The premiere of “Girls” took place at the Central House of Cinema of Moscow on March 7, 1962 – on the eve of International Women’s Day, which is not surprising, given the theme of the tape. Now it’s hard for us to imagine someone other than Nadezhda Rumyantseva in Tosya’s place, but initially Yury Chulyukin promised the role of a graduate of the culinary school to his wife, Natalya Kustinskaya. The Artistic Council rejected the candidacy, and the director was so afraid of his wife’s anger that he hid it to the last. As a result, Natalya found out about the start of filming from a cameraman friend, and Chulyukin had to make excuses that Kustinskaya was too attractive for the character of the cook.
Valentina Malyavina and Ekaterina Savinova also claimed the role of Kislitsyna, but in the end, 30-year-old Rumyantseva got used to the image of an 18-year-old graduate. Interestingly, according to the plot, the foreman of the lumberjacks, who was caring for the cook, should look much older than Tosya, but in reality, Nadezhda Rumyantseva and Nikolai Rybnikov are the same age.
By the way, Rybnikov saw his beloved wife, Alla Larionova, in the role of Anfisa, but Svetlana Druzhinina, who was tired of transforming on the screen into rural workers, had already received the job. In some shots, Druzhinina looked so beautiful that it was decided to cut out close-ups during editing.
The picture was assigned only the third rental category: the authorities concluded that the everyday comedy certainly would not become popular. They were wrong, because in the year of the release of “Girls” they saw 35 million viewers, and how many people watched the film afterwards, we can’t even begin to count. But in honor of the 61st birthday of the tape, we will remember how the fate of the actors of the hit film turned out.
