King of the Mountains and Others

The adventures of the little monkey Nuki, who was brought from Italy as a gift to a fat, spoiled boy. Having escaped from an unpleasant house, the monkey gets to a kind girl. But then it turns out that Nuka has been stolen, and her real mistress is a little sick girl suffering from the loss of her pet.

The filmmakers construct the сюжет with characters familiar from feature films—only drawn from the animal kingdom. The main characters are a fox cub named Malysh, his parents, and his “adoptive mother.” The animals are shown in their natural biological environment, and it is primarily the narrator—emotionally involved in the unfolding events—who seeks to bring them closer to the human world.

The little boy dreams of devoting himself to a circus, which struck him with the fearlessness of artists working with wild animals, and, despite the constant risk and disorder of this profession, is achieving its goal.

A small vessel is caught in a storm at sea. With no fuel and no radio, Boatswain Pukhov — an amateur pigeon breeder — sends two pigeons carrying a message about the tugboat’s dire situation. One of them, named Pilot, reaches land. The crew is rescued, and Pilot is given to a schoolboy from Moscow who took part in this difficult voyage.

Anthony van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch naturalist of the 18th century, the founder of scientific microscopy, makes a lens in his workshop. He is visited by an English scientist, a member of the Royal Society of London. Leeuwenhoek shows the scientist his "microscope". A scientist examines a flea, mold on bread, and other objects through a "microscope." He recommends that Leeuwenhoek write about his invention to the Royal Society of London. Leeuwenhoek refuses. The scientist writes the letter himself. Leeuwenhoek examines different objects through a "microscope". He is visited by a friend of Google, with whom he shares his observations. Leeuwenhoek and Google talk about the origin of the "little animals" in the water. Leeuwenhoek takes samples of rainwater and pond water. The simplest microorganisms, taken through a microscope. Leeuwenhoek writes a letter in which he outlines the results of his research.

This story about the transformation of an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan, about his brave and kind heart, and about his adventures and misadventures is truly wonderful and amazing.

Following an introduction by Bing Crosby, the Cinerama screen widens for scenes of landscapes, cities, peoples, and entertainments of the Soviet Union. Highlights include the historic buildings and churches of Moscow, as the Kremlin; its subway and streets, a spring carnival, the seaside resorts on the Black Sea, a trip down the Volga River, skiers, a troika racing along a snow-covered road, a helicopter view of the North Pole, an Antarctic whale hunt, the capture of a wild boar in the Moyun-Kum of Central Asia, a race by reindeer-drawn sleds, divers in the Sea of Okhotsk, battling an octopus, the capture of antelopes, rafting logs down the Tisza River, and the development of new towns in Siberia. Other scenes include a visit to the Moscow Circus, where the renowned clown Oleg Popov performs, the dancing of the Moiseyev and Piatnitsky companies, and excerpts from the repertoire of the Bolshoi Theater Ballet.

About Soviet underwater research of the depths of the seas and oceans.