A young officer in the army of Empress Catherine of Russia is on his way to his new duty station at a remote outpost. During a blinding snowstorm he comes upon a stranger who was caught in the storm and is near death from freezing. He rescues the man and eventually brings him back to health. When the man is well enough to travel, the two part company and the man vows to repay the officer for saving his life. Soon after he arrives at his new post, a revolt by the local Cossacks breaks out and the fort is besieged by the rebels. The young officer is astonished to find out that the leader of the rebellious Cossacks is none other than the stranger whose life he had saved during the storm.
Production
Genuine Yugoslavian locations standing in for frozen Russian steppes
Costume
Viveca Lindfors's commanding Catherine II wardrobe
Director
Alberto Lattuada
Silvana Mangano
Masha
Van Heflin
Emelyan Pugachov
Viveca Lindfors
Catherine II
Geoffrey Horne
Piotr Grinov
Robert Keith
Capt. Miranov
Agnes Moorehead
Vassilissa Mironova
Vittorio Gassman
Prosecutor
Helmut Dantine
Shvabrin
Fulvia Franco
Palaska
Finlay Currie
Count Grinov
Laurence Naismith
Maj. Zurin
Oskar Homolka
Savelic
Al Silvani
Pope Gerasim
Milivoje Živanović
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Adapted from Alexander Pushkin's unfinished novel, which itself fictionalized the real Pugachev's Rebellion of 1773-75—the largest peasant uprising in Russian history.
Silvana Mangano was pregnant during filming; her flowing Cossack costumes were strategically designed to conceal this. Lattuada allegedly shot around her waistline like a defensive coordinator.
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