Messages

331

The Myth and Legends of Survivors / Re: Without DNA

« on: April 27, 2006, 12:58:21 AM »

Can't help wondering, did Gleb Botkin and others who supported AA as AN have any way of knowing two bodies were missing from the mass grave, one almost certainly AN's, when the burial site was not unearthed for decades?  An ignorant Polish factory worker would have to be quite a scholar to learn all those languages, not to mention getting the right sort of bayonet and letting someone stab her with it   but someone concocting a really good story might be supposed to go through a lot.

Not saying I believe AA IS AN, just saying I'll believe it's NOT her when AN's body is unearthed!

332

Films and TV shows about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia / Re: Rough List of Romanovs on DVDs and VHS

« on: April 27, 2006, 12:43:34 AM »

Well, according to me and the Internet Movie Database, though according to people here we seem to have missed a few.   :-?

I have not by the least means seen these all, but will throw in a comment here and there on those I have.

Clothes Make the Woman (1928) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0018778/
--One of the earliest tellings of the Anna Anderson story.  If it's the one I'm thinking of, has Anastasia as a plucky flapper making a mad escape by automobile.  Purdy hokey but interesting as being such an early film treatment of the story.

Rasputin and the Empress (1932) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0023374/
Anastasia (1956) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0048947/
"Hallmark Hall of Fame" Anastasia (1967) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0595265/
Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0067483/
--This was my introduction to the Romanov story.  A well-acted drama, parts of which I still remember all these years later, and would like to see again.

Dulce Anastasia (1977) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0405891/
Anastasia:  The Mystery of Anna (1986) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0090638/
--Presenting Anna Anderson's story as fact, but gets some details wrong.  For instance, claiming AA's baby died, when a lot of the trouble was that he did NOT die and relatives feared he'd emerge to try to claim the throne.  Also, showing the Romanov relative who kicked her out as being under family pressure rather than that AA acted like a flake while there.  It was surprising to see Lord Louis Mountbatten, played by Rex Harrison, portrayed as such a baddie.

Rasputin (1996) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0117442/
Anastasia (Disney, 1997) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0118617/
--Yeah, I'll get around to seeing this when I see "Pocahontas"--whenever that is.

The Russian Revolution (Documentary, 1998) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0235723/
--I remember seeing a documentary with a lot of old newsreel footage but don't recall if this was it.  It's so neat being able to see films of the actual people!
--There was also a NOVA documentary on the Romanov bones and Anna Anderson.

Romanovi:  Ventsenosnaya semya (2000) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0303274/
The Revenge of the Romanovs (Documentary, 2001) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0395730/
The Lost Prince (2003) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0349747/
--I commented on this in the thread on "The Lost Prince," but would like to add there was one glaring inaccuracy in the Romanov death scene on which no one commented in that thread.  Contemporary accounts state that Grand Duke Alexis was so severely ill he had to be carried by his father and was perhaps (hopefully!) only semi-coherent.  This movie showed a boy looking perfectly healthy (and way happier than he probably should have under the circumstances--though of course they didn't know what was to happen until they entered the execution room and heard the order read--) WALKING.  That just jumped out at me.  Alexis was certainly in no condition to have possibly survived, or in shape to have helped himself after such an event if he was near death before, though why his body is not with the others remains a mystery.

Shadow Hearts II (2004) http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0443635/
--Anyone know what this is?  Sounds weird.

Unsolved Mysteries:  Strange Legends (2005)
--This is from a series of compilations from the TV series, grouped by themes.  This one covers the Anastasia/Anna Anderson story.  I found the execution scene to be MUCH more accurate than the one portrayed in "The Lost Prince."  It may not have been filmed in Russia, but the people all spoke Russian, and Tzar Nicholas was portrayed as carrying Alexis.  I would recommend it as an addition to any collector's library.

333

Films and TV shows about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia / Re: Last Days of the Last Czar - Rare Film

« on: April 27, 2006, 12:20:16 AM »

Ever notice how almost everyone misses that Nicholas's brother Michael was actually the last Czar though he didn't last long?  Good trick question there.

334

Films and TV shows about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia / Re: The Lost Prince

« on: April 27, 2006, 12:18:41 AM »

"The Lost Prince" portrayed one major inaccuracy in the Romanov death scene I'm surprised all you experts missed, which I'll discuss in a separate movie thread.  Here I'll just touch on a few things.

Prince John doesn't seem to have been seriously retarded or mentally ill, due to his ability to be very up on people and write them letters asking questions specifically about those people.  I got this not from the movie but from an article about him.  He is known to have met the Romanovs, and the filmmaker was obviously caught up in the romance of their story perhaps to the point of overemphasizing them a little, but if Prince John was really so up on all his royal relations and they had a boy exactly his age--only about a year older--and people all over the world were fascinated with reading of the Romanovs, it seems almost more surprising that Prince John would NOT spend a lot of time thinking about them.  I thought the overshoe scene was a bit over the top, but the barnyard scene was great--they looked so lost!

Queen Mary came off more as being very busy with the war and royal duties, than as being uncaring toward her child.  The movie very humanely portrayed that moving to a private house in the country, besides saving the royal family the possible disaster of a public epileptic seizure, was the best possible thing in the world for Prince John.  What would endless high-pressure state occasions have done to a poor sick child who could stress out chasing a parrot?  Peace and quiet were the prescription for him.

I'm not an expert on the royals, but understand that both Queen Victoria and Empress Alexandra had German as their mother language, spoke it at home, and in the case of Empress Alexandra's children, they knew German as well or better than Russian as it was what they heard at home all the time.  Don't know about their English but that's interesting about Nicholas's English being so good.

If anyone is near a library with old copies of "Saint Nicholas" magazine, there was one with an article on Nicholas as a kid of 16 or so.

335

The Final Chapter / Re: Imperial skulls

« on: April 26, 2006, 03:27:01 AM »

Personally I still think the missing skull is Anastasia's and the one they are calling Anastasia is really Marie's.

If it helps, I agree with you 100%!  I saw a program which said the girl identified as Anastasia had a skull most like hers of all the children, but she and Marie looked nearly alike.  The girl's bones were those of a person too old to have been Anastasia, and Marie was older, so she has my vote.

Personally I think Peter Kurth is not on something but onto something:  http://www.peterkurth.com/ANNA-ANASTASIA%20NOTES%20ON%20FRANZISKA%20SCHANZKOWSKA.htm

336

Tsarevich Alexei Nicholaievich / Re: Did Alexei suffer from cryptochidism??

« on: April 26, 2006, 02:55:44 AM »

Huh, I wonder whether the guy suffering from the delusion that he was Alexei knew that Alexei had this condition.  It's like men of a certain age with a bad family background and a foot deformity thinking they're the Lindbergh baby.  I wonder if one of them had it in the right and the other in the left?  (The foot and the other problem.)   :-/

337

Tatiana Nicholaievna / Re: Seen as unlovable?

« on: April 26, 2006, 02:48:38 AM »

I don't know that much about Tatiana personally but just thought her name was the coolest and she was the prettiest.  I've always felt drawn to this story and sorry for those poor children.