Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross explained

Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross
Director:	Leonid Gaidai
Producer:	Leonid Gaidai
Starring:	Yuri Nikulin Georgy Vitsin Yevgeny Morgunov
Music:	Nikita Bogoslovsky
Cinematography:	Konstantin Brovin
Studio:	Mosfilm
Runtime:	10 min.
Country:	Soviet Union
Language:	Russian

Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross or (Russian: Пёс Барбос и необычный кросс|Pyos Barbos i neobychnij kross) is a 1961 Soviet short crime comedy film directed by Leonid Gaidai.

Plot

A trio of petty criminals, known as The Coward, The Fool and The Pro, go "fishing". Not wanting to sit on the beach with a fishing rod and wait patiently for a fish to bite, they decide to stun fish using dynamite. After they drop a stick of dynamite into the river, their dog, Barbos, removes the dynamite from the water and chases after the men. The trio escape up a tall tree, but Barbos drops the dynamite at the foot of the tree and runs away. The dynamite explodes, and the men are knocked senseless, with their clothes in tatters.

Cast

Yuri Nikulin – The Fool
Georgy Vitsin – The Coward
Yevgeny Morgunov – The Pro
Georgy Millyar – Water-bailiff (uncredited)
Leonid Gaidai – Bear in a tent (deleted scene)
Dog Bryokh – Dog Barbos

Filming

Filming took place in the vicinity of the village of Snegiri in the Istrinsky District of Moscow region, on the banks of the Istra River, and the scene with the explosion of dynamite were shot near the summer residence of Ivan Kozlovsky.
Filmed material in total was enough for a half-hour, but the director Leonid Gaidai reduced it to a ten minutes running time and removed a lot of stunt scenes that were later used in Bootleggers.
During the filming, Yuri Nikulin had huge false eyelashes applied, and the actor diligently blinked. Thus, according to the director, The Fool's face was supposed to look even more silly.

Awards

Nominated for Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival.^[1]

Notes and References

Web site: Medor, le chien qui rapporte bien. Festival de Cannes.