Movie Description 4m5a41

Volga-Volga is a Soviet film comedy directed by Grigori Aleksandrov, released on April 24, 1938. It centres on a group of amateur performers on their way to Moscow to perform in a talent contest called the Moscow Musical Olympiad. Most of the action takes place on a steamboat travelling on the Volga River. The lead roles were played by Alexandrov's wife, Lyubov Orlova, and Igor Ilyinsky. 5t6l2e

According to Orlova, the name of the film is taken from a popular Russian folk song, Stenka Razin, that Alexandrov sang while rowing with Charlie Chaplin in San Francisco Bay. Chaplin jokingly suggested the words as a title for a movie, but Alexandrov took it seriously and named his new film Volga-Volga.

The feature was said to be Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin's favourite film. Nikita Khrushchev in his memoirs says that in the pre-war period Stalin laughed at him since he resembled a character from the film.