Red Pawn

Red Pawn is a screenplay written by Ayn Rand. It was the first screenplay that Rand sold. Universal Pictures purchased it 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 prisoners. 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.

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 six months later. Kareyev takes Joan on a tour around the prison island during which she observes the prisoners. 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. She will sneak him onto the next boat and help him escape the country through the help of an English merchant in the nearby town of Nijni Kolimsk. She asks that Michael trust her and 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 prisoners 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. 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.

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