Ballad of a Hussar

Ballad of a Hussar (1963), directed by Eldar Ryazanov, is a Soviet comedy you can watch online on iFILM. Young noblewoman Shurochka Azarova disguises herself as a male cavalry officer to fight in the Patriotic War of 1812 — and manages to convince nearly everyone around her that the disguise is real.

Larisa Golubkina made her screen debut in the role, carrying it with enough conviction that the secret stays genuinely precarious. Yuri Yakovlev plays the swaggering hussar Rzhevsky alongside Igor Ilyinsky's Field Marshal Kutuzov. Ryazanov released the film to mark the 150th anniversary of Russia's victory over Napoleon, adapting Alexander Gladkov's stage comedy "Long, Long Ago." Tikhon Khrennikov's score — romances and cavalry drinking songs — became inseparable from the film and entered the wider repertoire on their own.

This is Ryazanov before his signature domestic comedies: looser, more theatrical, full of adventure and cross-dressing intrigue. Stream Ballad of a Hussar (1963) online on iFILM.