The boyars turn to Ivan's aunt Efrosinia (Serafima Birman), who schemes to install her effeminate, simpleton son, Vladimir (Pavel Kadochnikov), as Tsar. Ivan's best friend and fellow royal Prince Kurbsky (Mikhail Nazvanov) also wants to be Tsar, especially if it allows him to marry Ivan's hottie wife Anastasia (Lyudmila Tselikovskaya).
Ivan finds allies in the proletariat, who have been oppressed by the boyars. Ivan seeks to reclaim formerly Russian territory controlled by the Mongols and Livonians. The indecisive Kurbsky in successful in battle against the Mongols, thanks to Ivan's military strategy.
Alas, Ivan becomes critically ill, and his court intrigues over a successor. Ivan miraculously recovers, but has setbacks. Kurbsky loses to the Livonians, then defects to Poland, leaving Ivan friendless. Joykiller Efrosinia poisons Anastasia. Ivan leaves Moscow with a retinue, vowing to return only when the proletariat demands it.
How others will see it. Director Sergei Eisenstein was a living legend due to the internationally acclaimed Battleship Potemkin (1925). During World War II, a time when the Soviet Union's very existence was threatened by Hitler's invasion, dictator Joseph Stalin commissioned Eisenstein to direct a three-part film on the life Of Ivan the Terrible.
Eisenstein completed Part One in 1944, and Stalin was pleased. Part Two was delivered in 1946, delayed by Eisenstein's heart attack in February 1946. Stalin disliked Part Two, so much so that he shelved the movie and put an end to the production of Part Three. Eisenstein died from a second heart attack in February 1948.
Stalin died in 1953, and was soon succeeded by the blustery but more moderate Nikita Khrushchev, who allowed the release of Part Two in 1958. While Stalin did not like Part Two, the reception in the West was highly favorable for both movies. They are often lumped together; for example, both are covered in the same Wikipedia article, and Turner Classic Movies often shows them back to back.
Today at imdb.com, Part One has 9,300 user votes, a surprisingly high total for a subtitled black-and-white movie that is seldom shown on Western television. The user rating is very high, 7.8 overall and fairly consistent among demographics. The user reviews are highly positive and predictably extol Eisenstein's genius. They recognize it as hammy and stagy, but regard that as a positive more than a negative.
How I felt about it. Many believe that Parts One and Two should not be seen as separate movies. After all, they share the same cast, the same crew, the same characters, the same sets, and the same costumes. But the same can be said about, for example, Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and those movies are considered individually.
I prefer to see Part One and Part Two as separate movies, primarily because I believe Part One is much better than Part Two. I hate to admit it, given that he was a paranoid dictator who (much like Ivan himself) killed millions of his own people, but on this point I agree with Stalin.
Part Two is practically a parody of Part One. Ivan's bodyguards sing and dance in front of the Tsar, and their song lyrics are about cutting off the heads of the boyars, solely for opposing Ivan's authoritarian rule. This is followed by an even more silly sequence where the Tsar's would-be assassin confuses Ivan with Vladmir, even though he knows them both and Ivan (or at least the actor playing him) is at least six inches taller. How does Ivan know exactly when the assassin will strike?
Part One is a lot better. True, Eisenstein makes excessive use of shadows, and is fond of drawn-out reactions from actors. He will never be accused of being subtle. But the campy performances are great fun, Eisenstein makes good use of extras, and the costumes and sets are top notch. Part One is in the so-bad-it's-good camp, while Part Two is more like too-bad-to-be-good.