Yes, we all knew that there was no sex in USSR, years before one Ms. Ivanova blurted out that infamous maxim; and yet, here it was, on screens big and small. In his film “from the life of smugglers” (smuggling = bad, West = decaying, abroad = dangerous, jazz = bourgeois), Gaidai himself masterfully smuggled some forbidden fruit for our domestic consumption. The top-grossing Soviet blockbuster of 1969 and one of the most successful Soviet films of all time, The Diamond Arm contained as much sex (and provocatively jazzy soundtrack) as any viewer in our country could possibly dream about, or more:
- A prostitute (Viktoriya Ostrovskaya) in a foreign city, whose inhabitants speak in a kind of Channel 9 lingo, with her wonderful catch-the-client-phrase «Цигель, цигель, ай-лю-лю!»
- Models on the (Soviet!) catwalk demonstrating the collection “Mini-bikini ’69”
- The femme fatale Anna Sergeyevna (Svetlana Svetlichnaya) working to seduce the naïve Mr. Gorbunkov (Yuri Nikulin) with probably the first ever striptease to grace the Soviet screens
This latter scene is accompanied by the tango Помоги мне (Help Me) performed by Aida Vedishcheva, who also provided the voice for the “song about bears” in Кавказская пленница. This obvious parody, most probablly inspired by ¿Quién será? (Sway), features incredibly silly lyrics. In its turn, the line «Вы называли меня умницей, милою девочкой» is practically begging for being parodied further, for instance
Вы называли меня девочкой, мальчиком-с-пальчиком...
Вы называли меня белочкой, зайчиком, кошечкой...
Ты называла меня слесарем, токарем, мастером...
Ты называла меня Штирлицем, Мюллером, Борманом...
Я называла тебя Винтиком, Шпунтиком, Гаечкой
and so on. The long winter evenings, as well as calima-dominated weekends, must just fly by.
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