'Samogonshchiki' or 'Bootleggers' (sometimes also known as 'Moonshiners') is tasty slapstick short film about three inept crooks producing moonshine in their forest hut. Trio - Yuri Nikulin, Georgi Vitsin, Yevgeni Morgunov - were first introduced in Leonid Gaidai's segment for comedy 'Absolutely Seriously'. The segment got released separately as a short film. 'Bootleggers' is a followup to that (although on imdb, these short films are put together and presented as two different tales of same trio, when actually they stand two different 18 minutes and 10 minutes films). The comedy is pure classic slapstick, but the energy and intelligence the three comedians perform all stunts gives nice fresh layer to the genre that itself was quite worn out by the sixties. As the film doesn't have any dialogue (only one song) the language barrier can't become obstacle for understanding the movie.
Not the most original comedies out there, but it is proof that talented comedians can turn not matter how simple material into pure gold. Delightful little movie.
Not the most original comedies out there, but it is proof that talented comedians can turn not matter how simple material into pure gold. Delightful little movie.