Red Pawn
Encyclopedia
Red Pawn is a screenplay
written by 20th-century novelist, philosopher and playwright Ayn Rand
. It was the first screenplay that Rand sold to the buyer Universal Pictures
in 1932. Red Pawn features the theme of the evil of dictatorship, specifically of Soviet Russia
.
Red Pawn is a spy thriller set on Strastnoy Island in an undisclosed location in northern Soviet Russia during the 1920s. On the island is a converted monastery used as an institution for political prisoner
s. The screenplay follows Joan Harding, aka Frances Volkontzev, an American woman who infiltrates Strastnoy Island to free her imprisoned husband, Michael Volkontzev.
Joan enters the prison under the pretext of being the new wife of the prison head Commandant Kareyev given to him by the state. A love triangle
develops between the three characters as Joan works to free her husband while fooling the prison staff and Kareyev as to her true intentions.
The rights to the screenplay belong to Paramount Pictures
, though the screenplay has never been adapted to film.
Months pass and Joan becomes friends with many of the political prisoner
s on the island, and slowly Commandant Kareyev begins to feel affection for her. Michael is torn over how his wife seems to return that affection and begins to doubt his wife's intentions. Joan arranges for Michael to sneak onto the next boat while the guard is given leave by Kareyev at her insistence, but she will not be joining Michael on the boat and he is to go alone while she stays with Kareyev. Joan tells Michael to meet up with the merchant and that in order to avoid suspicion, she would follow in the coming months.
The night of his escape, Michael barges into Kareyev's room and tells the Commandant that he has attempted to escape and reveals that Joan is his wife. Kareyev has his assistant, Comrade Fedossitch, place Michael in the detention tower and tells Joan that she will be taking the ferry the next day leaving Strastnoy Island. Joan confesses her love for Kareyev and begs him to leave his post and escape with her and Michael on the next ferry
off the island and out of the country, so that she and Kareyev can live together. Kareyev considers her offer but refuses, saying that he cannot betray his Party and his comrades. Kareyev tells Joan to pack her things, and that she is to depart from the island alone in the morning.
Comrade Fedossitch confronts Kareyev, telling him that Joan should be arrested for deceiving them and the Party. Kareyev puts Fedossitch under arrest and then goes to Joan's room and tells her that all is ready, to follow him to the detention tower to free Michael, and that all three of them will escape on the ferry. Michael is freed and the three board the ferry and make their way to shore where they commandeer a horse sled from a local farmer. As the trio make their way to shore, it is discovered that Michael, Joan, and Kareyev are no longer on the island and Fedossitch is freed by a fellow officer. Fedossitch finds that the radio is destroyed so he alerts the shoreline of the escape using the monastery
's bell and light signals.
Kareyev, Michael, and Joan are chased by a black car as they attempt to flee to the merchant's house and after eluding capture are forced to seek shelter in an empty barn. The two men begin fighting over who should be with Joan and they then ask her who she loves, but before Joan has the chance to answer they are discovered by their pursuers. The three are quickly arrested and the commanding officer reveals that Joan and the traitorous commandant are to be taken to the State Political Directorate
headquarters in Nijni Kolimsk, mentioning that it is across the street from an English merchant's house. Joan believes that hope for escape is not extinguished if they can escape their cells and go across the street. However, the commander reveals that Michael is to be taken away for immediate execution. The soldier, unable to distinguish the two male captives, then asks Joan to identify which man is her husband. Joan points to Kareyev and tells soldiers he is the one; he makes no objections. The screenplay ends as Kareyev is taken away for execution while Joan and Michael are driven to Nijni Kolimsk with the faint hope of escape and a future together.
. She had been writing her debut novel, We the Living
, but took a break to write the screenplay in hopes of earning enough money to allow her to write full-time. She sold the screenplay and the synopsis to Universal Pictures in 1932 for $1,500, her first sale. The studio postponed the filming of the screenplay several times, and with Hollywood entering its Red Decade, the anti-Soviet themes of the film made it unattractive to filmmakers. Universal later traded the property to Paramount which has held onto the rights since, though no film adaption of Red Pawn has been made.
"We the Living
", finally published in 1936, shares some basic plotlines with "Red Pawn" - both featuring a love triangle
against the background of the early Soviet Union
, with the woman protagnist having an anti-Communist lover and a Communist one, and with the Communist finally compromising or renouncing his ideological allegiance for love of her.
Jena Trammell has cited Red Pawn as a crucial point in Rand's career and in the development of her aesthetic philosophy, romantic realism
.
Red Pawn gets it name from an alternative name for the black pawn in chess, where the white pieces are opposed by the red pieces.
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
written by 20th-century novelist, philosopher and playwright Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
. It was the first screenplay that Rand sold to the buyer Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
in 1932. Red Pawn features the theme of the evil of dictatorship, specifically of Soviet Russia
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , commonly referred to as Soviet Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or simply Russia, was the largest, most populous and economically developed republic in the former Soviet Union....
.
Red Pawn is a spy thriller set on Strastnoy Island in an undisclosed location in northern Soviet Russia during the 1920s. On the island is a converted monastery used as an institution for political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s. The screenplay follows Joan Harding, aka Frances Volkontzev, an American woman who infiltrates Strastnoy Island to free her imprisoned husband, Michael Volkontzev.
Joan enters the prison under the pretext of being the new wife of the prison head Commandant Kareyev given to him by the state. A love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
develops between the three characters as Joan works to free her husband while fooling the prison staff and Kareyev as to her true intentions.
The rights to the screenplay belong to Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, though the screenplay has never been adapted to film.
Plot
Joan Harding arrives by boat at Strastnoy Island and is presented to Commandant Kareyev as his new, state-granted wife. Kareyev greets Joan coldly, believing that she will leave when the next boat comes to the island six months later. Kareyev takes Joan on a tour around the prison island during which she observes the prisoners. While they are roaming the halls, Joan's husband, Michael Volkontzev, recognizes her and calls out to her, but she pretends not to recognize him. It is only later in her room that Joan (real name Frances Volkontzeva) reunites with Michael and tells him of her plan to free him by sneaking him onto the next boat and help him escape the country through the help of an English merchant she knows in the nearby town of Nijni Kolimsk. She asks that Michael trust her and that he keep his distance so Kareyev and others do not suspect that they know each other.Months pass and Joan becomes friends with many of the political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s on the island, and slowly Commandant Kareyev begins to feel affection for her. Michael is torn over how his wife seems to return that affection and begins to doubt his wife's intentions. Joan arranges for Michael to sneak onto the next boat while the guard is given leave by Kareyev at her insistence, but she will not be joining Michael on the boat and he is to go alone while she stays with Kareyev. Joan tells Michael to meet up with the merchant and that in order to avoid suspicion, she would follow in the coming months.
The night of his escape, Michael barges into Kareyev's room and tells the Commandant that he has attempted to escape and reveals that Joan is his wife. Kareyev has his assistant, Comrade Fedossitch, place Michael in the detention tower and tells Joan that she will be taking the ferry the next day leaving Strastnoy Island. Joan confesses her love for Kareyev and begs him to leave his post and escape with her and Michael on the next ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
off the island and out of the country, so that she and Kareyev can live together. Kareyev considers her offer but refuses, saying that he cannot betray his Party and his comrades. Kareyev tells Joan to pack her things, and that she is to depart from the island alone in the morning.
Comrade Fedossitch confronts Kareyev, telling him that Joan should be arrested for deceiving them and the Party. Kareyev puts Fedossitch under arrest and then goes to Joan's room and tells her that all is ready, to follow him to the detention tower to free Michael, and that all three of them will escape on the ferry. Michael is freed and the three board the ferry and make their way to shore where they commandeer a horse sled from a local farmer. As the trio make their way to shore, it is discovered that Michael, Joan, and Kareyev are no longer on the island and Fedossitch is freed by a fellow officer. Fedossitch finds that the radio is destroyed so he alerts the shoreline of the escape using the monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
's bell and light signals.
Kareyev, Michael, and Joan are chased by a black car as they attempt to flee to the merchant's house and after eluding capture are forced to seek shelter in an empty barn. The two men begin fighting over who should be with Joan and they then ask her who she loves, but before Joan has the chance to answer they are discovered by their pursuers. The three are quickly arrested and the commanding officer reveals that Joan and the traitorous commandant are to be taken to the State Political Directorate
State Political Directorate
The State Political Directorate was the secret police of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1934...
headquarters in Nijni Kolimsk, mentioning that it is across the street from an English merchant's house. Joan believes that hope for escape is not extinguished if they can escape their cells and go across the street. However, the commander reveals that Michael is to be taken away for immediate execution. The soldier, unable to distinguish the two male captives, then asks Joan to identify which man is her husband. Joan points to Kareyev and tells soldiers he is the one; he makes no objections. The screenplay ends as Kareyev is taken away for execution while Joan and Michael are driven to Nijni Kolimsk with the faint hope of escape and a future together.
Development
Ayn Rand began writing Red Pawn in 1931 while working in the wardrobe department of RKO PicturesRKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
. She had been writing her debut novel, We the Living
We the Living
We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
, but took a break to write the screenplay in hopes of earning enough money to allow her to write full-time. She sold the screenplay and the synopsis to Universal Pictures in 1932 for $1,500, her first sale. The studio postponed the filming of the screenplay several times, and with Hollywood entering its Red Decade, the anti-Soviet themes of the film made it unattractive to filmmakers. Universal later traded the property to Paramount which has held onto the rights since, though no film adaption of Red Pawn has been made.
"We the Living
We the Living
We the Living is the first novel published by the Russian-American novelist Ayn Rand. It was also Rand's first statement against communism. First published in 1936, it is a story of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Rand observes in the foreword to this book that We the Living was the closest she...
", finally published in 1936, shares some basic plotlines with "Red Pawn" - both featuring a love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
against the background of the early Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, with the woman protagnist having an anti-Communist lover and a Communist one, and with the Communist finally compromising or renouncing his ideological allegiance for love of her.
Significance
Professor of literature at Anderson CollegeAnderson University (South Carolina)
Anderson University is a private comprehensive university located in Anderson, South Carolina, offering bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in approximately 60 areas of study. Anderson is affiliated with the South Carolina Baptist Convention and is accredited as a Level V institution by the...
Jena Trammell has cited Red Pawn as a crucial point in Rand's career and in the development of her aesthetic philosophy, romantic realism
Romantic realism
Romantic realism is an aesthetic term that usually refers to art which combines elements of both romanticism and realism. The terms "romanticism" and "realism" have been used in varied ways, and are sometimes seen as opposed to one another....
.
Red Pawn gets it name from an alternative name for the black pawn in chess, where the white pieces are opposed by the red pieces.