Nero Wolfe German and Russian TV Series

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Nero Wolfe Featured on Russian TV

RUSSIAN TV SERIES

Series 1 (2001-2002):
Before I Die (Pictured to the right)
The Affair With the Cap (Disguise for Murder)
Poka ya ne umer (Trouble in Triplicate)
Resurrect to Die (Man Alive)
Flying Gunn (Gun with Wings)
A Voice From the Other Side (The Silent Speaker)

Teleplay written by Vladimir Valutskiy, who had previously written the Russian Sherlock Holmes TV series (around 1980). The Russian Sherlock Holmes series is considered to be one of Russia's all time TV classics.

Score by Vladimir Dashkevich, who also wrote the score for the Holmes series. He says he found it important for the Wolfe series to feature period music of the 1930s. Nevertheless, he "composed" the opening tune of the Wolfe series by simply playing backwards (!) his own opening tune of the Sherlock Holmes series of the 1980s.

During 2001-2002, A&E and the Russians were shooting Wolfe stories in parallel, although there are no know references to either team discussing the other's efforts.

The same actors play the roles in both Series 1 and 2:
Nero Wolfe: Donatas Banionis
Archie Goodwin: Sergey Zhigunov (also Producer)
Inspector Kramer: Sergey Parshin
Fritz Brenner: Sergey Migitzko

The IMDB link for more information: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0368157/.

SEE BELOW FOR ADDITIONAL SERIES 1 Video cover art and information regarding the actors.

Flying Gunn (Based on The Gun with Wings) Fritz Margaret Mayon and Frederick Weppler Miss James Wolfe and Theodor in the plantrooms Archie and Mr. James (and Cramer in the background) Cramer and Stabbins with the murderer	The Affair with the Cap (Russian syaing means "It's a Sure Thing") (Based on Disguise for Murder) Orchids exhibition in Wolfe's plantrooms Miss Brown Cramer at the door of Wolfe's dining room Cramer and the murderer Saul Panzer Archie tied to chair The murderer
Poka ya ne umer (Based on Before I Die) Mr. Perritt Beulah Paige and Morton Shane Archie in action Mr. Perritt's lawyer	A Voice From the Other Side (Based on Over My Dead Body) Mr. Erskin Archie during his boxing training Wolfe is slapping Inspector Ashe Dr. Volmer and Wolfe O'Neil and Keits
Resurrect to Die (Based on Man Alive) Miss Neider Theodore Mr. Daumery

Series 2 (2005):
(Thank you Olexander Petrov from the Ukraine)

A Gift for Lily (based on "Black Orchids")
A Last Will of Marko (based on "Black Mountain")
Too Many Women (based on "Too Many Woman")
A Mystery of Red Box (based on "The Red Box")

Viktor Sergeev is the director of Rex Stout's (Рекс Стаут) Series 2.

A Gift for Lily - Archie in front of Wolfe's car - Wolfe is looking at black orchid - Lewis Hewitt in front of black orchid - Inspector Cramer - Wolfe and Archie at Wolfe's office - Orders for arrest of Nero Wolfe, Archie and Lewis Hewitt at Wolfe's desk (and Cramer's hand)	Too Many Women - Wolfe and Archie in plant rooms - Archie - Fritz and Archie - Archie and Lily are dancing at Flamingo
Last Will of Marko (Black Mountain) - Marko Vukcic - Pashic is murdering Marko Vukcic - Wolfe is putting golden coins on Marko's eyes - Wolfe, Goodwin and Cramer are dining at Wolfe's - Cramer at his office - Fritz - Wolfe and Goodwin close to Montenegrin coast	A Mystery of the Red Box (The Red Box) - Girls are eating sweets - Llewellyn Frost - Cramer, Stebbins and Goodwin - Boyd McNaire - Mrs. Frost - Wolfe with the red box

The Stars
Donatas Banionis (born in Lithuanian 4/28/1924), is a legendary veteran actor whose most famous role was the lead in Andrey Tarkovskiy's Solaris (1973). Banionis's Russian pronunciation was not good enough for the Russian producers of Wolfe, so another Russian actor's voiceover is used in the final version. (The same procedure was applied in all Soviet-era movies that starred Banionis.) Banionis is still active as stage actor in his native Lithuania, and he speaks all his parts there in Lithuanian.

Links to pictures of Donatas Banionis:
http://www.robertoquaglia.com/img/sf/russia/Sheckley99-P-026b.jpg
http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo14.jpg

Links to pictures of Sergey Zhigunov:
http://actors.khv.ru/actors/zhigunov.jpg
http://rol.ru/pictures/misc/consnews/zhigunovaif.jpg

Series 1 Screen Captures and fan page
A Russian fan's homepage at http://nirovulf.narod.ru/ includes links to screen captures from Series One:

Wolfe at his desk	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo.jpg
A highly suspicious-looking picture with Wolfe and a young lady -- might actually be a picture from the set, rather than a movie scene	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo12.jpg
The Russian New York	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo01.jpg
Archie at his desk	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo03.jpg
Archie in action	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo06.jpg http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo13.jpg
A very Russian-looking Archie (well, it's Professor Zhigunov) at Rusterman's, I suppose	http://nirovulf.narod.ru/photo09.jpg

The Gun with Wings

Disguise for Murder
(Russian: The Affair With the Cap)

Man Alive!
Russian (c.): Resurrect to Die

The Silent Speaker
(Russian: A Voice From the Other Side)

Comments, Questions, Corrections:
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www.nerowolfe.com

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Last updated
Last updated February 15, 2010 17:45