Anastasia (1956)
Grade: 73
Ingrid Bergman won the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in "Anastasia", which cemented her Hollywood comeback following her scandalous affair with Italian director Roberto Rosellini. The film was based on the Marcelle Maurette play, and also provided good roles for bald-headed, fiery-eyed Yul Brynner and noted stage actress Helen Hayes.
Anastasia, youngest daughter of Czar Nicholas II, was murdered by the Bolsheviks following the Russian Revolution. Or did she somehow survive? Someone apparently believes so, or they wouldn't have a ten million dollar trust fund waiting for her to show up to claim it.
It is the early 1920s, and Brynner is conspiring with Akim Tamiroff and Sacha Pitoeff to produce a credible Anastasia so that the account can be defrauded. Bergman, a woman without an identity who bears a physical resemblance to Anastasia, is rescued from a suicide attempt by Brynner. He then coldly trains her to pass as Her Majesty.
But there are many skeptics, and to succeed Bergman must convince Anastasia's still-living grandmother (Hayes). Along the way, it becomes obvious that Bergman really is Anastasia. She also must choose between two suitors, pleasant rogue Prince Paul (Ivan Desny) and imposing, abrupt Brynner.
The best thing about "Anastasia" is the dense script. There are many clever lines that reveal the idiosyncrasies of the characters. Bergman, Hayes and Brynner are well cast. The biggest problem with "Anastasia" is the ending; there is no romantic chemistry between Bergman and Brynner, and it is difficult to believe that Brynner would forgo his hard-won jackpot and that Bergman would pass up a chance to play Princess.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews