Candid Camera in the Soviet Union
December 9, 2015 11:24 AM   Subscribe

 
I love this article and can't wait to watch the accompanying videos. I especially love imagining the idea that Allen Funt and the Candid Camera crew were as good or better at spying in the Soviet Union than American spies at the time because of their experience filming in the United States.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:33 AM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


The suitcase gag starts at 16:40, beginning with Paris and London.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 12:07 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Fascinating, thank you.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 12:07 PM on December 9, 2015


Hey friend you have a headlight out there... can't have you drivOH SHIT! Um... well... anyway...
posted by The Power Nap at 12:29 PM on December 9, 2015 [3 favorites]


My first thought, without reading the article, is that this is going to end very, very badly.
posted by staggering termagant at 12:33 PM on December 9, 2015


In Soviet Russia, candid camera watches YOU!

Er....well...something....
posted by briank at 12:35 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


So I read the article and watched the video, and it's great! Thanks so much for this interesting post.
posted by staggering termagant at 12:37 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Teenagers slow-dance awkwardly, and spectators eat ice cream at a track meet. A man spends too much on a fur hat.

It's sad that we need to remind ourselves that other people in different countries are human too. They do the same kind of mundane things that we do on a day to day basis. But ultimately its nice that this show helped humanize our so called "enemies", it makes it tougher to hit a button and bomb them.

This was a terrific read. Will watch the video when I get home after work tonight.
posted by Fizz at 12:39 PM on December 9, 2015 [5 favorites]


Allen Funt and the Candid Camera crew were as good or better at spying in the Soviet Union than American spies at the time

And yet in the end, Allen and team discovered they weren't as successful in covering their tracks as they thought, when they discovered most of their smuggled film was destroyed or heavily fogged beyond usability. The Soviet authorities were apparently onto them and elected to destroy as much footage as possible. Unless heavy X-ray passes over outgoing luggage was a normal procedure, which I suppose wouldn't be too surprising.
posted by insert.witticism.here at 12:56 PM on December 9, 2015 [1 favorite]


Funt, himself the son of a Russian immigrant

I did not know that! Great post, and I look forward to watching the video.
posted by languagehat at 1:04 PM on December 9, 2015


As insert.witticism.here pointed out, isn't it entirely possible that a routine x-ray procedure would have damaged the unexposed film? I'd imagine the outcomes would be indistinguishable, whether intentional or routine.

They don't have those warnings any longer - probably because there's no such thing as casual film use anymore - but the airport machines used to include a warning about film. I suppose professionals all know this now.
posted by iandennismiller at 1:06 PM on December 9, 2015


This was awesome.

I can't watch Candid Camera clips, though, without think of this Joe Piscapo bit from SNL.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:15 PM on December 9, 2015


That one guy in London is killing me. "What in heavens have you got in there? I'm not being inquisitive, but really!" Like the old-timey version of "WTF, lady? I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin'."
posted by paperback version at 5:18 PM on December 9, 2015 [4 favorites]


I went to high school with Allen Funt's daughter Juliet.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 8:09 PM on December 9, 2015


It's kind of funny, actually, because it seems like most of the hidden camera pranks you see around the internet these days come from Russia.
posted by tobascodagama at 9:30 PM on December 9, 2015


Oh man, my back was twinging in sympathy with all the people who actually lifted that frickin suitcase!

Delightful article and video, thank you. The shots of the kids at the end were really sweet. (Wasn't expecting the child-trebuchet, though.)
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 12:47 AM on December 10, 2015



It's kind of funny, actually, because it seems like most of the hidden camera pranks you see around the internet these days come from Russia.


Well, Russia and its neighbours are awash with dashcams, mostly because there's an underdeveloped rule of law and an overdeveloped culture of scams (dating back to Soviet days, when one had to keep one's wits about one and know which rules to break and when if one was to get anywhere), and a side-effect of that is, when they're not catching insurance scammers or crooked cops, they're available for jackass videos.
posted by acb at 5:36 AM on December 10, 2015


in a parallel vein, did you know that Allen Funt was in, fact, on an airplane that was hijacked to Cuba?
posted by pjern at 2:10 PM on December 10, 2015 [2 favorites]


Probably because I'm an old school cold war paranoiac but that all seems a little too coincidental to me and I prefer to think that Funt actually WAS an agent on one side or the other.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:55 PM on December 10, 2015


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