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Unlike previous Russian films, Behind Show-Window looks more like a typical Hollywood production than a propagandistic tract. The story takes place in a modern Moscow department store, not unlike the legendary GUM. As three different couples go through the standard romantic trials and tribulations, a gang of crooks draw up plans to rob the store. In 1957, it came as a surprise to American audiences that there were gangsters in the Soviet Union. Seeing the film today, the viewer can only gasp and say "As far back as that?" Filmed in 1955, Behind Show-Window was director Samson Samsonov's immediate follow-up to his internationally popular The Grasshopper.