Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars’ Plot [Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor] **** (1958, Nikolay Cherkasov, Serafima Birman, Pavel Kadochnikov) – Classic Movie Review 7473

In the sequel to Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 (1944), director Sergei M Eisenstein reconstructs the palace intrigues of the 1547-84 reign of Tsar Ivan IV (Nikolay Cherkasov), focusing on Ivan’s fight to consolidate the Russian Empire and his battles against the plotting Boyars.

Thrilling sequences illuminate this grand but uneven sequel to the 1944 Russian classic, centring on the Boyars’ plot to take power.

Filming began in 1946 and ended in 1949, but the film was not released until a decade after it was made. Stalin outlawed it because it showed Russian’s secret police, so it was only finally screened in 1958.

Some scenes were originally shown in Agfacolor.

Also in the cast are Serafima Birman, Mikhail Nazvanov, Pavel Kadochnikov, Andrei Abrikosov, Mikhail Zharov, Amyrosi Buchma, V I Pudovkin, Mikhail Kuznetzov, Alekandr Mgebrov and Pavel Massalsky.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7473

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