Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
You can now watch Ivan the Terrible, Part I online on the following streaming providers in the United States.
| Writing | Sergei Eisenstein | Writer |
| Directing | Sergei Eisenstein | Director |
| Sound | Sergei Prokofiev | Original Music Composer |
| Costume & Make-Up | Nadezhda Buzina | Costume Design |
| Costume & Make-Up | Vasili Goryunov | Makeup Artist |
| Editing | Sergei Eisenstein | Editor |
| Production | Sergei Eisenstein | Producer |
| Costume & Make-Up | Leonid Naumov | Costume Design |
| Camera | Eduard Tisse | Director of Photography |
| Art | Yosyp Shpinel | Production Design |
| Art | Sergei Eisenstein | Art Direction |
| Camera | Andrey Moskvin | Director of Photography |
| Sound | Vladimir Bogdankevich | Sound Designer |
| Sound | Boris Volsky | Sound Designer |
