Line #7 Film/GentlemenOfFortune


1	[[quoteright:330:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/75076855_8359.jpg]]
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3	''Gentlemen of Fortune'' is a 1971 film from the Soviet Union directed by Aleksandr Seryj, and written by Creator/GeorgiDanelia, Viktoriya Tokareva and Seryj.
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5	Archaeologists on a dig discover a priceless treasure: an ancient helmet, five kilograms of solid gold, which once belonged to UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat. The helmet is promptly stolen by a hardened criminal named Beliy aka "Dotsent" (played by Yevgeny Leonov) and his sidekicks Gavrila ("Sad Sack") and Fedya ("Cross Eyes"). The three crooks are soon arrested, but not before they manage to hide the gold helmet.
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7	Enter Yevgeny Troshkin (also played by Leonov), a mild-mannered principal of a kindergarten, who happens to be a dead ringer for the hardened criminal. The cops persuade Yevgeny to help them in a scheme to retrieve the helmet. Yevgeny will be placed in prison alongside minions Gavrila and Fedya, where he will impersonate Beliy while the real Beliy is sent to jail elsewhere. The authorities will then allow the three to seemingly escape from jail, whereupon Gavrila and Fedya will presumably lead Yevgeny to the helmet. The escape is bungled but the guys do make it out, accidentally picking up a fourth convict named Vasily on the way. However, it turns out that Gavrila and Fedya don't know where their boss hid the helmet. Madcap adventures ensue as the schoolteacher and the two dumb crooks try and find it.
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9	----
10	!!This film provides examples of:
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12	* AssassinOutclassin: After Beliy escapes from prison, he meets up with an associate of his at a construction site. However, the associate has previously met Troshkin and assumes that Beliy is an impostor, so he and a friend of his jump Beliy. Beliy manages to push the friend off a building and then kills his associate with the guy's own gun (the last part isn't shown but can be inferred).
13	* BeingEvilSucks: {{Discussed}}. Troshkin does a very good of explaining why living as a criminal is hollow and pointless.
14	* BewareTheNiceOnes: While for most of the film Troshkin is only pretending to be a cold-blooded murderer, he does it effectively enough to convince two of the Docent's own partners. Additionally, when he finally faces off against his CriminalDoppelganger, he manages to temporarily disarm the criminal before the latter pulls a gun. It's stated early in the film that Troshkin is a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vet.
15	* BungledSuicide: [[spoiler: Sad Sack's]] offscreen suicide attempt.
16	* CoolHelmet: The MacGuffin, a solid gold helmet that belonged to Alexander the Great.
17	* CriminalDoppelganger: Beliy to Troshkin. A mild-mannered kindergarten teacher is {{Identical Stranger}}s with a hardened criminal.
18	* ChessMotifs: There is a chessboard in the prison cell (!) and Sad Sack wins a few games with a random guy to get civilian clothes for himself after the prison break.
19	* DisguisedInDrag: The gang, to keep a low profile in Moscow, disguise themselves as a bunch of old women. Then, Cross-eyed tries to flirt with a girl he meets on the street. And then enters the men's room in the theater.
20	* DubNameChange: Sad Sack is named Raspy in some dubs and subtitled versions.
21	* EvenEvilHasStandards: By the end of the movie his gang members decide to turn themselves in and bring Troshkin to the cops, because they think he killed an elderly woman doctor.
22	* TheHeart: Vasily Alibabaevich. He was incarcerated for petty fraud (mixing gasoline with donkey urine and then selling it), has a soft heart, loves children and [[EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas his mother]], hates himself for stealing money, cooks the food, washes clothes, and acts as a conscience for the whole gang.
23	* HeelFaceTurn: After spending time with Troshkin, the crooks see the error of their ways.
24	* GreatEscape:
25	** Beliy's buddies don't know the exact addresses of the people Beliy met in Moscow to sell the golden helmet, but at least they can show the places on-site, so the police orchestrates a fake prison break just for them. Of course, it does not go as planned (instead of getting to the already-prepared spot with money and civilian clothes, they end up 30 kilometers away with no money, no clothes and [[RuleOfFunny all covered in concrete]]), but all in all it still goes surprisingly well.
26	** Later in the film, Beliy ends up escaping as well.
27	* IncrediblyConspicuousDrag: The crooks end up escaping in drag. It's not only incredibly conspicuous, one of the crooks still tries to hit on girls and tries to use the men's bathroom.
28	* MacGuffin: UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat's helmet, five kilograms of solid gold.
29	* MirrorMatch: At the end, Troshkin and Beliy square off, and the timid kindergarten director actually manages to temporarily disarm the knife-wielding criminal (it's stated early in the film that he's a UsefulNotes/WorldWarII vet). The fight ends when Beliy pulls a gun.
30	* MoodWhiplash: During a funny scene where Troshkin is making Alibabaevich and Crosseyes play a kindergarten game, Troshkin makes Crosseyes leave the room. He walks back in and tells the gang that [[spoiler:Raspy hung himself]].
31	* OffIntoTheDistanceEnding: The other three guys in Beliy's criminal gang are attempting to turn themselves in. Yevgeny, whom they think is Beliy, gets back out of the cop car--and he's now bald, because he's finally taken off the toupee. The other three, thinking that the cops have already shaved Beliy's head, run off in terror. The movie ends with Yevgeny chasing them as they run off down the snowy road.
32	* ReformedCriminal: When Troshkin tries to contact one of Beliy's former associates, he informs him that last time they met he promised to throw him down the stairs because he was out. After reminding him of the promise he does exactly that.
33	* ReversePsychology: Troshkin gives Cross-eyed a speech seemingly mocking an honest citizen's life and glorifying a thief's life, but does it in a way that makes it into the exact opposite.
34	--> '''Troshkin''': Steal, drink -- go to prison. Steal, drink -- go to prison. Glorious!
35	* ShownTheirWork: The director made the movie right after he did his time in prison and portrayed his own personal experiences about the criminal life. Also a part of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenya criminal slang]] that the characters speak is genuine. The rest contains some random words because the authors did not want to spread jail slang. For example, people in Russia right now are sure, that редиска (radish) means “bad man”.
36	* SmashCut: Vasily, who has become TheHeart, is cooking dinner for the rest of the gang. He has something in a pan, and he tries to set a match to it. He is surprised by an enormous tower of flame rising far above his head. Cut to the entire building on fire and burning to the ground, as Vasily and the others watch from the outside.
37	* SpiderSense: Beliy has this. He can always sense police traps ahead.
38	* SurpriseCheckMate: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. Sad Sack wins this way in the hotel, because his opponent is a [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] and will play anything. He then receives a surprise checkmate himself when Cross-eyed bungles his moves.
39	* TattooedCrook: Beliy. Troshkin has to make the same fake tattoos to pose as him. Apparently, the film crew had a little too much fun with those tattoos, because there is no way kittens and lamp bulbs are parts of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_tattoo#Criminal_tattoos Russian criminal tattoo ideography]].
40	* ThievesCant: Before going into prison, Yevgeny is schooled by a policeman in thieves' cant. Later, Yevgeny makes a point of reversing this, teaching Fedya the normal Russian words for criminal slang.
41	* TitleDrop: Fedya meets an old childhood friend, and they are catching up when Yevgeny interrupts the conversation and bluntly tells the other man that Fedya is a thief. When Fedya later complains about this Yevgeny explains that the other guy was jealous. While his old friend lives a boring life with a Monday to Friday office job, Fedya is a "gentleman of fortune" who lives a life full of excitement and thrills.
42	* WetCementGag: The fake breakout involves the characters getting into an empty tanker. They get the wrong car by mistake, so not only are they away from the planned hiding spot, they also need new clothes thanks to this trope.

Context Film / GentlemenOfFortune