the other hand, considers that the law is a higher value for its own sake and cannot be used merely as a tool. A tense conflict also arises when, in order to mislead Fox, Zheglov elects to continue keeping Gruzdev under arrest even after it becomes clear that the man is innocent. Production The film's title is a reference to the finale, where Sharapov's botched attempt to withdraw after making contact with the gang forces Zheglov to follow a previously discarded plan for a risky undercover operation. Hoping that Sharapov will lure the bandits to the scene of a prior robbery as they have previously rehearsed, Zheglov utters: "The place and time of the operation cannot be changed." According to some recollections, Vysotsky played a major creative role in the making of the series. He conceived the idea of turning the novel into a movie after receiving an advance copy of the book from the Vayner brothers, and he actively campaigned for the part of Zheglov despite the fact that the character in the novel was a much younger man. During the making of the film, Vysotsky frequently substituted for Govorukhin as director, including directing the entire scene of Dr. Gruzdev's interrogation, and he also invented the comical attributes of the character of Kostya "The Brick" Saprykin (a good-natured pickpocket with a speech impediment). Young actor Ivan Bortnik (a close friend of Vysotsky) was praised for his vivid and accurate portrayal of the Black Cat henchman Promokashkathe role that dominated his further film acting career. Often typecast as a stereotypical Russian criminal, Bortnik is actually a highly educated man hailing from a family of Moscow academics. He created his iconic part (most of it ad-libbed since the creators had only envisioned a minor supporting role with little dialogue) only by recollecting his occasional street contacts with young criminal wannabes. Similarly, veteran film and voice-over actor Aleksandr Belyavsky would routinely get approached in the street by ex-convicts who expressed admiration for what they thought to be the actor's former criminal background, citing the scene of Fox's interrogation where he is bleeding from his lip and arrogantly wipes the blood on the side of Sharapov's desk. In reality, Belyavsky had no criminal background whatsoever, and he improvised the entire scene by using cherry preserves he had borrowed from production assistants during a lunch break to simulate the blood. One of the film's