Carnival Night

Carnival Night (Russian: Карнавальная ночь) is a 1956 Soviet musical film. It is Eldar Ryazanov's first big-screen film, Lyudmila Gurchenko's first role and also one of the most famous films starring popular comedian Igor Ilyinsky. Produced during the Khrushchev Thaw, the film became the Soviet box office leader of 1956 with a total of 48.64 million tickets sold. Today it remains a popular New Year's Eve classic in modern Russia and the post-Soviet space.

Plot
It is New Year's Eve and the employees of a House of culture are ready with their annual New Year's entertainment program. It includes a lot of dancing and singing, jazz band performance and even magic tricks. Suddenly, an announcement is made that a new director has been appointed and that he is arriving shortly. Comrade Ogurtsov arrives in time to review and disapprove of the scheduled entertainment. To him, holiday fun has a different meaning. He imagines speakers reading annual reports to show the club's progress over the year, and, perhaps, a bit of serious music, something from the Classics, played by the Veterans' orchestra.

Obviously, no one wants to change the program a few hours before the show, much less to replace it with something so boring! Now everyone has to team up in order to prevent Ogurtsov from getting to the stage. As some of them trap Ogurtsov one way or another, others perform their scheduled pieces and celebrate New Year's Eve.

Cast

 * Igor Ilyinsky as Serafim Ivanovich Ogurtsov, club director
 * Lyudmila Gurchenko as Lena Krylova
 * Yuri Belov as Grisha Koltsov, electrician
 * Andrei Tutyshkin as Fyodor Petrovich Mironov, bookkeeper
 * Olga Vlasova as Adelaida Kuzminichna Romashkina, librarian
 * Tamara Nosova as Tosya Burigina, Ogurtsov's secretary
 * Georgi Kulikov as Seryozha Usikov, painter
 * Gennadi Yudin as Jazz band Conductor
 * Vladimir Zeldin as Nikolayev, Tip Clown
 * Boris Petker as Sidorov, Top Clown
 * Sergei Filippov as Comrade Nekadilov, lecturer
 * Shmelev Sisters as Singing Waitresses
 * Gusakov Brothers as Step Dancers
 * Tamara Sokolova and Petr Pomazkov as Dancers