The stuntman explained why artist Konstantin Zheldin did not die on the set of the famous series

You should start with your last name, or rather, with your pseudonym. After all, the credits indicate precisely the stage name under which this artist was remembered by the audience. In fact, Konstantin Borisovich, born in October 1933, inherited the surname Schwabauer from his father. However, later, when the young man “went into acting,” fears arose that such a surname could complicate his path to success and building a public career. I had to find a replacement.

How old is Holthoff

Actor Zheldin’s finest hour came in 1973, after the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring” was first shown to Soviet television viewers. Since then, Konstantin Borisovich’s “calling card” has been the role of SS Obersturmbannführer Wilhelm Ferdinand Holthoff.

It is with Tatyana Lioznova’s series that several “hidden” secrets of the wonderful artist are connected from most of us.

But let’s start with the fact that, it turns out, “Holtoff” and “Stirlitz” knew each other and even “served” together more than ten years before the movie saga about the Soviet super-intelligence officer appeared. In 1960, this pair of actors starred in the film “Midshipman Panin” by the famous director Mikhail Schweitzer. Only there the heroes of Vyacheslav Tikhonov and Konstantin Zheldin bore different names: respectively, midshipman Vasily Panin and his colleague on the cruiser “Elizabeth” Baron von Lemke II (as we see, both are also officers, but of the Russian Imperial Navy).

And now an interesting point related to the personal data of the Zhelda character from “Seventeen Moments”, which the “MK” correspondent managed to discover only by showing maximum observation and vigilance.

So, in the 1st episode of the film, a document appears before the viewer’s eyes, the contents of which are read behind the scenes by Efim Kopelyan in his insinuating voice: “Top secret… Characteristics of a member of the NSDAP since 1938, Holthoff Wilhelm Ferdinand, SS Obersturmbannführer (IV Department of the RSHA)…” On The screen shows us a large fragment – several lines translated into Russian. But before that, a general view of the fake “documentary evidence” is shown (as experts explain, in reality the secret services of the Third Reich did not practice compiling such characteristics) with a photograph of Holthoff himself, a seal and text printed in German.

Having taken a still frame and examined it, the author of these lines discovered that the German typewritten “original” mentioned the year of birth of the SS man – 1921. Thus, it turns out that at the time of the events unfolding in the series, the character of Konstantin Zheldin was only 24 years old! Considering the “creak” with which SS officers were often promoted to the ranks, it must be admitted that Holtoff had a truly breathtaking career, rising by the end of the war to the rank of Obersturmbannführer – lieutenant colonel by army standards. For comparison, Stirlitz, who was considered a very valuable specialist by his superiors, was a Standartenführer-Colonel at the age of 45, that is, only one step higher in rank than his zealous colleague Wilhelm Ferdinand, who was practically old enough to be his son.

It seems that the mentioned fact can be considered a miscalculation of one of those members of the film crew who were involved in the material part. They overlooked the preparation of the requisite document; it was necessary to “age” Holtoff by typing at least “1911” in the description instead of “1921” (probably, the typist simply made a typo). By the way, in this case, the actor chosen for this role would be more consistent in age with his character. After all, during the filming of “Seventeen Moments,” Konstantin Zheldin was already approaching 40.

Idle blow

Perhaps the main question that arises in viewers after watching episodes of the famous series where the Zheldin SS man appears is how the actor survived the memorable scene when Tikhonov-Stirlitz hit him on the head with a cognac bottle?

The movie Holtoff, as far as can be judged from the film footage, simply passed out after such a blow and, in addition, received a bleeding wound on his head, and had a very pitiful appearance, having been doused with an expensive drink from above. What actually happened to Konstantin Borisovich during the filming of such an extreme scene?

You should immediately reassure everyone: the artist was not hurt at all.

Zheldin himself said years later that a certain wax fake bottle had been prepared in advance for the episode, but Tikhonov refused to use it, for fear of injuring his partner. We had to demonstrate the process of “neutralizing” the provocateur sent by Mueller, using editing tricks. This “magic remedy” helped hide the actual action: Stirlitz, swinging his hand, lowered the bottle past Holtoff’s head.

On the screen everything looks very believable. Both characters are shown first. The Soviet intelligence officer, approaching from behind, swings his improvised weapon, as it may seem, towards the top of the head of the unexpected guest sitting at the table. But then the camera begins to zoom in on Stirlitz’s face, taking him in ever-increasing close-up, while Holtoff completely disappears from view, remaining somewhere below. As a result, the viewer does not see the blow with a glass “macker” on the Obersturbannführer’s head, which supposedly happened in the next moment (in fact, the bottle safely passed Zheldin). All that can be heard is the recorded crackling sound of breaking glass and the rustle of flying fragments. And then they immediately edited footage of a stunned SS man doused in cognac falling onto the table.

Everything seen in this episode of the 8th series seems to confirm the words of Konstantin Borisovich that on the set, at Tikhonov’s suggestion, they decided to feel sorry for him and Vyacheslav Vasilyevich deliberately missed, waving a bottle next to his partner’s head.

However, Mariam Bykhovskaya, who worked as a costume designer on “Seventeen Moments,” and with whom the author of these lines had a chance to talk, remembered something else. Colleagues from the film crew told her that they then made several takes of such a “killer” scene, and at least once Stirlitz still hit Holtoff with a “glass container” – but not a real one, but a fake one.

Based on what we heard from Mariam Alexandrovna, we can assume that a trick with the so-called “sugar bottle” was performed in front of the camera lens. The essence of it was explained to the MK correspondent by the famous Soviet stuntman Vladimir Zharikov.

“Episodes when, according to the script, one actor hits another on the dome with a bottle are by no means rare. They can be seen both in cinema and on the theater stage. To perform such a trick, they stock up on objects made from “sugar” or, in other words, “stunt” glass.

Nowadays, special plastic is used as a material. And before the name was quite consistent with the physical essence. The bottle was made, or more precisely, cast, from a thick syrup, the main ingredient of which was sugar. After hardening, the resulting lollipop was given the required shape (in the case discussed here, the shape of a cognac bottle. – HELL.).

“Glass” made from sugar, of course, does not have the same transparency as real glass; it has a brown tint (however, if according to the plot the bottle should contain cognac or other dark liquid, this feature is completely invisible to the viewer). In addition, this prop requires very careful handling; in addition, it is “perishable”. When heated, a “sweet” fake bottle softens, becomes sticky and even begins to deform. That is, the actor must wield it quickly, otherwise, due to the heat waves from the powerful spotlights turned on on the set, the special bottle may “float” from the warmth of human hands. And this, of course, will become noticeable in the frame, and you will have to wash your fingers later.

The mentioned disadvantages are compensated by the external effect achieved with the help of such a product. The “sugar” bottle, with the slightest blow or slight pressure, crumbles into pieces. Moreover, its fragments, unlike real glass, do not have sharp corners that can injure. However, even taking into account the above, you still need to hit with such a fake object skillfully. The attacker must perform a delayed strike – that is, when the bottle approaches the victim’s head, slow down the movement of the hand. Then you will be able to limit yourself to just a light, completely painless clap on the top of your partner’s head, which is quite enough for the “sugar” bottle to shatter into pieces.”

If you believe the information heard from Bykhovskaya, it becomes clear that, having filmed two fundamentally different versions of this “shock” film trick – with Stirlitz specially missing and using a fake bottle – Tatyana Lioznova, when editing the 8th episode of the film, still preferred the first of them.

Alas, it is now unlikely that it will be possible to find out exactly all the details about the filming of the impressive scene from “Moments”, which the audience remembered so well. But in any of the described cases, Konstantin Zheldin, as you understand, could not have suffered at the hands of Vyacheslav Tikhonov.

Jeweler and four other counterintelligence officers

This is from the list of roles of Honored Artist of the RSFSR Konstantin Zheldin.

Studying the actor’s filmography, you can be sure that he had the opportunity to participate more than once in films that are film adaptations of Yulian Semenov’s works from a cycle united by a cross-cutting character – illegal intelligence officer Maxim Isaev.

Even before “Seventeen Moments,” in 1967, Konstantin Borisovich starred in the series “Major “Whirlwind,” which is also dedicated to the events of the Great Patriotic War. The film tells how a Soviet reconnaissance group, having been thrown behind German lines, was able to prevent the operation planned by the Nazi command to destroy ancient Krakow.

In Semenov’s novel of the same name, Isaev-Stirlitz is present, but when preparing the script, the writer removed from it all the events associated with the famous film intelligence officer: the time of Stirlitz – Colonel Maxim Maksimovich Isaev has not yet come, he remained behind the scenes. And Zheldin in “Major “Whirlwind” played the episodic role of a Gestapo man who is checking a member of the reconnaissance group Kolya, who is trying to legalize himself among the occupiers.

The participation, albeit fleeting, of Konstantin Borisovich in this three-part film, which gained popularity among viewers, received a very significant continuation, which adorned the actor’s filmography. A year later, the director of “Whirlwind” Evgeny Tashkov invited Zheldin to star in his new big project. This is how the artist ended up in the epoch-making series “His Excellency’s Adjutant.” He played there the White Guard counterintelligence captain Viktor Osipov. The actor turned out to be very vivid and memorable in his role of this absolutely negative character. It is interesting that, according to Tashkov’s original version, Yuri Solomin was supposed to become Osipov. However, then Yuri Methodievich was “promoted” to the leading role – Captain Koltsov, and Zheldin became the cruel assistant to the head of counterintelligence Shchukin instead.

By the will of the directors, the cinematic path of Konstantin Zheldin, many years after “Seventeen Moments,” again crossed paths with Stirlitz, only in his other incarnation.

At the same time, by the power of the almighty cinema, Konstantin Borisovich had the opportunity to travel back in time, not forward. In 2009, he starred in the historical adventure series “Isaev”, the basis for the script of which was two novels and a story by Yulian Semenov about the security officer Maxim Maksimovich Isaev. Only this time this superhero is still far from turning into Standartenführer Stirlitz: after all, the events shown in the film take place in the early 1920s. The character previously played by V. Tikhonov was now embodied on the screen by another actor: Daniil Strakhov became Isaev in his youth. And Konstantin Zheldin got the role of Nikolai Pozhamchi – a jeweler, the chief appraiser of Gokhran, involved in the theft of jewelry from there.

Among Zheldin’s dozens of film roles, there are several more where, after “Seventeen Moments,” he got to play German officers—employees of the Gestapo. The directors liked him in this role.

Almost simultaneously with Tatiana Lioznova’s series, Stepan Puchinyan’s film “The Fight,” dedicated to the work of a Soviet intelligence officer during the war, was completed. This time, Konstantin Borisovich received an offer to transform into the Gestapo officer Major Kraft.

And three years later, viewers saw the two-part “Front Without Flanks.” Here again the creative paths of old acquaintances – Konstantin Zheldin and Vyacheslav Tikhonov – converged. However, the plot scenario turned out to be somewhat different. Tikhonov – ex-Isaev-Stirlitz – again appeared in the role of a security officer, only now he has a different name – Ivan Mlynsky, and a lower rank: major. He leads a detachment of Soviet soldiers and commanders fighting the Nazis in their rear. As for Zheldin, he once again had the opportunity to play Tikhonov’s “opponent” – the cameo role of SS Sturmbannführer Kurt Schmidt.