Volga - Volga
About Volga - Volga
Amateur troupes from the Volga head for the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the trip is on a steamboat. Lyubov Orlova plays Dunya Petrova, a mail carrier. Igor Ilyinsky plays the official who travels with them. The groups compete all the way to the contest.
Cast & crew
More about Volga - Volga
Grigori Aleksandrov directed and shared the script with Mikhail Volpin and Nikolai Erdman. Vladimir Nilsen photographed. Isaak Dunayevsky composed. Released April 24, 1938. Orlova said the title came from Aleksandrov singing Stenka Razin while rowing with Charlie Chaplin in San Francisco Bay. Chaplin offered the words as a joke. Aleksandrov used them. A 1961 recut removed the ship named for Joseph Stalin. A colorized version first played on Russia's Channel One on February 14, 2010.
Themes
Look
Vladimir Nilsen shot the steamboat and the river towns, including Krasnaya Sloboda.
Music
Isaak Dunayevsky wrote the songs, built on the folk tune Stenka Razin.
Preservation
The 1938 picture survives. A 1961 recut drops the ship named Joseph Stalin. A colorized copy premiered in 2010.
Notes
- Aleksandrov said Stalin watched it often enough to recite lines. Khrushchev wrote that Stalin laughed at him for looking like a character in it.
- Orlova, Aleksandrov's wife, is Dunya.
- Maria Mironova and Andrey Tutyshkin are billed with Ilyinsky.
- The Russian title is Волга-Волга.
Scenes
- The two troupes share the steamer and will not stop competing.
