Best on Max: Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot Watch and Cast Guide

Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot (1958) — an evergreen reference for this movie: the essentials, the cast, where to watch and what to watch next.

Where to watch

TMDB's U.S. watch-provider data lists HBO Max Amazon Channel, Criterion Channel, HBO Max. Availability changes by country and date, so check your streaming app before watching.

Cast

Nikolai Cherkasov as Czar Ivan IV; Serafima Birman as Boyarina Efrosinia Staritskaya; Pavel Kadochnikov as Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky; Mikhail Zharov as Czar's Guard Malyuta Skuratov; Amvrosii Buchma as Czar's Guard Aleksei Basmanov; Vsevolod Pudovkin as Nikolay the Fanatic; Mikhail Kuznetsov as Fyodor Basmanov; Alexander Mgebrov as Novgorod's Archbishop Pimen

About Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.

More like Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot

• Mr. Turner
• The Scarlet and the Black
• A Call to Spy
• Mary
• My Dinner with Hervé
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
• Peterloo
• Shattered Glass

Figures and availability come from public TMDB data and are provided as a sourced reference.