To me, Mukhtar!

The landlady left Mukhtar in the train car. The junior lieutenant of militia Glazychev, summoned to the station, frees the dog from the car, delivering the "detainee" to the nursery of the Department of Internal Affairs. The mistress was found, but she refuses the dog and sells it to the police for 100 rubles. Mukhtar is assigned to Lieutenant Glazychev, who begins to "transform" the domestic dog into a service dog. Mukhtar gradually gets used to his guide Glazychev, and even with problems, he ends his studies.

The service begins, in which the dog with the guide is mainly engaged in household chores. Crimes uncovered with the use of the service dog of Mukhtar, although small, but in large numbers; as a result, the amount of theft “returned” by Mukhtar exceeds 3 million Soviet rubles (pre-reform).

When the former mistress and her admiral’s husband came to the police kennel to visit the dog, he rushed at her - a conditioned reflex was developed in him - “only the guide has the right to call him by name”.

In winter, Mukhtar and Glazychev follow the trail of the recidivist Frolov, who killed the collective farm watchman, and a strong snowstorm sweeps the traces of the bandit. And when detaining a recidivist armed with a gun, two bullets hit Mukhtar, but the dog grabbed the criminal’s throat with all his might. After a serious wound, Mukhtar cannot serve, and, despite all the efforts of the guide, the dog is rejected.

Police lieutenant Glazychev walks through the courts and, eventually meeting the police commissioner who directed the detention of the recidivist Frolov and remembering Mukhtar’s contribution to the operation, finally receives official permission to leave Mukhtar for his merits at the state treasury.

The prototype of Mukhtar was a heroic dog nicknamed Sultan, who took part in five thousand operations for ten years of police service, detained more than a thousand criminals and found stolen property worth a total of three million rubles. After the death of the Sultan, his body was turned into a scarecrow and, with a detailed description of his merits, was exhibited at the Museum of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department, which was visited in 1959 by the famous Soviet writer Israel Metter , who was then working on the script for the film " It happened in the police ." Being a big dog lover, Metter became interested in the difficult fate of this dog and decided to devote one of his literary works to it ^[1] . The writer was struck not so much by the dog’s merit as by his character and difficult life, as he writes in his story “Dogs”: “Just before I left, one of the museum employees told me the dramatic finale of the Sultan's life - his homeless, grave old age. It was then that my heart trembled. I saw something human in the fate of this dog. ” The former guide of the Sultan, retired major Peter Bushmin, agreed to meet with the writer and told him a lot of the dog’s life, in particular, he talked about the underestimated understanding of dogs, giving them characteristic human behavior, such as jealousy or resentment ^[2] .

So there was a psychological story called "Mukhtar" (the author changed the name of the dog), published in 1960 by the magazine " New World ". The story turned out to be quite successful, and the management of the Mosfilm film studio ordered its adaptation, while the script was written by Metter himself ^[2] .

Preparing for filming

Long before the filming began, it was clear that the role of Mukhtar could not be played by one dog: the script takes place for seven to eight years, at first Mukhtar is a young one and a half year old dog, and by the end of the film he is already about ten years old. In addition, animals usually endure the filming process very hard, and in any case, spare dogs were needed that could replace each other in case of force majeure. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR provided two adult service-search dogs named Ural and Baikal for the entire time of work, and acquired the third, the youngest, four months before the start of filming, by advertisement. The dog was settled at the film studio, fed three times a day and accustomed to the new nickname “Mukhtar” - the dog was too mischievous and unobtrusive, so in the end it was used only in those episodes where it was clearly required to emphasize the youth of the animal ^[2] .

Several times, Yuri Nikulin went with the police for operations, met many guides of search dogs. As a consultant to the film, they invited police captain Sergei Semenovich Podushkin , who worked with Nikulin as if he really was to become an employee of law enforcement agencies. The actor got up early in the morning, put on a police uniform, a short fur coat and went to the kennel - there two dogs were specially released from the cages for him. To get used to Nikulin, he walked them and fed them. After that, the actor went to the circus (school winter holidays were going on) and, having completed three performances, returned to the nursery again. Preparation lasted more than two weeks ^[3] .

Production Process

Filming began in the winter of 1964, so at first we decided to shoot the final episodes of the script, which required snowy weather. Kashira , a town near Moscow, was chosen as the scene of action, on the first day, a scene was to be filmed where Mukhtar and his guide Glazychev were following the trail of a recidivist who had killed a collective farm watchman, and a heavy blizzard constantly traces the bandit. However, serious difficulties arose with this scene, the problem was a huge wind turbine installed on the field, a powerful motor with an airplane propeller used to create the necessary wind power - it was too noisy, and the dogs ran in horror when it was turned on. The director of the film suggested abandoning the blizzard - the film group was idle for five days, and for every day of idle time, three thousand rubles were wasted, but the director categorically rejected this proposal ^[2] . Someone recalled a letter from Kiev from plumber engineer Mikhail Dligach, who had once read Mukhtar and sent his version of the script for the film adaptation of Mosfilm. In the letter, Dligach mentioned that he is a passionate amateur dog breeder, and he has a clever dog named Dyke, who could easily play the main role. The script turned out to be inept, so no one answered him, but, finding himself in a difficult situation, Semyon Tumanov decided to call this person from Kiev and involve him in the film ^[4] . Dyke was not afraid of windbreaking, strictly fulfilling any commands of the owner and in terms of acting was the most talented of all four dogs, so he was subsequently used in all technically difficult episodes ^[5] .

The dog, named after the famous artist , along with the owner settled in the Nikulin's apartment and lived there until the end of the work process ^[6] . The dog, as it turned out, by that time already had some fame, back in 1959 he was exhibited at the XXIII exhibition of dog breeders, where he received a rating of "excellent", and later entered the DOSAAF studbook as DAKE K-252 ^[7] . During the filming of the episode when Mukhtar was operated on after being wounded, Dyke was put on the operating table and turned on the light, and suddenly he suddenly began to breathe heavily for no reason - the complete impression of a sick dog was created, which was required by the director. In one episode, the dog was supposed to bite pieces of ice from under its claws. In order for Dyke to act according to the scenario, his master put sweet candies between the animal’s claws - the dog began to lick its paws, and at that time the operator took a close-up ^[8] .

Shootings of scenes were very intense, where Mukhtar was inciting characters, because dogs, being service ones, attacked the actors in full force. Particularly difficult was the episode in which the former mistress, several years later, came to see the dog, and he violently attacked her. Instead of the actress, Alla Larionova , they decided to remove the double - the girl’s body was wrapped in layers of dense felt and dressed in a thick fur coat, Dolgach stood nearby, ready to stop Dyke at any moment. So a few takes were shot, but Larionova didn’t like them - she invited the director to reshoot the scene with her participation without an understudy. At the same time, Digigach was very nervous and rushed to drag the dog too early, after four unsuccessful takes, Tumanov asked the two workers to keep the trainer until the episode, in his opinion, reached its climax. So they shot the fifth double, which eventually ended up in the final version of the film ^[2] . The role of a gangster who stole a ham from the store at night was played by a young actor Oleg Shklovsky , who was present in the crew as an assistant sound engineer. Other actors, having learned that they would set up a service shepherd, immediately refused the role, and Shklovsky volunteered. The scene was shot at night and it turned out not very spectacular - instead of a full-fledged detention, the dog simply ran past the bandit, and the director decided to stop on this take, since nothing was visible in the dark ^[9] . Lev Durov , who played one of the bandits, was attacked by Baikal right on the set and, by his own admission, almost lost his life ^[10] .

Almost all summer scenes were filmed near Rostov , the Rostov school of service and search dog breeding was chosen as a kennel, the museum of which still has an album with working photographs of the film. According to the plot in the final of the picture, Mukhtar, having been seriously wounded, should have looked especially unhappy and sick on the screen, for this, a piece of hard wire was tied to Dyke’s hind leg with a piece of hard wire - she lightly tingled her leg while walking, it was not painful, but rather uncomfortable. The dog’s head was wrapped in bandages, and the coat was doused with water to give it a look of senility. However, the shooting took place in the intense July heat, and the hair in the sun dried out very quickly. Then Nikulin offered to coat the dog with cherry syrup, his coat clumped from the syrup, and, thus, the image of old Mukhtar was approved, approved by the director and got into the film. Metter also composed an additional scene for the script, in which the dog, screeching from his own powerlessness, fearfully climbs down the high stairs. To realize this in the frame was extremely difficult, but it turned out that Dyke fell from a high windowsill when he was a puppy, after which he became afraid of heights. He was carried in his arms to the upper platform of the stairs, from where he slowly crawled down to Nikulin’s feet at the command of the Digigach, while the trainer stood outside the frame and commanded ^[2] .

• Black white
• Sound
• Wide-screen

The film premiered on March 13, 1965, and according to the Internet Movie Database website, 29.6 million viewers watched the film in the Soviet Union. After the film appeared on the screen, the nickname “Mukhtar” among dogs began to occur much more often, for example, by the analogy with the hero of the film, she named her dog Edita Peha ^[12] . There are also cases when real dogs nicknamed Mukhtar selflessly helped policemen, for example, in the Moscow Region a dog of the same name participated in the rescue of three people who fell under the ice ^[13] , in Bashkiria, when searching a private house, the faithful Mukhtar was the first to jump into the dark the cellar and during the detention of the offender died from an ax strike ^[14] . We can assume that over the years this nickname has become a household name, designating bold, fearless dogs, ready for the sake of a noble cause to risk their lives.

April 19, 2002 “Come to me, Mukhtar!” Received the award of the Russian (now international) Golden Fang film festival as one of the best films with the participation of animals, embodying the honor and glory of Russian cinema ^[15] . Cinema expert Sergei Kudryavtsev called the film the most popular domestic film about strong and indestructible dog-human friendship, and also emphasized some author’s irony, which exists contrary to the criminal-melodramatic plot, which, in addition, is complemented by Nikulin’s successful play: “Being a circus clown, he talks on a screen with a four-legged partner, not just as equal to yourself, but also according to the rules of a special conditional game, imbued with lively and genuine humor ” ^[16] .

Forty years later, a television series entitled “The Return of Mukhtar ” was launched on television, the main character of which was the East European shepherd Mukhtar, who helps the policeman in solving crimes. In various episodes of the series, scenes from the 1964 film are reproduced and the phrase “Come to me, Mukhtar!” Is constantly used as a reference to the film. ^[17]

• Dyke died three years after the shooting, leaving behind his son, also Dyke. Mikhail Dligach trained this dog no worse than the previous one and dreamed of creating a continuation of the film, but the second part was never destined to appear. Later, the dog breeder emigrated to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life ^[18] .
• Noteworthy is the significant coincidence of the plots of the film “To Me, Mukhtar!” And the American “ K-9 ” (1989). So, for example, in both films there is a scene where the dog is jealous of the protagonist for his woman, episodes of injuries and conversations of the protagonist with his dog, as if he were a person who understands everything.

• K-9 (film)

• About dogs in the film "To me, Mukhtar!"
• Annotation to the film on the website of the TV channel Russia
• Feature film (link not available)