Ivan the Terrible, Part I (1945, Soviet Union) (aka Ivan Groznyy, or Иван Грозный)

In writer/director Sergei Eisenstein's film (his last film directed and completed) was released in the mid-1940s and hailed as a success, followed by Part II (Ivan Groznyy. Skaz vtoroy: Boyarskiy zagovor (1958)) completed by 1946, but suppressed and delayed until 1958 due to a ban by Stalin himself (who objected to the depiction of the ruler) - the epic, stagey film (harkening back to highly-stylized silent film techniques) characterized by expressionistic sets, facial closeups, heavy costuming, angled camera shots for contrast, stark light and shadows, huge sets, religious imagery and a score by Prokofiev:

• this was an historical, costume-rich, operatic pageantry film about the idealistic and stern 16th century Ivan Vasilyevich, or Ivan IV, Duke of Moscow who ruled Russia from 1533 to 1547 as the anointed Tsar; his nickname Groznyy was usually translated as Terrible - and served as a parody of Russian ruler Josef Stalin; the entire film was mostly about court intrigue and his struggle against the plotting of the Boyars and his efforts to make them submit to his powerful will as Tsar; Ivan eventually consolidated power in himself through personal guards, secret police or "iron men" known as Oprichniki
• the opening sequence - the coronation of young Grand Prince of Muscovy Ivan (Nikolai Cherkasov), by the approval of a land-owning nobility/bourgeoisie class (affluent and hereditary) known as the Boyars

Opening Sequence: Coronation of Grand Prince Ivan

• Ivan's marriage to Anastasia Romanovna (Lyudmila Tselikovskaya), the Czarina, bearing a child - infant son Dmitri
• his campaign against the Tartars in Kazan, Ivan's serious illness on his deathbed, and battles and campaigns to reclaim lost Russian territory
• the scenes of major conflict with his own witchy and scheming boyarina Aunt Efrosinia Staritskaya (Serafima Birman) who plotted to assassinate him with the help of other traditionalists; she wanted to appoint her own dim-witted simpleton son Vladimir Andreyevich Staritsky (Pavel Kadochnikov) as the new Tsar; she also encouraged one of Ivan's friends, Prince Andrei Kurbsky (Mikhail Nazvanov), who lusted after Anastasia, to betray him; another friend Fyodor Kolychev (Andrei Abrikosov), became Archbishop Philip and then became part of a religious group that opposed Ivan along with the Boyars
• Staritskaya's plotting and murder of Ivan's wife by having her drink from a large poisoned goblet of wine

Poisoning and Death of Ivan's Wife

• Ivan's abdication of the throne in Moscow and self-imposed exile at the Alexandrov monastery before a populist movement (and an endless and massive procession of supporters streaming to him) demanded his return to save the country