A scientist builds a time machine and accidentally sends his apartment complex manager and a petty burglar to 16th century Moscow, while Tsar Ivan the Terrible travels to 1973.
Acting
Yuriy Yakovlev's dual performance—terrifying tsar and terrified manager.
Direction
Gaidai's precise comic timing turns chaos into clockwork.

Director
Leonid Gaidai
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Mikhail Bulgakov's play 'Ivan Vasilievich,' which Stalin banned for mocking Soviet bureaucracy.
The film became a Soviet New Year tradition, with Ivan's 'I'm terrible!' catchphrase entering everyday speech.
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