Gentlemen of Fortune

Gentlemen of Fortune
Film poster by A. Troshchenkov
Directed by	Aleksandr Seryj
Written by	Georgi Daneliya Viktoriya Tokareva
Starring	Yevgeni Leonov Georgi Vitsin Savely Kramarov
Music by	Gennadi Gladkov
Cinematography	Georgi Kupriyanov
Edited by	M. Renkova
Distributed by	Mosfilm
Release date	1971 (1971)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Gentlemen of Fortune (Russian: Джентльмены удачи, translit. Dzhentlmeny udachi) is a 1971 Soviet comedy film, filmed at Mosfilm and directed by Aleksandr Seryj. The stars of the film include famous Soviet actors such as Savely Kramarov, Yevgeny Leonov, Georgy Vitsin, and Radner Muratov.

The film was the leader of Soviet distribution in 1972 having 65.02 million viewers.

The movie follows the story of an amiable kindergarten director named Troshkin who looks exactly like a cruel criminal nicknamed Docent (Доцент, literally associate professor) that has stolen Alexander the Great's helmet at an archaeological excavation. Docent and his gang are caught by police, but Docent is imprisoned in a different jail than his mates. Since Troshkin looks identical to Docent, 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 Docent, so in order to be convincing, Troshkin, a well-educated and good-natured man, has to learn slang and manners of criminals.

The film was directed by Aleksandr Seryj who had just come out of prison. Georgi Daneliya assisted him and wrote the script. Seryj used his prison experience to design many situations in the movie, and he also introduced numerous expressions from Russian criminal slang (known as Fenya).

The film references Three Poplars in Plyushcikha. In one scene the Sad Sack says: "We are sitting here like three poplars in Plyushcikha!" – when the three prison escapees are sitting in an empty sports stadium. After this film, the phrase "Like three poplars in Plyushcikha" became a famous quote.