included in the final version. Fortunately, the film was not erased. If you wish, it will not be difficult to find these shots on the Internet and evaluate the game of the legendary Papanov.
Evgeny Evstigneev, who eventually got the role of Koreiko, admitted that in such a film he would be happy with any role. “Koreiko is not funny in the novel. Completely unfunny. And I try to play it like that. But it is difficult to do this when next to you are such masters of laughter as Yursky or Gerdt“, – admitted the artist. Even Evstigneev himself was sometimes not laughing at the shooting. Somehow he fell asleep while sitting on a camel, and stopped responding to members of the film crew. And they decided that the artist had enough sunstroke, and were already developing a plan on how to remove him from the “two-humped”. Fortunately, Evstigneev woke up and got off the camel himself.
Bender’s prototype demanded money
The film adaptation of 1968 was the first where the characters of Ilf and Petrov came to life on the screen, so in the process of preparation there was a lot of controversy about the appearance, primarily Ostap. In addition, Bender had a prototype. The image of the main character of the novel, the authors largely copied from Odessa by name Osip Shor (friends called him Ostap). He was tall, under 1 m 90 cm. In this sense, Yursky almost corresponded to his hero – the actor had a height of 1 m 81 cm. And the same dark-haired, with brown eyes. In real life, Shor served as an inspector of the Odessa Criminal Investigation Department, and adventures constantly happened to him. Initially, Ilf and Petrov assumed that Ostap would be only an episodic character. But as he wrote the novel, he “pulled the blanket over himself.” When The Golden Calf was published in 1931, Shor easily recognized himself in Bender.
He came to Ilf and Petrov and demanded a fee from them, which made the writers dumbfounded – Shor played his prank so well. He had no acting talent.
He apologized to Bykov and took Gerdt
But Zinovy Gerdt, who played Panikovsky, himself set the condition for the director that his character should be different from how he was portrayed in the novel.
Here is what Gerdt wrote about this in his memoirs: “At Ilf and Petrov, Panikovsky is ridiculous and disgusting. I wanted to show it differently – funny and touching. Because this is a man terribly unadapted to the world, lonely in the whole universe. Literally everything hurts him, even the touch of air. And his tricks are so naive, obvious and obvious that they cannot bring serious harm to anyone. I felt sorry for Panikovsky and wanted the audience to treat him with the same feelings.
By the way, this work was the first major film role of Gerdt, who at the time of filming was 50 years old. For the sake of Gerdt director Schweitzer refused Rolan Bykov, who had already been approved for this role, and even a number of scenes were filmed with Bykov-Panikovsky. But in the end, Schweitzer chose Gerdt. For Gerdt, this first work almost became the last – the artist had a heart attack on the site. Doctors forbade him to work for at least three weeks, and the shooting of the film was suspended for almost a month. In the end, everything worked out, and on the set, Gerdt received congratulations on the anniversary.
By the way, Schweitzer also had his own view of both the characters and the finale of the film. He wanted the film to end with the marriage scene of Ostap and Zosya. But then the artistic council rebelled, which recognized only one end of the picture – the complete collapse of the adventurer. As a result, in the final, the Romanian border guards detain Bender, who tried to cross the border in the winter in the snow in a fur coat, hung with gold jewelry underneath. And the famous phrase sounds that the Count of Monte Cristo did not come out of him and you need to retrain as a house manager. This final was dearly given to Sergei Yursky. After filming ended, he came down with pneumonia – numerous takes in the snow made themselves felt.
Nevertheless, the final was left open for the audience. After all, the authors were going to write a third book about the adventures of Ostap. And if Ilf had not come down with tuberculosis, this would certainly have happened.
