Anastasia

Synopsis: Russian exiles in Paris plot to collect ten million pounds from the Bank of England by grooming a destitute, suicidal girl to pose as heir to the Russian throne. While Bounin is coaching her he comes to believe she is really Anastasia. In the end the Empress must decide her claim.
Director(s): Anatole Litvak
Production: 20th Century Fox
  Won 1 Oscar. Another 5 wins & 4 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.1
Rotten Tomatoes:
90%
UNRATED
Year:
1956
105 min
1,176 Views


Hey, driver! Oh!

- Happy Easter, Excellency.

- What is it you want, Stepan?

Could you drive to the Kasbek and ask

General Bounine to come here immediately?

Isn't it too late for the Church

to save that master of yours?

- Twenty-five francs?

- No. Ten.

On Easter night? Twenty.

- Fifteen, Excellency.

- All right, Stepan.

- Happy Easter to you.

- Please. Hurry.

- Leave it to me.

- It's very urgent. Please.

Look, Bob.

Don't you adore Russian food?

Faster! Faster!

Faster! General...

- I'm just mad for your place.

- It's always a pleasure to see you here, madame.

General Bounine, my husband.

Excuse me, General. The Count Beresoff

is waiting outside in his taxi.

- He has a message for you.

- From Stepan?

- Yes. He says it is urgent.

- I'll be right out.

Will you forgive me

for just a moment?

- Is she here?

- Yes, sir.

- Where?

- Over there. By the tree.

- Are you sure?

- Yes, Excellency.

All right. Wait here.

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter, Anna Koreff.

It is Anna Koreff. Or at least, so you

were called in the asylum at St. Cloud.

- You see the resemblance?

- No more than 100 women might have.

There is nothing to fear,

I promise you.

- Why do you always run away?

- Always questions. I've lost the answers.

Perhaps if you hadn't told the nun who

you were, there wouldn't be any questions.

- Who am I?

- Grand Duchess Anastasia, I believe.

In an asylum,

a nun might be mad.

- It's contagious.

- Then you do admit that you were in that asylum, don't you?

Stepan, are you positive she is

the same woman you saw in St. Cloud?

- Yes, sir.

- Come on.

Let me go, please!

Let me go!

The General said to wait for him

at the usual place.

Wait! How do you like that?

The nerve of that Bounine.

- Didn't he leave us a message?

- Yes. He said he'd be back shortly.

Late! Always late.

- Petrovin, the hour has arrived for me to tell...

- I know.

You only tell me what

you're going to tell Bounine.

Still, be happy now. In one week,

you shall be telling it in prison.

Petrovin, I forbid that word.

- I didn't hear it.

- It's the logical end to what was always a ridiculous scheme.

Ridiculous scheme, huh? But your eyes

lit up like those of a mad monk...

when you heard our tsar's daughter

might be alive.

- That was ridiculous.

- And yours lit up...

when you heard he had

a 10 million inheritance.

- Equally ridiculous.

- Not equally.

The 10 million lie waiting

in the Bank of England.

But the Grand Duchess Anastasia

Nicolaevna lies buried in Russia.

- Vodka?

- No, thank you. My digestion has been shocking...

ever since Bounine decided

to form our corporation.

Bounine decided?

The idea was mine!

My years of banking experience

are for nothing, huh?

I devised the method of

selling shares to stockholders...

to pay for the search for

their beloved grand duchess.

I worked out the ratio of

so many shares in her inheritance...

to so many shares of our stock.

- And my advice...

- I know! Bounine was nothing.

Bounine was nothing...

Good evening, comrades.

If the term doesn't grate

on your White Russian ears.

- Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. L...

- Excuse me.

- The meeting is called to order.

- "Called to order. "Just like that?

May we have

the financial report, please?

- The financial...

- Yes, the financial report.

- There's another report, General.

- All in due time, Petrovin. Go ahead, Chernov.

As of today, our treasury

shows assets...

of, uh, here... exactly 5,250 francs.

That new suit looks

very well on you, Chernov.

Am I wrong, or were there not some

9,000- odd francs at our last meeting?

My dear general,

may I ask you...

May I ask you what paid for

this club of yours?

15,000 francs from

the stockholders, that's what!

- We live in one room, Petrovin and I...

- Two.

- We share the bedroom.

- This is not a meeting on your housing problem.

- Proceed with the accounts.

- Housing problem, hmph!

Umm, 275 francs

to Natalya Yakovski...

formerly dressmaker

to the Imperial family.

Paid for the information received

on clothes and measurements.

- I see you have made good use of the information.

- I drew it myself.

- Those are her exact measurements.

- The crown is a nice touch.

Yeah.

A face would be a better one.

It's all too late now!

We're facing disaster.

As a son of the former deacon to His

Majesty's court, you should have more faith.

I wish my poor father,

bless his soul, had had less.

All right, Chernov, please.

Give him the news.

I would rather have his first.

- Mine?

- I know that smile.

I'll bet you have another

of your brilliant surprises for us.

- Never mind. What happened, Petrovin?

- Chernov was called...

I was summoned by

the stockholder's committee.

- Oh, how kind of them.

- Kind, huh?

Old General Anikin came

straight to the point.

"Years ago," he said, "rumors started that

the Grand Duchess Anastasia Nicolaevna...

"daughter of His Imperial Majesty

Nicholas II...

"had not been murdered with

the rest of the royal family...

"but had escaped

miraculously.

"Ayear ago," he went on, "you and your

friends came to us with the claim...

"you knew Her Highness

was somewhere in Berlin.

Then you said you found

her, but she ran away. "

Was it then we thought of

using the redhead?

- No, no, the one who was always giggling.

- Ah yes, the redhead came later.

- Go ahead.

- "Then," he said, "you needed more money to find her.

"Again we subscribed. Then you said

you found her, but she was too sick.

- More money. "

- Too sick?

- Oh, that was Galina. Too stupid.

- "How long can she be sick, Chernov?

How much money can you drain

from our thin pockets, Chernov?"

- How much have they got, Chernov?

- The joke is on us, General.

- They give us exactly eight days.

- Eight days for what?

Eight days to produce Her Highness,

the Grand Duchess Anastasia.

- Or we go to prison for fraud.

- For fraud!

- Well, it has taken them long enough.

- Is that all you can say?

It really sickens me how

you let him make you suffer...

how you like to suffer...

and you delight in making him suffer.

Not particularly. I merely

thought it advisable...

to determine exactly

what our situation was...

- before suggesting how to deal with it.

- What did I tell you?

All right, General.

Let's have your surprise. Where is she?

- Where is who?

- The woman Stepan saw in the asylum in St. Cloud!

Correct. We have

finally tracked her down.

- Really?

- No!

- Of course, she does not admit that she was there.

- No.

- Really?

- Nor does she admit that she told a nun there...

- that she was the tsar's daughter.

- What does she admit?

- Nothing. I think she may be lying.

- Then why do you believe...

But the important thing is that

properly used, she may serve our purpose.

- How?

- She has certain surprising features.

- Such as?

- You will see.

She also has a rather

intriguing strangeness.

Of course, that may be

simply the result of amnesia.

Him and his surprises.

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote

Arthur Laurents

Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, stage director and screenwriter.After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II, Laurents turned to writing for Broadway, producing a body of work that includes West Side Story (1957), Gypsy (1959), and Hallelujah, Baby! (1967), and directing some of his own shows and other Broadway productions. His early film scripts include Rope (1948) for Alfred Hitchcock, followed by Anastasia (1956), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), The Way We Were (1973), and The Turning Point (1977). more…

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