The Diamond Arm (1969) on Netflix
PG-1319691h 34mAdventureComedyCrime
Semyon Gorbunkov, an economist, takes a tourist cruise abroad. He slips and says a phrase that identifies a courier, and smugglers take him for their man. His cast holds their jewels.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb8.2/1018,270 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
The Chief of a black market ring wants a batch of jewelry carried into the Soviet Union inside a courier's orthopedic cast. The courier, Gennadiy Kozodoyev, known as Gesha, travels by tourist cruise ship. The local conspirators have never seen him and know only the phrase he is to say. They mistake the economist Semyon Gorbunkov, a husband and father of two on the same cruise, for their man. When he slips in a foreign city and says those words, they treat his arm and put the cast, jewels and all, on him. Gorbunkov sails home with the contraband he does not know he is carrying.
Cast
Show all 20 cast
- Aleksandra Lisyutinaas Gorbunkov's Daughter
- Nikolay Romanovas Chief
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Diamond Arm (1969)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's plot was based on a real-life news item about Swiss smugglers who tried to transport jewels in an orthopedic cast.
- The Oriental city street scenes were actually shot in Baku, Azerbaijan, and include American cars—a 1954 Chevrolet 210, a 1955 Buick and a 1951 Oldsmobile Super 88—a rare sight because the United States had sanctions on the USSR and did not sell cars in the Eastern Bloc.
- The ship that Yuri Nikulin's character boards at port was a 1938 German-built vessel, formerly the MS Patria of Hamburg - America Line, and it appears with the fictitious name 'Mikhail Svetlov' on its hull when leaving port.
- The ironic song 'Ostrov nevezeniya' became popular after the film's release; it was sung by Kozodoyev during the cruise as he strums a guitar, and the song was recorded by Mironov himself.
- The film's song about hares tells of personified hares who sing 'We don't care!'—the meaning of 'tryn-trava'—and it was performed by protagonist Semyon Gorbunkov after a heavy dose of vodka at a restaurant; the scene was later depicted on a stamp dedicated to actor Yuri Nikulin.
