Rasputin (1928 film)

Rasputin, The Prince of Sinners[1] (German: Dornenweg einer Fürstin), or simply Rasputin, is a 1928 German-Soviet drama film co-directed by Nikolai Larin and Boris Nevolin and starring Vladimir Gajdarov, Suzanne Delmas and Ernst Rückert.[2] The film's poster showed the tagline "rysslands onda ande", which translates as "Russia's Evil Spirit". The film's sets were designed by Carl Ludwig Kirmse. This film is sometimes confused with another 1928 German silent film made about Rasputin called Rasputin, the Holy Sinner.[1]

Rasputin, The Prince of Sinners
Directed by	Nikolai Larin Boris Nevolin
Written by	Boris Nevolin Nikolai Neboli Irvin Shapiro
Starring	Vladimir Gajdarov Suzanne Delmas Ernst Rückert
Cinematography	Emil Schünemann
Production company	Memento Film-Fabrik Vertrieb
Distributed by	Süd film
Release date	12 November 1928
Running time	87 minutes
Country	Germany Soviet Union
Language	Silent German intertitles

This being the only known German-Russian co-production ever done about Rasputin, the filmmakers were able to shoot the film at or near the historical places where the real life incidents portrayed actually occurred. In 1928, the Russian royalty was interested in showing Rasputin as the monster he really was, rather than try to illicit sympathy for the character. He is depicted as a sexually promiscuous alcoholic with abhorrent manners, similar to the manner in which Hammer Films later portrayed him in their 1966 Christopher Lee film, Rasputin the Mad Monk.[1]