In need of a title to fill out its 1974 quota, the AFT turned to the reigning legend of stage-to-screen—Lord Olivier’s version of Anton Chekhov’s play had not yet been released in the U.S. In 1900, the death of their army-colonel father leaves three Russian women at loose ends and forced to reassess their lives as they seek love and purpose. With Alan Bates, Derek Jacobi, Olivier, and Olivier’s wife Joan Plowright as Masha.