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Coward, Fool and Pro (рус. Трус, Балбес и Бывалый) are main villainous protagonists of shorts Dog Barbos and unusual cross, Bootleggers. They are also secondary antagonists in Operation Y and Shurik's Other Adventures and Kidnapping, Caucasian Style, major antagonists of Incident in Multi-Pulti Land and minor characters in Give me a book of complaints.

Fool was portrayed by late circus performer and actor Yuri Nikulin. Coward was portrayed by late Georgy Vitsin. Pro was portrayed by late Yevgeni Morgunov.

Personality[]

Pro (рус. Бывалый) is tough, strong and very confident person and informal leader of the group. Sometimes he respects his friends and others but can express some abuse and cruelty to them, even trying to kill his dog Barbos.

Coward (рус. Трус) is extremely nervous, cowardly, insecure, sentimental and weak-willed hypochondriac. He is the least hostile from the group.

Fool (рус. Балбес) is silly-optimistic, funny and cheeky drinker. He is the least intelligent among the group.

Description[]

In all Gaidai's films, Coward, Fool and Pro are engaged, in between crimes, in semi-legal activities, such as private trade, twist training, etc. At the end of each film, they are usually arrested by the police, but by the new series they miraculously find themselves free again.

Initially, Coward, Fool and Pro were conceived as the personification of the anti-Soviet genre of the culture of "informality" of the late 1950s. Since the disappearance of the stylists and the turning trend of the country's popular culture with the maximum approach to the West, satire of such characters has become possible. Many directors, including Gaidai, immediately took advantage of this.

And although it cannot be said that the trio of loafers and parasites are clearly outlined clowns of the anti-Soviet, it is also impossible to state the opposite. Satire relied mostly on the fact that such individuals met all the time in society, even if it was not formal. And the laughter consisted most of all in the unwillingness of the trio to work "as it should", and earn money in some less formal way, which also seemed ridiculous in those years.

When the trio appeared on the big screen already in 1962, Gaidai realized that one appearance was not enough and decided to embellish the performances with several semi-predictable scenes in which the characters clearly violated the law. It was the silent scenes that helped to capture the roles of Nikulin, Vitsin and Morgunov in popular culture. That is, after a couple of years, in other words, it was already difficult to imagine a Coward, a Fool and a Seasoned one. Coward, Fool and Pro were in the cartoons Bremen Town Musicians.

Biography[]

Dog Barbos and Unusual Cross[]

Trio decides to have a weekend in the forest and take their dog Barbos with them. During the fishing, they decide to start poaching the fish by jamming it with the dynamite. The Fish Supervision floats along the river, and the gang, sitting on the shore with sticks instead of fishing rods, pretends to be honest fishermen. Pro throws the explosive tied to the stick to the river but Barbos is very trained so it decides to bring the stick back to owners. The whole further plot is a stampede of poachers from a Barbos with a burning bickford cord of a dynamite stick in the teeth of a dog.

Finally they see the tree and climb on it. Barbos puts the dynamite under the tree and runs away. As dynamite explodes, trio suffers from the huge pain, when Fool was injured so much so they had to carry him in the cart.

Bootleggers[]

Here trio decides to make some moonshine to sell it. In 1950s-1960s it was illegal so Coward puts a sign "Entry is prohibited. Reserve" to hide their crime. After they created lots of bottles with moonshine, they decided to trick their dog Barbos by feeding him with sugar soaked in moonshine. The offended dog knocks over bottles and containers with potion, takes the coil out of the moonshine machine and runs with it in his mouth from the house into the forest. The trio sets off in pursuit of the dog where they got in trouble multiple times: Fool almost got his by the tree; they all got stuck in the snow; got crushed by snow and after getting out, decided to dig Barbos out of the pile of snow only to meet a bear and run away; Pro tried to knock Barbos out with the tree but accidentally hits his friends.

This crazy pursuit leads the moonshiners to the police station, where they are arrested.

Give me a book of complaints[]

The film by Eldar Ryazanov. Coward, Fool and Pro appear in a cameo role of colleagues in a restaurant, having managed to become participants in a fight, by the end of the film, Coward and Fool are shown at the workplace — in an outerwear store in the roles of the seller (Fool) and the head of the department (Coward), respectively. At the same time, the experienced, judging by the context (at the beginning of the film, Coward says: "The director will be with us," meaning Pro), holds the position of director of this store.

Operation Y and other Shurik's adventures[]

At first, trio does selling on the market but suddenly warehouse manager S. D. Petuchov (рус. С. Д. Петухов)(mistakenly translated as Pastuchov) hires them. He asks them to stage a break-in to cover-up his theft. It was very hard for trio to join him becuase of low price but they ask him for a very high price and accept the mission. Plan of the Operation "Y" (name given by Fool): Coward should have have distracted the guard (who was an elderly woman) with a question and then neutralise her with handkerchief soaked in chloroform when Fool should have broken some bottles with vine and leave some marks, then woman wakes up, whistles and Pro appears as a combatant and makes her leave a duty "because somebody else can do it".

When operation began, Coward accidentally distracted Shurik, who replaced the old woman. He fell unconscious and while Shurik tried to wake him up, he used Coward's weapon without any knowledge. Fool succeds in leaving some marks and break some bottles but suddenly Shurik appears and starts searching for the burglar. Then he finds Fool and start their short fight where Shurik accidentally stabs Fool with a rapire presumably killing him. Then Fool realises that it was just a bottle with vine and tries to run away. Shurik throws a rope to the burglar and makes him fall on the floor unsconsous and then whistles calling Pro. Pro appears and orders Shurik to run to the telephone booth out of order and tries to wake his mates up. But when Shurik realises everything, he runs back, notices Pro holding Coward and Fool to leave them out of the building and realises everything. He throws a pack with snuff to make Pro sneeze and then hit his head of a bucket and fall unconscious too. Shurik tries to wash himself with Coward's handkerchief but he fell asleep because of chloroform. Then old woman appears, notices everyone, puts Shurik in her car and leads tied trio to the police station where they all were arrested.

Kidnappping, Caucasian style[]

Coward, Fool and Pro moonlighting petty fraud in the Caucasus. They are hired by a local functionary Saakhov and his driver Jabrail to kidnap a girl Nina, Jabrail's niece, whom they want to forcibly marry to Saakhov. They make Shurik enter in the girls' camp to find Nina, tie her in the sleeping bag and give her to the trio. After they captured her, Saachov desperately tried to make her feel relax until he decided to make Coward, Fool and Pro enter in and make a performance "If I were a sultan" (рус. "Если б я был султан") but Nina uses her opportunity to leave the room and lock them inside only to be noticed by Saachov himself.

Soon Shurik enters in his house on ambulance with doctor to save Nina. When they arrive, they have changed into doctors' uniforms and convince the Coward, the Fool, and the Pro that they are doing emergency vaccinations against a dangerous plague that is affecting the area. Under this guise, they inject the trio with sedatives. While Edik is performing the injections, Shurik goes up to Nina's room. Still thinking that he was in on the kidnapping, she hits him over the head with a fruit plate, runs out of the room, jumps out of a first-floor window, and steals one of the trucks.

A car chase ensues in which the kidnappers chase Nina while Shurik and Edik chase the kidnappers. The kidnappers catch up with Nina, commandeer her vehicle, and tie her up, but at that moment the sedative begins to take effect and they all fall asleep. Shurik catches up with the truck right before it veers off the road and stops it. He begins to untie Nina, but she attacks him, still thinking that he is in league with the kidnappers. To reveal his feelings for her, Shurik kisses Nina before he finishes untying her.

When Saachov was judged by Erik and Nina by getting shot in the butt with salt, he got unable to sit. Then he and trio were brought up on charges in court the next day.

Incident in Multi-Pulti Land[]

Trio appears in the radio crossover of the above-mentioned name (as well as stageplay reboot), where they unite with other two villains of Soviet franchises - Wolf and Shapoklyak in order to cause trouble among their enemies.

Quotes:[]

Petuchov: What do we have here...
Coward: Not we, you.
Petuchov: What'll save us from the inspection?
Coward: Not us, you.
Petuchov: Only a robbery can save us from the inspection!
Fool: With breaking and entering?
Petuchov: Of course, with breaking!
Coward: (Takes his "Criminal code" book) Article 89, paragraph 2: up to six years. No, no way...
Petuchov: But there will be no robbery!
Pro: (to Coward) Everything has been already stolen.
Coward: (to Fool) Everthing has been already stolen.
(Fool cackles)
Petuchov: It's nothing doing. You'll just have to simulate a robbery. You break the lock, enter the depository, leave traces of the goods being stolen and go away without taking a thing. Now you got it?
Pro: Don't get so excited, comrade director. People want to understand what it's all about.
Coward: It's only natural.
Fool: And legal.
Pro: This is something new for us, an unfamiliar ground.
Fool: Right, unfamiliar.
Pro: Don't get excited.
Coward: Tell us please, this... action... or... to put it better... operation...?
Fool: (interrupts Coward) "Y"!
[Petuchov pushes some bottles with his hand and other members look on Fool with susprise]
Fool: Operation "Y".
Petuchov: (looks on Fool at a loss) Why "Y"? (as Fool comes closer to him) Why "Y"?
Fool: So that no one could guess. (comes back)
Petuchov: (holds a long pause and then sighs) Idiot...
~ Petuchov sends Coward, Fool and Pro to the Operation Y

Gallery and videos[]

Trivia[]

  • Some Likely Suggest Based off Three Stooges but They're Foreign for Example Fool is Curly Howard and Coward is Larry Fine or Moe Howard and Pro is Shemp Howard usually Quite Frankly Very Rare Depiction of These Comedian Characters.
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