Ivan the Terrible, Part I

The story

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.

In the same saga

Ivan The Terrible Collection

In release order

This film

Ivan the Terrible, Part I

1944

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

1958

Cast

N Nikolai CherkasovCzar Ivan IV L Lyudmila TselikovskayaCzarina Anastasia Romanovna S Serafima BirmanBoyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya M Mikhail NazvanovPrince Andrei Kurbsky M Mikhail ZharovCzar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov A Amvrosii BuchmaCzar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov M Mikhail KuznetsovFyodor Basmanov P Pavel KadochnikovVladimir Andreyevich Staritsky A Andrei AbrikosovBoyar Fyodor Kolychev A Alexander MgebrovNovgorod's Archbishop Pimen M Maxim MikhaylovArchdeacon V Vladimir BalashovPiotr Volynetz

See more cast

V Vsevolod PudovkinNikola, Simpleton Beggar S Semyon TimoshenkoKaspar von Oldenbock, Livonian Ambassador A Aleksandr RumnyovThe Stranger P Pavel MassalskySigismond, King of Poland V Valentina KuznetsovaSmiling Woman in the Church (uncredited) S Sergey Stolyarov(uncredited) A Anel SudakevichSigismond's court lady L Lidiya Naumova B Boris FeodosyevBoyar V Vladimir UralskiyArchbishop I Irina VolodkoSigismund's Court Lady