Anastasia

11/9/2022

Whilst this is certainly a lavish and luxuriant production, somehow the sum of the parts just don't add up to much of an whole. Yul Brynner is the ambitious, former general-turned-restauranteur "Bounine" who has been, for many a year, convincing his financial backers that he has discovered the last surviving child of the assassinated Czar Nicholas II. He has discovered the sickly and troubled "Anna" (Ingrid Bergman) and hopes that with some grooming, training and furs she might be able to convince the Dowager Empress (Helen Hayes) that she is, indeed, her granddaughter. It also turns out that should she endorse the identity of the young woman, the enormous sum of £10 million will be released to her by the Bank of England. Bergman is strong as the initially vulnerable, amnesiac girl who has