Rent Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 (1946)
3.7 of 5 from 82 ratings
1h 25min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
In 1564, Ivan (Nikolay Cherkasov) suddenly changed his methods of ruling and moved his family to his estate at Uglich outside Moscow. As a result of the pilgrimage to this country retreat by the populous of Moscow, Ivan is persuaded to return to the city. Taking advantage of this mass support, he now has the backing to make his rule more powerful and decisive than ever. The boyars were forced to to accept some drastic changes including the formation of two different governments in Russia so that Ivan could be in control of his land. He develops his own secret police force, the Oprichinks, who became his main instrument of terror and assisted him by obtaining undercover information and also doing his evil bidding exacting a terrible revenge on the aristocracy. After learning that Anastasia was probably poisoned by his aunt Euphrosinia (Serafima Birman) who was in league with the boyars and the nobles whoa re all opposed to Ivan, the Polish king (Pavel Massalsky) is about to launch his attack on Russia. A titanic struggle ensues with Ivan managing to quell this aggression and subdue the boyars. He then is able to address his attention towards the foreign enemies of Russia and seeks support from various friends and associates. The complex story is full of intrigue, high level political in-fighting, family resentment and suspicion, an assassination plot, executions and murder in the cathedral. - Actors:
- Nikolay Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov, Mikhail Zharov, Amvrosi Buchma, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Aleksandr Mgebrov, Andrei Abrikosov, Vladimir Balashov, Erik Pyryev, Mikhail Nazvanov, Pavel Massalsky, Ada Vojtsik, Aleksandr Rumnyov, Sergey Stolyarov, Semyon Timoshenko
- Directors:
- Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Producers:
- Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Writers:
- Sergei M. Eisenstein
- Aka:
- Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor / The Boyars' Plot
- Studio:
- Eureka
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- A Few More Screen Princes, A History of Soviet Silent Cinema, Battleship Potemkin At 100, Top 10 Best Last Films: World Cinema, Top 10 Films of 1948
- Countries:
- Soviet Union
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Reviews (1) of Ivan the Terrible: Part 2
Dressed to Kill - Ivan the Terrible: Part 2 review by griggs
Somewhere around the Oprichniki's song-and-dance number, I lost track of the Boyars and started wondering whether Joseph Stalin had commissioned his own nightmare.
The Boyars' plot, it turns out, is simple. Yefrosinia wants Ivan dead and her hapless son Vladimir crowned, so Ivan dresses the lad up as Tsar and lets her own assassin do the rest. Horribly clever.
Sergei Eisenstein carves everyone out of shadow until their faces look like cathedral masonry. Serafima Birman's Yefrosinia is the pick: grotesque until she finds her son's body, when the grief hits with a thud. Nikolai Cherkasov looms into every room like a coat stand with a grudge.
Then comes the colour banquet: red and gold, drunken Oprichniki, and Ivan watching like a spider. Unforgettable and baffling.
The trouble is Eisenstein sometimes buries the plot beneath all that symbolism and ceremony. Stalin's objections were largely political, though irritatingly, the charge of "formalism" has a point.
Part One made power look magnificent and faintly terrifying. The sequel drops the "faintly".
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