Not the best of Gaidai's creations, but still pretty good. Demyanenko was never much of an actor but he has exactly the kind of goodhearted-idiot look about himself to make his Shurik one of the favorite characters in Russian cinematography. Nikulin, Morgunov and Vitsin are back as the Keystone Kops-like trio of bumbling villains and they are quite funny, as always. Secondary characters of this musical comedy set in the Caucasus mountains are the exotic and colorful locals who are hysterical with their offbeat drinking toasts and fancy manner of speech. Once again, non-Russians won't get most of the ethnic humor (which is the best part of the movie - those toasts have become real classics), but the rest is just slapstick comedy, quite old by now, but I guess it was OK for the 60's. Very good music, especially Nina's "Polar Bears" song.
Review of Kidnapping, Caucasian Style
