In 1978, the shooting of the five-part television film “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed”, about the employees of the Moscow Criminal Investigation Department in the post-war period, began in Odessa and Moscow. Directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, the film was based on the novel “The Age of Mercy” by brothers Georgy and Arkady Vainer, published three years ago and inspired by the story of the Krasnogorsk criminal group Ivan Mitin.
According to the memoirs of the authors, they were advised to film the novel by Vladimir Vysotsky, who received the book as a gift. For his sake, in the script, the appearance of police captain Gleb Zheglov was changed, taking into account the organic nature and type of the actor. Author Mark Tsybulsky conveyed this in his book “Vladimir Vysotsky and his “cinema”. But Govorukhin had a different version – the director himself allegedly suggested that Vysotsky read Weiner’s book and “try on” the role of police captain Zheglov.
Despite the fact that Vysotsky’s choice was obvious, the producers organized a casting – it was attended by Sergei Shakurov, Nikolai Gubenko, Evgeniy Stezhko, Yuri Kuzmenkov, Anatoly Popolzukhin and Leonid Yanovsky. As Stezhko, who got the role of Lieutenant Toporkov, later recalled, the auditions were held for demonstration purposes in order to report to the authorities: “You have no chance, this is the role of Vysotsky. We just need a competition.”
But not everything was so clear with Sharapov’s role – about a dozen famous actors competed for it, including Alexander Abdulov, Sergei Nikonenko and Stanislav Sadalsky. She practically approved of the director Nikolai Gubenko, but later realized that she and Vysotsky were “birds of a feather” and Sharapova needed to be made more contrasting. As a result, Vladimir Konkin, who had recently played Pavka Korchagin in the movie “How the Steel Was Tempered”, was cast in this role. According to film critic Alexander Shpagin, Govorukhin thus made a “wonderful move”: “He took Konkin, whose organic acting, incredible kindness and the light emanating from him were combined with a certain pathos.”
It is assumed that they “want” Konkin in the play – they say Sharapova should play “Pavka Korchagin”. The Weiner brothers opposed this request because in the novel the hero looked completely different, but they had to give in.
Still from the movie “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed” (1979)
USSR State Television and Radio
Work on “The Meeting Place” was strictly controlled by the police – the main consultants for the film were the Deputy Minister of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lieutenant General Konstantin Nikitin and the Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs. Works of Vadim Samokhvalov. After reading the script, they immediately demanded that “thief jargon” be removed from the police’s dialogue, because “they don’t say that in the police.” About this censorship, Vysotsky wrote: “Our television harshly demanded: // Throw away the words “police”, “garbage” or “policeman”, // Turn the awl into soap, the awl into chisels, // And change the thief into a “foreign element” ” transform.
Govorukhin also spoke about Nikitin as follows: “This is impossible, here it needs to be said differently. But he was a good man. And he died before the movie was released. Then when they started telling me something, I said: Our advisor was Konstantin Ivanovich. All changes here please. Poor late Konstantin Ivanovich was responsible for everything, he helped us a lot from there.”
Also, Nikitin really wanted Zheglov to wear a police uniform in the film. However, Vysotsky opposed this request, despite the fact that there would be problems with the film’s release due to its rejection. The artist believed that in Stalin’s time the police committed lawlessness. Vysotsky was still posing in his police uniform, though—but standing in front of the mirror in his tunic and calling out to Sharapov: “Here, Sharapov, are my home clothes, like pajamas.” Reasonable “Why?” Zheglov replied: “Yes, because I have never worn it and I probably won’t need to.”
In the original version of the script, after Zheglov shot Levchenko (Viktor Pavlov), Sharapov said that he could not go any further in his life with Vysotsky’s hero because he “likes to kill people.” The censors did not allow this scene to pass.
Actors Vladimir Vysotsky as MUR captain Gleb Zheglov and Vladimir Konkin as senior lieutenant Vladimir Sharapov in the movie “The meeting place cannot be changed” (1979)
USSR State Television and Radio
The situation was complicated by the death of Nikitin shortly before the submission of the film: members of the acceptance committee both did not ban the film and did not accept it. They were outraged that Soviet citizens were involved in thieves: “Do you want the whole Union to talk about thieves and prostitutes for a week?”
Instead of Nikitin, Major General Vladimir Illarionov, the first deputy chief of the Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, began working on the film. He had been in touch with Vysotsky for a long time, giving him advice and providing him with relevant literature. There is an opinion that it was the consultants who contributed to the filming of the episode with the capture of Ruchechnik in the Bolshoi Theater, which at that time was an object of a special security regime.
After a short break, the film was finally released on TV to coincide with Police Day – the first episode was shown in the First Program on 11 November 1979.
Then Govorukhin was in Sevastopol – according to him, the release of each episode gathered everyone in front of the televisions and literally disrupted the mass holidays: “People ignored the city event and sat in front of the televisions.” Moreover, as contemporaries claimed, at the time of the broadcasts public transport was half empty, crime and… public water consumption decreased.
Vysotsky’s son Nikita was in the hospital during the premiere – according to him, both doctors and patients rushed to the only television to watch the film: “The only place you could watch TV was in the maxillofacial surgery department. And the whole hospital rushed there, and the people in rubber bands laughed very strangely. And the doctors allowed me to watch the replay in the morning and evening. That was something. So, as in the song, “The whole hospital was gathered on the screen.” Success is just… that never happened in cinema.”
According to film critic Alexander Shpagin, Gleb Zheglov became a real folk hero: “That is, a fair man who is a little outside the law. On the one hand, he is a defender of society, and on the other hand, a zhigan. And Vysotsky plays it, and Vysotsky is Vysotsky.
Despite universal recognition, the film did not receive any major awards – the creators were only awarded certificates of honor from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. And Vysotsky was posthumously awarded the USSR State Prize in 1987.
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Source: Gazeta
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