95 minutes
11/11/1944
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Nikolai Cherkasov
as Czar Ivan IV
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya
as Czarina Anastasia Romanovna
Serafima Birman
as Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya
Mikhail Nazvanov
as Prince Andrei Kurbsky
Mikhail Zharov
as Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov
Amvrosi Buchma
as Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov
Mikhail Kuznetsov
as Fyodor Basmanov
Pavel Kadochnikov
as Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky
Andrei Abrikosov
as Boyar Fyodor Kolychev
Alexander Mgebrov
as Novgorod's Archbishop Pimen
Maxim Mikhaylov
as Archdeacon
Vladimir Balashov
as Piotr Volynetz
Vsevolod Pudovkin
as Nikola, Simpleton Beggar
Semyon Timoshenko
as Kaspar von Oldenbock, Livonian Ambassador
Aleksandr Rumnyov
as The Stranger
Pavel Massalsky
as Sigismond, King of Poland
Valentina Kuznetsova
as Smiling Woman in the Church (uncredited)
Sergei Stolyarov
as (uncredited)