The Soviet adventure thriller "The Green Van" is the only film that was shot twice at the Odessa film studio with an interval of almost a quarter century. The plot of both films was based on the story of Alexander Kozachinsky, which is the first Soviet ironic detective story. For the historical period of its writing, such a work was a real rarity, it was considered extremely indecent for a writer to write about heroic, bloody dashing years with humor. The author took great risks, exposing in a comic light not only bandits, but also representatives of law enforcement agencies. The paintings with the name “Green Van” (the actors of the two film adaptations, too) differ in both production and content.
1959 movie
The 1959 film was directed by Heinrich Gabai, screenwriters Grigory Koltunov and Alexander Kozachinsky. The first film adaptation - the film "The Green Van" (actors: Roman Filippov, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Dmitry Ivanov, Olga Lysenko, Konstantin Kulchitsky) - a masterfully filmed and very light filmstrip. Even too light. The film looks in one breath, but just as easily and quickly disappears from the head at the end of viewing. Screenwriter Koltunov, guided solely by his author's considerations, thoroughly reworked the literary original. As a result, the storyline changed, the prologue disappeared, but such an intriguing lyrical component came to the fore. According to her, the very young newly appointed head of the criminal investigation department, 18-year-old Volodya (his prototype was Evgeny Petrov, co-author of the Golden Calf) falls in love with a beautiful woman trading in the market. The prototype of her brother was Kozachinsky himself, participating in the film adaptation of the novel "The Green Van." Actors and roles were discussed more than once with a higher management, in 1959 the fate of the picture depended on censors.
The plot in the interpretation of Gabaya
Events unfold in the chaotic 1920. After fierce and bloody battles, the Red Army liberates Odessa. The primary task of the young government is to clean the city of criminal elements. For its implementation, in the shortest possible time authorized Chekists replenish the ranks with volunteers from workers and peasants. So Volodya Kozachenko (actor Vladimir Kolokoltsev) gets into the police. Such is the intrigue of the painting "The Green Van."
Actors who played secondary roles as rebels were not even listed in the credits. The viewer knows only the leading actors who played conscientiously and stereotyped the roles of their characters, that is, the villains simply wrote on their foreheads: "Scoundrel, enemy of the people." In general, the picture pleases with its unusual simplicity and surprises with the image of the immediacy of relations between policemen and bandits.
The Wagon ... 1983
It was not easy for the director Alexander Pavlovsky to begin work on this film, to shoot, in fact, the sequel is always extremely difficult. The script was written by Igor Shevtsov. According to the idea of the creators, the film "The Green Van" (actors: Dmitry Kharatyan, Borislav Brondukov, Alexander Demyanenko, Regimantas Adomaitis, Alexander Solovyov) consists of two parts. And, judging by the reviews of viewers and film critics, such a division - into funny and dramatic parts - looks very contrasting and justified. The actors of the film "Green Van" (1983) demonstrate an excellent game. Young Kharatyan accurately conveyed the image of the protagonist to the viewer. And if you build on acting and acting professionalism, you should pay special attention to Boris Brondukov, the eternal performer of small and secondary roles. His character Grischenko in this film adaptation is just an example of acting.
The plot in the processing of Shevtsov
Pavlovsky’s film “The Green Van”, the actors and roles of which were selected without special supervision from above, turned out to be piercing and lyrical. Before the audience - again post-revolutionary Odessa. The young gymnasium student Volodya (Dmitry Khratyan) dreams of a local Sherlock Holmes career, but by the will of fate plunges headlong into the crucible of the revolution - a bewitching nightmare. He becomes the head of the police and actively fights against the instigators of local lawlessness - speculators, moonshiners and horse thieves. Because of youthful careless courage, he challenges a major authority terrorizing the whole city, nicknamed Cherven (actor Regimantas Adomaitis) ...