Krakh Inzhenera Garina
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Krakh Inzhenera Garina
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|---|---|
| Episodes: | 4 |
| Year: | 1973 |
| Country: | Soviet Union |
| Seasons: | 1 |
| Seasons Breakdown: | (1) 4 |
| Category: | Mad Scientists |
| Colour: | Yes |
| Format: | Mini-Series |
| Company: | LenFilm |
| Creator: | Sergei Potepalov (Based on "Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin" by Alexei Tolstoy) |
| Run Time (mins): | 247 (all episodes) |
| Language: | Russian |
| Type of Show: | Live Action |
| Status: | Ended |
| Broadcaster: | |
Summary
Set in the 1920s, the narrative centres on engineer Pyotr Garin, whose apparent murder at an abandoned dacha near Leningrad prompts a Soviet investigation. Evidence at the scene indicates that Garin had been developing a powerful heat ray, a conclusion reinforced by unusual materials recovered from the site. It soon emerges that the victim was not Garin himself but a friend disguised as him, while the real Garin has fled abroad. The Soviet Academy of Sciences dispatches physicist Shelga to locate Garin and persuade him to return.
Overseas, Garin has completed the heat ray, a long‑range destructive device capable of burning through solid matter. He intends to use it to drill into South America’s deep gold deposits and thereby establish himself as a global power. To secure financing, he approaches American industrialist Rolling, whose initial scepticism gives way to interest once Garin demonstrates the ray’s capabilities. After neutralising gangsters sent by Rolling and winning over Rolling’s lover, Zoya, Garin obtains the support he needs. Rolling himself employs the ray to destroy a rival chemical plant, confirming its strategic value.
The device soon attracts the attention of Nazi‑aligned conspirators, including Rolling’s secretary, Sheffer, who begins plotting to seize it. German industrialist Dietz also attempts to negotiate for the invention, but his nephew, sent as an intermediary, is murdered. Shelga eventually tracks Garin down, only to be severely wounded in an ambush. Released by the Nazis in the hope that he will lead them to the ray, Shelga boards Garin’s yacht, where Garin prepares to sail with Rolling and Sheffer to South America. Shelga’s efforts to convince Garin to abandon his scheme and return the device to Russia fail.
The final confrontation unfolds on a volcanic island. Sheffer sabotages the yacht, stranding the group, while Shelga urges Garin to destroy the ray. Garin refuses and nearly kills him. As Nazi forces close in, Sheffer orders Garin to eliminate Shelga, but Garin’s last activation of the heat ray ruptures the volcanic crater, unleashing a catastrophic flood that sweeps the island clean. Only a single sailor survives, washing ashore amid the bodies of the dead.
Cast
Petr Garin OLEG BORISOV, Vasily Shelga ALEXANDER BELYAVSKY, Rolling VASILI KORZUM, Zoya NONNA TERETYEVE, Tyklinski VLADIMIR TATOSOV, Sсhefer MIKHAIL VOLKOV, Dr. Wolf ALEXANDRA KAIDENOVSKY, Reicher GRIGORI GAJ, Ditz ANATOLI SHVEDERSKY, Sсhtufen ALGIMANTIS MASIALIS, doctor IVAN KUZNETSOV, S. SVISTUNOV, Portier VALENTIN NIKULIN, Gaston, the 'Duck Nose' YEFIM KOPELYAN.
aka: Failure of Engineer Garin
Mad Scientists, Soviet Union, 1973, Russian
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