Rasputin (1928 film)

Rasputin, The Prince of Sinners (German: Dornenweg einer Fürstin), or simply Rasputin, is a 1928 German-Soviet drama film co-directed by Nikolai Larin and Boris Nevolin and starring Vladimir Gajdarov, Suzanne Delmas and Ernst Rückert. The film's poster showed the tagline "rysslands onda ande", which translates as "Russia's Evil Spirit". It was shot at the Johannisthal Studios in Berlin. The film's sets were designed by Carl Ludwig Kirmse. This film is sometimes confused with another 1928 German silent film made about Rasputin called Rasputin, the Holy Sinner.

This being the only known German-Russian co-production ever done about Rasputin, the filmmakers were able to shoot the film at or near the historical places where the real life incidents portrayed actually occurred. In 1928, Russian authorities were interested in showing Rasputin as the monster he really was, rather than try to elicit sympathy for the character. He is depicted as a sexually promiscuous alcoholic with abhorrent manners, similar to the manner in which Hammer Films later portrayed him in their 1966 Christopher Lee film, Rasputin the Mad Monk.

Cast

 * Gregori Chmara as Rasputin
 * Vladimir Gajdarov as Alexander Kolossov
 * Suzanne Delmas as Ludmilla Vorontsov
 * Ernst Rückert as Leonid Vorontsov
 * Fritz Alberti as Prince Vorontsov, Reichtsrats-Mitglied
 * Hedwig Wangel as Princess Vorontsov
 * Mary Kid as Tatiana Oblonskaya
 * Hans Albers as Sergej Ordinsky, diplomat
 * Anton Pointner as Peter Avdeev
 * Günther Hadank as Radlow
 * Lidiya Tridenskaya as Anissja, the cook
 * Oreste Baldini as Mitensohn
 * David Monko as Sokolsky - secretary
 * Karl Platen as Sawely, the servant