The film "Shield and Sword" (1968): actors and roles

The film "Shield and Sword" (1968), whose actors received well-deserved recognition, became one of the most popular Soviet mini-series dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. This is a four-part film shot by Vladimir Basov based on the book of the same name by Vadim Kozhevnikov.

The plot of the picture

The actors of the film “Shield and Sword” (1968) contributed to the success of this project. The picture tells of a Soviet intelligence agent named Alexander Belov. In 1940, already in the midst of World War II, he went to Germany. He leaves Riga under the assumed name of the German Johann Weiss.

Belova is accompanied by his friend Heinrich Schwarzkopf. The Soviet intelligence officer begins to serve in the German army, deserving the respect of his colleagues and superiors, carrying out responsible assignments and transmitting important information to his homeland. By 1944, he achieved a high position in Abwehr. Becomes SS Hauptsturmfuhrer. After this Belova transferred to Berlin. He is entrusted with work in the SD, the fascist security service, whose employees were involved in numerous political crimes and intimidation of the population in the occupied territories.

Once in this position, Weiss gains direct access to the vital information that is necessary for the final victory in the war.

The picture consists of four series. They are called “Without the right to be yourself”, “Ordered to survive ...”, “Not subject to appeal” and “The Last Frontier”.

Stanislav Lyubshin

The main role in the film was played by Stanislav Lyubshin. The actor in the film "Shield and Sword" (1968) played the Soviet intelligence agent Alexander Belov. In Germany, it is under false names. This is not only Johannes Weiss and Peter Kraus.

Lyubshin is known not only as a movie, but also a theater actor. He began his career in Sovremennik, then worked on Taganka, in the Yermolova Theater and on Malaya Bronnaya.

In a big movie he made his debut in the adventure drama Alexander Gordon and Andrei Tarkovsky "There Will Be No Dismissal Today" in 1959.

After the role in the film "Shield and Sword" (1968), the actors began to be recognized and loved. In 1981, he received the title of People's Artist of the RSFSR. He also became famous in the cinema thanks to Nikita Mikhalkov’s melodrama Five Evenings, Gleb Panfilov’s art house drama Theme, Rodion Nakhapetov’s drama Do Not Shoot the White Swans, and Georgy Danelia’s fantastic tragicomedy Kin-Dza-Dza.

Oleg Yankovsky

In the film "The Shield and the Sword" (1968), the actors and the roles that they performed for a long time remained in the memory of the audience. The future People's Artist of the USSR in this tape played a friend of Johann Weiss named Heinrich Schwarzkopf.

For Yankovsky, this work was the debut in the movie. Having immediately received one of the main roles, he became a favorite of the public. Interestingly, the actor got into the movie in many ways by accident. In Lviv, he went to lunch at a restaurant, where at that time the director of the film, Vladimir Basov, was with his wife and assistants. They just discussed that they could not find an actor for the role of Heinrich Schwarzkopf.

The director’s wife, Valentina Titova, noticed Yankovsky at the next table, telling her husband that a young man with a typical Aryan appearance was sitting next door. But then they did not meet, deciding that the young man was certainly not an actor, but some philologist or physicist. The next time they saw each other at Mosfilm. At that time, the actor worked in the Saratov Drama Theater, from there he was invited to star in the film "Shield and Sword". The actors and the roles that they performed in this film determined their further creative career.

The most notable works of Yankovsky in the cinema were Yevgeny Karelov’s war drama “Two Comrades Served”, the historical drama by Vladimir Motyl “Star of captivating happiness”, the melodrama of Emil Lotyanu “My Tender and Tender Beast”, Mark Zakharov’s parable “Ordinary Miracle”, and tragicomedy, again , Zakharova "The same Munchausen."

Georgy Martynyuk

Among the actors of the film "Shield and Sword" it is necessary to note the People's Artist of Russia Georgy Martynyuk. He played the Soviet intelligence officer Alexei Zubov, who, like Belov, works undercover in Germany. In the German army, he serves as lieutenant under the name Alois Hagen.

As for many other actors in this picture, the work in the film "Shield and Sword" was one of the first for the actor. It was she who brought him popularity.

For most viewers, Martyniuk will forever remain an investigator, Pavel Pavlovich Znamensky, from the detective series “The Investigations Are Conducted by Znatoki”.

Vladimir Basov

It is noteworthy that the director of the picture Vladimir Basov played one of the main roles in the film. He played a Soviet intelligence officer, nicknamed Bruno.

Basov - People's Artist of the USSR, better known as an actor. Although he came to the cinema as an assistant director for Mosfilm. He began working on his own projects in 1952. His directorial debut was the film adaptation of the play "Freeloader". In total, Basov made about two dozen films. The most successful was Shield and Sword. His drama Silence, based on the novel of the same name by Yuri Bondarev, also earned high marks. The main characters of the picture are war veterans who have just returned from the Great Patriotic War.

As an actor, Basov was remembered for the movie novel by Alexander Alov and Vladimir Naumov's “Running”, the fairy tale-musical of Leonid Nechayev's “The Adventures of Pinocchio”, the drama “Days of the Turbins”, which he himself shot.

Alla Demidova

The most prominent female role in the film went to the future People's Artist of the RSFSR Alla Demidova. She played Angelica Bucher.

The popularity came to Demidova due to work in the Taganka Theater. She became a notable actress in the cinema after the biographical drama by Igor Talankin "Daytime Stars". Demidova played the Leningrad writer Olga Berggolz, and the tape itself was built on her diary, which tells about the years spent in the besieged city.

At the same time, many critics, evaluating her acting work, noted a huge stylistic range. She was always independent on stage and on the set, her creative decisions surprised and amazed, especially she was famous for her original ability to re-build classical and well-known images.

Juozas Budraitis

Among the actors "Shield and Sword", photos of which are in this article, the People's Artist of the Lithuanian SSR Juozas Budraitis deserves mention. In a spy film about the Second World War, he recreated on the screen the image of a German captain named von Dietrich. In the third series, he is promoted by being appointed major. An interesting fact is that in the character picture Budraitis is voiced by another actor. They became the People's Artist of the RSFSR Alexander Grave.

In the movie, Budraitis made his debut in 1961 in a cameo in the film "When the Rivers Merge." His most successful work in the cinema is the drama by Vytautas alakevicius, “Nobody Wanted to Die”. In this picture, he played along with another Lithuanian classic Donatas Banionis.

The film tells about the formation of Soviet power in Lithuania shortly after the end of World War II. In the picture, he plays the son of the chairman of the village council named Jonas. His father is killed at the very beginning of the tape. His sons threaten revenge.