How the first film about the district police officer Aniskin "Village Detective" was shot
In the village, everything happens: moonshine is sold from under the floor, musical instruments are dragged from the club ... For the district police officer Aniskin, these are not petty pranks, he takes his work responsibly. Once you get down to business, the scammers can't escape.
It was on this day, March 15, 1968, that the first film about the adventures of the legendary policeman Aniskin was released - a vivid representative of a very soulful Soviet cinema. Let's remember together how they shot this picture, which has forever entered the golden fund of Soviet cinema.
(Total 12 photos)
1. The tape was staged based on the story of the same name by Vilya Lipatov from the cycle dedicated to the village district police officer Aniskin. The stories and novellas from this cycle were first published on the pages of the Znamya magazine in 1967-1968. In 1968, the Village Detective cycle was published as a separate book.
2. The prototype of the protagonist of the cycle, Fyodor Ivanovich Aniskin, was a real person - a district police officer from the urban-type settlement of Togur, Kolpashevo district of the Tomsk region.
3. Simple and glorious, able to convince villains not with fists, but with a quiet kind word - this is a portrait of our own superman. This was the precinct Aniskin in the "Village Detective".
4. Ivan Lukinsky, director of The Village Detective, immediately decided that Mikhail Zharov, an actor of incredibly positive charm, should play the village policeman.
But will the master of Soviet cinema agree to a "domestic" role? Zharov accepted the offer with enthusiasm and approached the creation of the image with all responsibility. Before filming, the actor carefully familiarized himself with the work of the district police officers in the Zavolzhsky District Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Kalinin (now Tver).
For several days he trained with a very respected policeman Fyodor Petrovich Afanasyev. Like him, Zharov did not part with the planchette, although many already had folders, he also spoke slowly. “How similar is the district police officer Aniskin to Mikhail Ivanovich himself! The child is naive, sincere, sometimes a little capricious, ”admired the second director of the film, Vitaly Ivanov.
5. Zharov was very worried if something did not work out, and then Tatyana Peltzer came to his aid, who played Aniskin's wife, Glafira. Everyone was touched by watching her calm him down behind the scenes.
6. Filming took place in the village of Gorodnya, Kalinin region. The locals simply adored the film group. And on Zharov's birthday, the villagers brought potatoes, cucumbers, pickles, set a huge table.
7. Despite his age, Mikhail Ivanovich drank and danced like everyone else. And he had just been discharged from the hospital!
8. “How touching Mikhail Ivanovich was about filming! - recalls the performer of the role of Neganov in the film "And Again Aniskin" Lev Borisov (pictured left). - He complained about his memory and well-being, but still approached the matter responsibly and demanded this from others. The heat was terrible, at forty degrees, and he, having filmed scenes with his participation, without a break, in a police uniform, sweating, continued to direct other episodes. I didn't even rest! Zharov helped me a lot in working on the role. I remember showing one house on the banks of the Volga - such an old house, dilapidated - and saying: “This is how your old man Neganov should be!” I immediately understood how I needed to play. So the prototype of my hero turned out to be a dilapidated house.
9. Sometimes forgetting the text, Zharov often improvised. And one day I came up with a trick. They filmed an episode when Aniskin was talking to students at school, walking around the classroom between desks. So, Mikhail Ivanovich ordered to put leaflets on each desk, where his text was written in large letters according to the proposal. He walked, looking as if at a sitting student, and at that moment he himself was reading a cheat sheet.
10. Once Zharov asked Alexander Belyavsky (his role in the film “And Again Aniskin” is a museum thief) to figure out how he would hide from the district police officer. Belyavsky suggested, they say, let the kidnapper dress up as a woman. At first, Zharov called the idea "pure clowning" and refused. But, after thinking for a few days, he nevertheless agreed with the artist's proposal. They dressed Belyavsky in a scarf and a dress, put a bust, but there was a hitch with shoes. It's hard to find women's shoes in size 45! Zharov personally looked for shoes in the shops of nearby villages. In the end, I dug out more or less suitable shoes in one of the general stores, but ... five sizes too small. They cut them from behind, so that at least somehow the leg entered, and with difficulty they pulled them on Belyavsky. Needless to say, after filming the episode, the actor could not walk for a long time: all his legs were in calluses.
11. “At that time I was working on another film, in Moscow,” recalls Alexander Belyavsky. - Therefore, I often traveled by car to the capital and back. And since it was difficult to get alcohol in those places where Aniskin was filmed, the guys once ordered me to bring vodka. I brought it. After work, they gathered in a close company away from everyone, opened a bottle, and only then realized that they hadn’t stocked up on glasses. And I had a frying pan in my bag - on it we fried mushrooms and fish, which the Tver land is rich in. Here we are, laughing, and drinking vodka from a frying pan.
12. After the release of The Village Detective, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs presented Zharov with two police uniforms. Since then, Mikhail Ivanovich has performed in them at concerts dedicated to the Day of the Police.