This lop-eared second-grader of a Moscow high school with perky freckles on his face conquered with his charming appearance the director of the Gorky film studio Ilya Abramovich Frez. “The Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase” - it is from this film that the creative biography of Andrei Gromov, the protagonist of the film about the boy who lacked courage, begins. His partners in the movie were Vasily Lanovoi, Evgeny Lebedev, Tatyana Peltzer, Natalya Selezneva, Georgy Yumatov and other actors of Soviet cinema.
Carier start
According to some film historians, Andrei Gromov could become an actor due to his appearance. It was the protruding ears of the boy that inspired the main director of the children's film “The Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase”, I. A. Frez, to take the Moscow schoolboy to the main children's role. More than a hundred children from different parts of Moscow were invited to sample the film in the shooting pavilion of the Gorky film studio. All of them passed special selection. “Children read poetry, sang songs, told fables, some were invited to dance, ” recalls international economist Andrei Gromov today (see photo below).
“For some reason, poetic rhymes did not occur to me, and I began to sing. Then the second assistant director stopped me, and my mother and I went home, losing all hope of success, ”says Andrei Yuryevich Gromov.
Unexpected call
Only two weeks later the doorbell rang in the apartment of the Gromov family. A young employee of the film studio invited the boy to photo tests. A month later, the actor Andrei Gromov, having passed the screenings, is approved by the artistic council for the main children's role in the film “The Adventures of the Yellow Suitcase”. So began the cinematic career of a small artist.
Meeting with movie masters
In the process of working on the film, Andrei Gromov met with the masters of Soviet cinema. Our hero’s grandmother, Anna Petrovna Verevkina, was played by the inimitable Tatyana Peltzer, the children's doctor was perfectly performed by Evgeny Lebedev, and Petya Verevkina’s mother was a young actress Natalya Selezneva, known to everyone from the film by Leonid Gaidai “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes the Profession”. The main filming took place in the capital of Estonia - Tallinn, in the old part of the city. Scenes with airplanes took place at Moscow Domodedovo Airport. The movie was released on cinema screens in 1970 and has huge audience success not only in children but also in adults.
"Valera, Ramka + …"
This short film for children, shot according to the script of Radiy Pogodin in 1970 at the Odessa film studio directed by V. Kozachkova, was the second breakdown in the movie of the young actor. Before the first film was released, Andrei Gromov was invited to the next picture, where he was to play the role of first-grader Valera. The main character of the picture falls in love with her classmate Katya and tries in every possible way to draw her attention to her person, in which faithful friend Ramka actively helps him. However, the parents opposed this and forbade the children to go out. After that, the friends vowed to each other that no girl would bother their attention anymore. Father Valera in the film was played by the remarkable actor of theater and cinema, People's Artist of the USSR Yevgeny Yakovlevich Vesnik.
The main role of the young actor
Previous films by Andrei Gromov did not have such a resounding success as the film "Officers", shot at the Central Film Studio for Children and Youth Films named after M. Gorky in Moscow. The tape goes to the Soviet film distribution on June 26, 1971 and has a record gathering of viewers. In the first month of the show, more than 50 million people watched it in all corners of the Soviet Union and fraternal republics.
Andrei Gromov, an actor whose photo, along with other performers, was on all covers of magazines in the Soviet Union, becomes a movie star. Newspapers wrote about the film and its actors, they were invited with creative concerts to different cities and towns of the country. Many boys dreamed of being in the place of Ivan Trofimov, the grandson of a military general, played by everyone's beloved actor Georgy Yumatov.
Fates as roles, roles as destinies
The director of the film “Officers” Vladimir Rogovoy brought together bright and unique talented artists in the film. In addition to George Yumatov (Alexei Trofimov), who played a major role in the film, the following were shot in the film:
- Vasily Lanovoi, the role of Ivan Barabbas.
- Alexander Voevodin, who played Yegor Trofimov in his youth.
- Alina Pokrovskaya, faithful and devoted wife of Alexei Trofimov.
- Vladimir Druzhinnikov, the role of squadron commander in Turkestan.
In episodic roles, the director involved Yevgeny Vesnik, Muse of Kreptogorskaya, Boris Gitin, Nikolai Gorlov and other wonderful actors of that time.
How it was?
The script for the film "Officers" was written by Boris Vasiliev, the author of the famous story about girls anti-aircraft gunners during the Great Patriotic War "And the dawns here are quiet." The entire filming process was under the personal control of the USSR Minister of Defense A. A. Grechko. They say that the famous phrase "There is such a profession - to defend the homeland" belongs precisely to the head of the USSR military department.
At the personal request of the writer Boris Vasiliev, Georgi Yumatov, known for his difficult character, was invited to the main role. The role of his grandson, Suvorov Ivan Trofimov, was played by Andrei Gromov, who was asserted by the same Minister of Defense. Therefore, the viewer should have no doubt that a real officer of the USSR Air Force should grow from a graduate of the Suvorov School. Such a difficult ideological task faced the ten-year-old Andrei Gromov, with whom the guy coped perfectly. Spectator love for the film "Officers" has survived to this day.
Interesting Facts
- According to a survey of the Soviet Screen magazine in 1971, Vasily Lanovoi was recognized as the best actor of the year in the country.
- At the film festival in Prague (Czechoslovakia) in 1972, the painting by Vladimir Rogovy received the Grand Prix and a diploma for military-patriotic themes in world cinema.
- Such stars of the Soviet cinema as Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, Spartak Mishulin, Nikolai Rybnikov, Vasily Shukshin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Evgeny Zharikov and other celebrities have auditioned for the main role of Alexei Trofimov.
- In the entire history of Soviet cinema, the film "Officers" took 31st place among all domestic films in terms of attendance.
- The role of Ivan Barabbas could go to Nikolai Olyalin, Yuri Kamorny, Oleg Efremov, Oleg Yankovsky, Leonid Nevedomsky, Valentin Gaft or Alexander Lazarev.
- The wound on the back of Alexei Trofimov, who returned from Spain, was real. Georgy Yumatov was really seriously wounded during the years of World War II.
- The famous song "From the heroes of bygone days …" was performed by the second director of the picture Vladimir Zlatoustovsky.
- In 2011, the Soviet film received a second life. The company "Formula of color" has converted the black and white image of the film into color.
- The meeting of military comrades after a long separation in one of the scenes of the film was embodied in sculpture. On December 9, 2013, the heroes of the film “Officers” froze in bronze on Frunze Embankment in Moscow.
