The Elusive Revengers

The Elusive Revengers (1967) — watch online on iFILM — is director Edmond Keosayan's Soviet adventure based on Pavel Blyakhin's novella "Red Devils."

White Guard ataman Burnash and his gang murder Danka's father in front of the children. Danka, his sister Ksanka, the gypsy Yashka, and a former gymnasium student named Valerka swear to bring him down. Danka slips into Burnash's camp posing as the son of an old ally — and gets exposed. Viktor Kosykh, Vasily Vasilyev, Mikhail Metyolkin, and Valentina Kurdyukova keep the pace sharp throughout; no melodrama, no slack.

The film hit Soviet screens in 1967 and sold out theatres at once, kicking off a cult trilogy that ran through 1971. Boris Sichkin and Savely Kramarov land the film's best comic moments; a brief appearance by a young Inna Churikova now reads as something of a historical footnote. Stream The Elusive Revengers (1967) online on iFILM.