Criminal Talent (Russian: Криминальный талант, romanized: Kriminalnyy talant) is a 1988 Soviet two-part television crime feature film, a screen version of the same story by Stanislav Rodionov.
Contents
Plot
In Leningrad, there are a number of similar crimes associated with fraud and theft. Men get acquainted with a girl in a restaurant, drink a few glasses of alcohol and come to their senses in a completely different place, without money in their pockets. Investigator Sergei Ryabinin and police captain Vadim Petelnikov are beginning to hunt for the crooks, but it soon becomes clear that there is only one girl, a real "criminal talent". When following the alleged criminal, Peltelnikov himself becomes her victim. In the end he succeeds in tracking down the thief, but she brazenly runs right out from under the nose of the unlucky police officers.
Soon again unusual crimes begin in the city. On behalf of the victims to their relatives' addresses, "tragic" telegrams arrive with the request to send money, and nobody can explain how the criminals manage to get the confidential information. Investigator Ryabinin is sure that this is the tricks of the same girl whom he is hunting. Ryabinin unravels the criminal's secret, arranges a trap for her, and finally, the fraudster Alexandra Rukoyatkina is caught.
But now the most difficult part begins. The "criminal talent" is imprisoned, but the evidence against her is extremely unconvincing, and the court will probably not take it into account. The investigator has a difficult psychological duel, the result of which should be a candid confession of the young criminal.
Cast
Aleksei Zharkov as Sergey Ryabinin, investigator
Alexandra Zakharova as Alexandra Rukoyatkina, swindler
Igor Nefyodov as Vadim Petelnikov, police captain
Vladimir Korenev as Sergey Kurikin, victim
Vladimir Simonov as Victor Kaplichenkov, victim
Lyudmila Davydova as Lyudmila Afanasyevna, the commandant of the hostel
Yanislav Levinzon as tailor, victim
Oleg Filimonov as waiter
Oleg Shkolnik as the seller in the furniture store
Svetlana Fabrikant as girl at a restaurant
Alla Budnitskaya as Ustyuzhanina, an ambulance doctor
Yuriy Dubrovin as educator Snegirev nicknamed Karmazin
Anna Nazareva as Alexandra Rukoyatkina's friend
Viktor Pavlovsky as Ivan Savelovich, police major in the sobering-up station
Yevgeniy Ganelin as police sergeant
Elena Borzunova as Masha Gvozdikina, secretary of the prosecutor's office