‘Dark is the Night’ is a famous Russian son composed by Nikita Bogoslovsky and Vladimir Agatov specially for the Two Soldiers film.
The initial variant of the film didn’t envisage any songs at all. But Leonid Lukov, director of the movie, wasn’t really succeeding in shooting convincingly the scene of a soldier writing a letter home. After several failed attempts he thought that a song would probably help him. Lukov turned to Nikita Bogoslovsky who immediately sat at the piano and made up a perfect melody. Then Vladimir Agatov was quick at composing the lyrics.
Following the reminiscences of Nikita Bogoslovsky: “Once late at night Leonid Lukov, the movie director, came to me and said that he had difficulties in shooting the scene at the dugout. He needed a song. He was so precise in describing this nonexistent song that a miracle happened. I got down at the piano and played the melody from beginning to end without a single interruption. It’s been the first and last time I managed to do this. Then Lukov called Agatov who almost in no time composed the lyrics”.
The same night the film star Mark Bernes was woken up and commanded to learn the song. He did this overnight and the next day the scene was shot. In the film, Bernes is Arkady Dzubin, a soldier who recalls his wife and baby at night while singing the song at the frontline dugout.
Bernes warm and sincere delivery of ‘Dark Is the Night’ won the sympathy of millions of Soviet people, catapulting Bernes into enduring fame.
Before the film was premiered Leonid Utyosov got the song from Bogoslovsky and recorded the song thus became the first to do it. But it was exactly Bernes’s performance that made it so popular.
Sources: «Советская музыка» (Soviet Music), «Военный альбом» (Military Álbum), «Победа.екатеринбург.рф» websites.