Come Here, Mukhtar! (Russian: Ко мне, Мухтар!) is a 1964 Soviet drama film directed by Semyon Tumanov and produced by Mosfilm. The film is based on the 1961 novella Murat (later republished as Mukhtar) by writer Izrail Metter.
Plot
The story follows a young police lieutenant, Nikolai Glazychev (played by Yuri Nikulin), who rescues an abandoned East European Shepherd dog from a railway car. The dog, named Mukhtar, is initially a pampered pet but is sold to the police kennel by his former owner. Glazychev trains Mukhtar as a service dog, and the pair work together solving crimes. Over the course of the film, Mukhtar helps recover stolen property worth over three million Soviet rubles. In the climax, Mukhtar is seriously wounded while apprehending a dangerous recidivist criminal, Frolov. A bullet grazes the dog's brain, leaving him unable to continue service. After a bureaucratic struggle, Glazychev successfully petitions for Mukhtar to remain at the kennel on the state payroll.
Production
The film's protagonist dog, Mukhtar, was based on a real heroic police dog named Sultan, who over ten years of service participated in approximately 5,000 operations, apprehended more than 1,000 criminals, and recovered stolen property worth three million rubles. After Sultan's death, his stuffed body was displayed at the Museum of the Leningrad Criminal Investigation Department, where writer Izrail Metter encountered it in 1959 and was inspired to write the story.
Four dogs were used to portray Mukhtar at different ages: two adult service dogs named Ural and Baikal, provided by the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, and a younger dog purchased by Mosfilm. The most talented performer was a dog named Dyke (after the painter Van Dyck), owned by engineer and amateur dog trainer Mikhail Dligach from Kyiv. Dyke was used in all technically complex scenes and lived with Yuri Nikulin's family during filming.
Yuri Nikulin, best known as a circus clown and comedic actor, prepared extensively for the role by training with police dog handlers, waking early to care for dogs at the kennel, and performing his circus shows in the evenings.
Cast
- Yuri Nikulin as Lieutenant Nikolai Glazychev
- Dog Dyke as Mukhtar
- Vladimir Yemelyanov as Colonel Sergey Prokofyevich, head of the kennel
- Leonid Kmit as Stepan Dugovets
- Yuri Belov as Larionov
- Alla Larionova as Masha, Mukhtar's former owner
- Fyodor Nikitin as veterinarian Zyryanov
- Nikolai Kryuchkov as the police commissioner
- Lev Durov as a recidivist thief
Release and Reception
The film premiered on March 13, 1965, and was seen by approximately 29.6 million viewers in the Soviet Union. Following the film's release, the name "Mukhtar" became significantly more popular for dogs in the USSR. On April 19, 2002, the film received the "Golden Fang" award at the Russian (later international) film festival as one of the best films featuring animals.
Legacy
In 2004, a television series titled The Return of Mukhtar (Возвращение Мухтара) premiered in Russia, featuring a new East European Shepherd named Mukhtar assisting police officers. The series frequently references the 1964 film and uses the phrase "Come here, Mukhtar!" as a recurring homage.
