Directed by:
Sergei M. EisensteinComposer:
Sergei ProkofievCast:
Nikolai Cherkasov, Lyudmila Tselikovskaya, Mikhail Nazvanov, Mikhail Zharov, Andrei Abrikosov, Maxim Michajlov, Mikhail Kuznetsov, Pavel Kadochnikov (more)Plots(1)
Originally conceived as a historical epic in three parts, Sergei Eisenstein's epic biography of Czar Ivan IV, the murderous 16th-century unifier of the Russian people, was truncated by the director's death in 1948, as he was about to begin part three. A spectacle of impressively baroque splendor, it remains one of the great anomalies of film history. Starring Nikolai Cherkassov as the eponymous ruler, the film opens with the 16-year-old's opulent coronation in 1546. He breaks with the custom of marriage to a foreign princess by marrying a Russian girl, Anastasia Romanovna (Lyudmila Tselikovskaya), thereby offending the nobility. In an effort to expand his territory eastward, he leads an army of 100,000 to seize Kazan, succeeding only after a long and bitter campaign. After contracting a seemingly fatal illness, Ivan summons the boyars, led by his aunt Euphrosinia (Serafima Birman), but they refuse his demand to swear allegiance to his one-year-old son, greatly angering the czar. When Ivan miraculously returns to health, he begins to consolidate power in opposition to the boyars. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
![Nikolai Cherkasov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/021/353/21353543_2ae138.jpg)
Nikolai Cherkasov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Pyotr pervyy I (1937)
Lyudmila Tselikovskaya
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Un homme véritable (1948)
Mikhail Nazvanov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Hamlet (1964)
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Mikhail Zharov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/159/354/159354672_f38c91.jpg)
Mikhail Zharov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Pyotr pervyy I (1937)
![Andrei Abrikosov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/160/125/160125783_9411b0.jpg)
Andrei Abrikosov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
The Karamazov Brothers (1969)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Maxim Michajlov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Mikhail Kuznetsov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Marya Iskusnitsa (1959)
![Pavel Kadochnikov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/272/272085_17362e.jpg)
Pavel Kadochnikov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Siberiade (1979)
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Всеволод Пудовкин](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/000/270/270071_68fb87.jpg)
Всеволод Пудовкин
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Mother (1926)
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Pavel Massalsky](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/033/879/33879983_3da05b.jpg)
Pavel Massalsky
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Alye parusa (1961)
![Semyon Timoshenko](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/157/908/157908766_41e2e8.jpg)
Semyon Timoshenko
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Oleg Zhakov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/162/289/162289857_53df24.jpg)
Oleg Zhakov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
The Overcoat (1926)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Leonid Kosmatov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/162/316/162316043_c940e9.jpg)
Leonid Kosmatov
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
![Vladimir Balashov](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/162/321/162321654_1afc8e.jpg)
Vladimir Balashov
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Oni shli na Vostok (1965)
![Irina Volodko](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/164/280/164280532_5beb4e.jpg)
Irina Volodko
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part II (1945)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Константин Сорокин
Russian Empire
Best movies:
Novye priklyucheniya neulovimykh (1968)
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Cossacks of the Kuban (1949)
![Yuri Pomerantsev](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w88h116crop/files/images/creator/photos/166/997/166997827_854648.jpg)
Yuri Pomerantsev
Soviet Union
Best movies:
Ivan the Terrible, Part One (1945)
Liberation: The Fire Bulge (1970)