The Rebel Son

11/15/2025

Now you do have to suspend belief a bit with this as neither Roger Livesey nor Anthony Bushell make for especially convincing Cossacks, but once the brothers “Peter” and “Andrew” (not “Andrei”) return from their educational sojourn to Kiev, the scene is swiftly set for a mixture of betrayal, rebellion and romance. The Poles are in charge and it’s the prince “Zamnitsky” (Frederick Culley) who commands these unruly serfs, before his daughter “Marina” (Patricia Roc) attracts the attention of “Peter” who quickly forgets all his familial and tribal loyalties and soon has his father “Taras” (a positively exuberant Harry Baur) in conniptions that could induce a double hernia, if the dancing didn’t do that first! Despite the plentiful and unconvincingly plummy English characterisations on display