The Old Jockey
About The Old Jockey
Ivan Sergeyevich Trofimov has ridden at the Moscow Hippodrome for more than twenty years. After a string of losses he leaves the track and goes back to his village. A year in the kolkhoz stable steadies him. He gets the stallion Yegorka ready, and his pupil Vasya Pichugin rides the horse home first.
Cast & crew
More about The Old Jockey
Boris Barnet directed. Mikhail Volpin and Nikolai Erdman wrote the script. Konstantin Kuznetsov was the cameraman and Vladimir Yurovsky the composer. A premiere at the House of Cinema in Moscow in January 1941 drew a strong response. The film was then shelved. A Central Committee note on pictures banned in 1940 and 1941 said it mocked the kolkhoz, loaded decent people with greed and envy, and showed the hippodrome as a capitalist track of touts, betting, and tavern noise. Audiences got it in 1959.
Themes
Audiences
The January 1941 House of Cinema premiere was a success. The film did not go into general release until 1959.
Look
Konstantin Kuznetsov shot the hippodrome races and the village stable.
Music
Vladimir Yurovsky composed the score.
Preservation
Banned after the 1941 House of Cinema premiere and released to the public in 1959.
Notes
- Ivan Skuratov plays Trofimov. Anna Komolova plays his granddaughter Marusya. Leonid Kmit plays Vasya Pichugin.
- Sergei Blinnikov is the kolkhoz chairman, Lidiya Deykun a district doctor, and Ivan Lyubeznov the kolkhoz barber.
- The ban note also objects to a doctor's car that sticks in the mud, a nonsense talking letter, and a parachute tower that frightens the heroes.
- The Russian title is Staryy naezdnik.
Scenes
- Trofimov walks away from the hippodrome after another loss.
- Vasya Pichugin brings Yegorka in first.
