User Reviews

This Teleplay gives an idea of what superior TV means, when made with some genuine dramatic instinct, not to mention a vintage cast; e.g., Wallach gives here one of his top performances, eager, like those young '50s actors, to show what he's able of. Melvyn Douglas plays comrade Stalin, Wallach is Poskrebyshev, Homolka is Khrushchev, Marian Seldes is Molotov's wife, and, as a curiosity, the play following this one was THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES. The Stalin play is exciting, lively and enthralling; content—wise, it recycles the facts generally known, like Khrushchev doing the _hopak and Beria being the scariest of them all, but for the American audiences of the '50s it might have been truly informative. It resembles the Borgia Teleplays, and Wallach takes over the movie with his sure performance.

Former seminarian Iosif Stalin has murdered millions of Ukrainians and bears the responsibility for the massacre of other millions of Russians and of countless Eastern Europeans. The producers of the TV play we are discussing cared mainly about the Jewish physicians; and less about the millions of Christian Orthodox and Greek Catholics. They also seemed to care little about the Christians, physicians or not, murdered by Vladimir Lenin and Lev Trotsky. The murdered Christian Russia.

Lenin expelled from the medical schools the sons of priests. This chapter in the political history of the Russian medicine interests less.

A quite tendentious play about the alleged anti-Semitism of Iosif Stalin, THE PLOT TO KILL STALIN serves the not so subtle try of presenting the process of the Jewish physicians as Stalin's worst iniquity; maybe a play about the Holodomor would have been of greater significance. Other than that, the play is lively, interesting and admirably played—beginning with a young and greasy, oily, cunning, soft—spoken Elli Wallach.

Beria, Ignatiev, Hruşciov (i.e., Khrushchev), are the puppets in this lively Punch 'n 'Judy show. As an educational TV play, STALIN is an average patching or sewing together of easily recognizable scenes, _clichés and conventional representations, interesting for Wallach's performance. Wallach dominates effortlessly and masterly the stage. Here is one actor whose career brought less than what the actor was able to provide.

Seen from East, Iosif Stalin's gruesome misdeeds have been others than the scandal of the Jewish physicians and the set—up from the Botkin Hospital. But it's nonetheless interesting how things are seen from afar, the simplified, dummies' version of the destinies of the Bolshevik East—the Jewish physicians, Hungary, Praga and the Solidarity. It's also interesting how American citizens vote for governments whose policy outside will affect peoples about whose histories and destinies the Americans know next to nothing—but nonetheless vote, sending the troops here and there. What I find consternating is not the American ignorance, ignorance has no country; but the nerve to propose to the American people to decide or ratify interventions, etc., in countries whose history is plainly ignored.

From the whole Stalinist period, the American popular culture has been interested, apart from the WW 2, in the Jewish physicians' set—up, that's what scandalized the sensitive Americans, not the Holodomor, the Ukrainian famine of the '30s, not the massive anti—Christianity. Before being an anti—Semite, Stalin has been anti—Russian, anti—Ukrainian, anti—European, etc..

Terrific and terrifying show I am talking about. Of course many of us will probably say that it is pure propaganda. A sort of anti soviet piece of work. But how the hell could have it been different? Those events happened this very way. I guess nothing was invented. Stalin was a butcher, Soviet Union was a genuine meat chopper during his reign. A gigantic, monstrous meat chopper. And this awesome TV movie is an accurate and terrifying study of how the whole system worked. Suspicion and plots within plots among wolves, the wolves consuming one each other. A sequence is absolutely unforgettable, the one where one big army officer is asked by Eli Wallach's character - Beria I guess - how to get rid of Stalin, and then you find out that Stalin is just in the next room, listening to the conversation, in order to detect a potential traitor... And another scene is also worth watching: during a party full of high rate army officers and other politicians, one peeping tom spy watches through a hole in the wall, reading on the guests lips whilst they talk.

Yes, I am very happy to have caught such an excellent movie. So close to reality.

A deep dive into the evil pit. The darkest hours of Russia history.