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 Volkontzeva, 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.