YMMV / Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession

• Adaptation Displacement: The movie is much more well-known than the play, even though the opening credits actually state in big letters what it was based on.
• Genius Bonus: Many historical events mentioned in the movie are real. The song sung by minstrels before Bunsha interrupts them is an actual old Russian song about the battle of Molodi. The Crimean khan's troops marauding near Moscow is an actual event from that same war (though they mixed up the order in which those events happened). The cruel and unusual execution by barrel of gunpowder also happened, with the exact same phrase uttered by Ivan IV, though the victim was a seditious aristocrat, not an inventor.
• Magnificent Bastard: George Miloslavsky is a clever and suave Gentleman Thief who intends to rob wealthy dentist Anton Shpak. During his successful break into Shpak's house, Miloslavsky is accidentally sent to the past by Alexander Timofeyev's time machine, together with Ivan Bunsha. Ending up in the unfamiliar world of Tsarist Russia, Miloslavsky shows that he can act collected and resourceful in extraordinary situations, forcing Bunsha to impersonate the missing Tsar Ivan the Terrible while himself pretending to be a minor noble. Acting as the false Tsar's chief advisor, Miloslavsky takes the initiative in state affairs, keeping Ivan IV's servants in the dark. Despite his affinity for crime, Miloslavsky demonstrates his patriotic feelings when he berates Bunsha for frivolously agreeing with the Swedish king's demands for Russian territory and convinces the Swedish ambassador to postpone the negotiations, while stealing his decorated medallion unnoticed. An adventurer by vocation, Miloslavsky stands out as the most charming and proactive member of the cast.
• Older Than They Think: The Kremlin shown in the film is made of white stone, which is its original look. However, it was rebuilt to its current "red brick" look by Ivan the Terrible's grandfather Ivan III. Ironically, before the Red October it was customary to whitewash its brick walls every couple of years to imitate the original white stone look. Even when the Soviet Government put its seat there, they infrequently continued this practice, allowing the whitewash to fade to the original brick color in the intervals, and painted the walls with a fake houses and windows during the World War II as a defensive measure. The modern practice of painting the Kremlin walls red actually started only in 1947, in preparation of Moscow's 800-year anniversary (that is, after the play had been written but before it was adapted as a movie).

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