In the fairy kingdom live stepmother, her evil daughters — Anna and Maryana, a limp husband-forester and his daughter from his first marriage — Cinderella. The stepmother exploits the poor girl as a housekeeper. With the help of her godmother-fairy, Cinderella gets to the royal ball, where a beautiful and very kind prince falls in love with her. At midnight, the magic ends, and poor Cinderella has to return to her former life. But on the crystal shoe that Cinderella lost while fleeing the palace to the battle of the palace chimes, the prince searches for the bride.
Costume
Stalin-era ballgowns that ate up 30% of the film budget.
Production
Leningrad studios competing with Hollywood, visibly winning.
Acting
Faina Ranevskaya's stepmother: theatrical, menacing, somehow camp.
Director
Nadezhda Kosheverova
Yanina Zheymo
Cinderella
Aleksey Konsovskiy
Prince
Erast Garin
King
Faina Ranevskaya
Stepmother
Yelena Yunger
Anna, 1st daughter
Tamara Sezenevskaya
Maryana, 2nd daughter
Vasili Merkuryev
Forester
Aleksandr Rumnyov
Pas de Trois
Varvara Myasnikova
Fairy
Igor Klimenkov
Page
Sergei Filippov
Corporal
Mikhail Rostovtsev
"Kind beetle" at the ball
Konstantin Adashevsky
Royal herald
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was the USSR's first live-action fairy tale in Technicolor, shot during post-war rationing while the crew reportedly starved.
Faina Ranevskaya, cinema legend, took the stepmother role as a joke and accidentally created the definitive version. Soviet audiences still quote her sneer.
SU
