''A Girl with Character'' () is a 1939 Soviet

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by Konstantin Yudin. The film featured acting debuts of

Mikhail Gluzsky Mikhail Andreyevich Gluzsky (June 15, 2001) was a Soviet and Russian theater and film actor. He starred in the 1972 film, ''Monologue (film), Monologue'', which was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. An actor in more than 130 films bet ...

and Anatoly Solovyov.

Plot

The best farm worker Katya Ivanova travels to the district center, in search of truth and the possibility of punishing the director-bureaucrat Meshkov, who collapsed the once prosperous work in the

Far East The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...

animal-breeding

sovkhoz A sovkhoz ( rus, совхо́з, p=sɐfˈxos, a=ru-sovkhoz.ogg, syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated from , ''sovetskoye khozyaystvo''; ) was a form of state-owned farm or agricultural enterprise in the Soviet Union. It is usually contrasted w ...

. On the way to the station, Katya manages to catch and pass over a saboteur to the border guards. She then rides the train without a ticket to write a complaint, which means that she has to work as a waitress in the dining car on the way to

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. On the train, Katya meets a sailor Sergei, but upon arrival in Moscow they lose each other. Katya is employed as a saleswoman in a fur shop and after that at a factory of gramophone records. At the same time she actively convinces female colleagues to go to the Far East. For a long time Sergei looks for Katya and he finally finds her. Meanwhile Katya's complaint is examined. She is appointed as the new director of the farm, instead of the dismissed Meshkov. Katya and her friend Sergei go to the Far East.

Cast

Valentina Serova Valentina Vasilyevna Serova (; 23 December 1917 – 12 December 1975) was a Soviet film and theatre actress born in the Ukrainian People's Republic. Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1946). Winner of the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1947). E ...

as Katya Ivanova, worker of the Far-East animal-breeding

Emma Tsesarskaya Emma Tsesarskaya (1909–1990) was a Ukrainian Soviet stage and film actress.Eisner p.254 Selected filmography * '' Women of Ryazan'' (1927) * ''And Quiet Flows the Don ''And Quiet Flows the Don'' (''Quiet Flows the Don'' or ''The Silent D ...

as Ekaterina Ivanova, wife of the commander *Andrei Tutyshkin as Sergei Beryozkin, sailor * Pavel Olenev as Bobrik, director of the fur store *Pyotr Repnin as Tsvetkov, director of the gramophone record factory *

Vsevolod Sanayev Vsevolod Vasilyevich Sanayev (; 25 February 1912, Tula – 27 January 1996, Moscow) was a USSR, Soviet film and stage actor popular in the 1960s–1970s. Sanayev, a Moscow Art Theatre (and later Mossovet Theatre) actor, was honored in 1969 with t ...

as Surkov, lieutenant of the

militsiya ''Militsiya'' ( rus, милиция, 3=mʲɪˈlʲitsɨjə, 5=, ) were the police forces in the Soviet Union until 1991, in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), and in the Non-Aligned Movement, non-aligned Socialist Federal Republic ...

* Aleksandr Antonov as Mehkov, director of the animal-breeding

*Aleksandr Zhukov as train conductor *

Sergei Blinnikov Sergius is a male given name of Ancient Roman origin after the name of the Latin ''gens'' Sergia or Sergii of regal and republican ages. It is a common Christian name, in honour of Saint Sergius, or in Kyivan Rus', of Sergius of the Holy Caves ...

as manager of the dining car * Karandash as waiter *

as border patrol officer *Anatoly Solovyev as red army officer *Nikolai Arskiy as employee of the commissariat *Vladimir Dorofeev as huntsman *Nikita Kondratyev as photojournalist *

Galina Kravchenko Galina Sergeevna Kravchenko (Russian: Галина Сергеевна Кравченко; 11 February 19055 March 1996) was a Soviet actress. Biography Galina Kravchenko was born on 11 February 1905 in Kazan, Russian Empire (now Kazan, Tatarsta ...

as mother of a lost child *Ivan Lobyzovskiy as komsomol leader of the gramophone factory *Iona Biy-Brodskiy as the lover of beer in the dining car

Interesting Facts

*Filming of one scene took place on the Kratovskaya children's railway. *The film marks the first appearance of the famous song "To the Far East" (music by the Pokrass brothers, lyrics by Eugene Dolmatovski) by Emma Tsesarskaya and Valentin Serov. The tune "Brown Buttons" was based on the themes of this song.

References

External links

Russian satirical films Films directed by Konstantin Yudin Soviet comedy films Russian-language comedy films Mosfilm films 1939 comedy films 1939 films Soviet black-and-white films 1930s Soviet films 1930s Russian-language films {{1930s-USSR-film-stub