Street Is Full of Surprises (1958) Characters, Setting & Themes Explained

Release, runtime and language

1958 · 73 mins · Russian

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Directed by

Sergei Sidelyov

Starring

Aleksandr Melnikov, Kira Krejlis-Petrova, Nina Drobysheva, Evgeni Leonov, Sergei Yursky, Vera Karpova

Chief accountant Porfiry Petrovich Smirnov‑Alyansky, celebrating his colleague cashier Ivan Zakharovich Vodnev’s anniversary, hops into a traffic‑controller’s booth and creates a jam on a Leningrad street. Guard Vasiliy Shaneshkin mistakenly takes the respectable cashier to the police station instead of an escaped criminal. Ivan, upset, discovers he is the father of Vasiliy’s fiancée, Katya. Though Vasiliy admits his error, he cannot fully explain, leaving Ivan with a poor impression of the Soviet police—until a young sergeant later gets a chance to demonstrate the officers’ responsibility and integrity.