Wow! Such a good movie.

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

If you can ride out the dull spots in this talky 1956 movie there is a fascinating story in there somewhere.The film starts in 1928 as expatriate Russian supporters of the Romanov dynasty in Paris led by General Bounine (Yul Brynner), set up a scam to get their hands on a fortune left in a British bank by Tsar Nicholas II.The idea is to pass off Anna Anderson (Ingrid Bergman), a homeless amnesiac, as the Princess Anastasia. The key to the plan is to make Empress Maria Feodorovna, the Tsar's mother, accept Anna as her long lost granddaughter.According to the film, fake Anastasias were popping up out of just about every bowl of cabbage borscht and Beluga caviar, but eventually Anna is so convincing that we are never sure if she is the real deal or not. Although a number of scenes were filmed in Paris and Copenhagen, opening the film out, the first half is tough going, especially the scenes with Bounine, Boris Chernov (Akim Tamiroff) and the other plotters in stagy-looking sets – too many gabby, eccentric characters piled one on top of the other. I'm afraid Hollywood's stereotypes of Russian emigres of the period were just as tedious as their take on the denizens of Ruritanian Kingdoms that were also a speciality of the old studios.However when Anna interacts with the Empress, the film has tension. Ingrid received the Academy Award for this role although these days she comes across as maybe a little too overwrought while Yul Brynner simply plays Yul Brynner.Over the years, there have been some fascinating books written about whether or not Anastasia survived. Eventually the discovery of the bodies and DNA took all the fun out of the speculation, pretty well proving that she was murdered in 1918 along with the rest of her family. The real history of the end of the Romanovs is still a haunting story; a 2014 BBC documentary, "Russia's Lost Princesses", gives a brilliant insight into their lives and shocking deaths.One thing about Anatole Litvak's "Anastasia" though, every time I see it, it fires my imagination to know more about the real events.

Principal players: Ingrid Bergman (Anastasia), Yul Brynner (the prince), Helen Hayes (the dowager empress).Interesting players in supporting roles: Akim Tamiroff (Chernov), Martita Hunt (the baroness), Ivan Desny (Prince Paul). Principal production personnel: Director: Anatole Litvak. Screenplay: Arthur Laurents, based on a stage play by Guy Bolton (which was in turn based on a TV play by Marcelle Maurette). Photography: Jack Hildyard. Color: DeLuxe. Art directors: Andrei Andrejew, Bill Andrews. Music: Alfred Newman. Producer: Buddy Adler. 20th Century-Fox. 105 minutes. Official release date: 13 December 1956. New York opening at the Roxy. COMMENT: Deservedly a great commercial and critical success, "Anastasia" won numerous awards, including America's two top Best Actress citations for Ingrid Bergman and a National Board of Review "Best Actor" for Yul Brynner. The story, of course, has been heavily romanticized, but Litvak's aim was to deliver spellbinding entertainment, and this, with the support of an engrossing script, a charismatic cast and well over $3.5 million in production values, the director has admirably achieved. Rarely has the super-wide CinemaScope screen been so consistently utilized with such power and dramatic impact. In color, only "Broken Lance", "The River of No Return" and "The Virgin Queen" run "Anastasia" close. The DVD can be obtained on the 20th Century-Fox label. Quality rating: ten out of ten.

Anatole Litvak directed this drama that fictionalizes the story of presumed murdered Czarina princess Anastasia, whom three Russian exiles(led by Yul Brynner) plot to pass off as the real thing in order to get part of the vast fortune, using suicidal and destitute woman named Anastasia(played by Ingrid Bergman in an Academy Award winning role) who comes to believe she is the real czarina, though must convince the skeptical Empress(played by Helen Hayes) to be accepted. Ponderous and dated film has fine acting, but story was based on the real Anna Anderson, who made the initial claims(and was profiled on both "In Search Of..." & "Unsolved Mysteries") that have since been disproved by irrefutable DNA evidence.

I'm right now reading a biography of Ingrid Bergman so I took it upon myself to watch this movie to remind me of her charms. And a better movie I couldn't have chosen. Bergman embodies the well-known role of Anastasia wonderfully, from rags to riches, from a vagabond half-mad to a princess in love. But it's a movie in which all the stars shine, and Yul Brynner blends dignity and resentment well as the fallen Russian general, and Helen Hayes is utterly believable as the exiled Dowager Empress who has lost her daughter and grandchildren to the Russian Revolution. Watching the trio interact is watching art in motion, which may sound melodramatic, but it's how I feel when I'm watching brilliant actors play off each other. When Anastasia and the Dowager Empress come to the realization that she is indeed the lost princess, I was brought to the brink of tears. It came as a surprise to me; I generally don't watch movies that would make me cry and I certainly didn't expect it from this one. Finding an unexpected gem is what makes slogging through piles of crap worthwhile.