Allison

Fantasia, 1940/Ivan the Terrible, Part II, 1958

Criterion's featured image for Ivan Part II is Ivan and Fyodor in the bedroom Prayer of the Cup scene. Good choice.

*skimming the first few minutes of the Soviet Treasure Island* Me: Is that Cherkasov as Billy Bones? *Two seconds later* Me: Oh yeah, that’s Kolya. No one else is that tall.

I'm sorry, Paganel, you're going to do what?!

Not a Franklin Expedition reference in my Nikolai Cherkasov movie!

Cherkasov was a chameleon.

On the other side, there's this moment in In the Name of Life (only other film Cherkasov and Kuznetsov did together). Kolya is hunching over a lot to put his and Misha's heads at about the same height. Even then looking at their shoulders shows how much taller Kolya was.

Of course any moment Kolya and Misha are standing next to each other in Ivan the Terrible.

In this moment in Alexander Nevsky, Valentina Ivashova is standing on a lower step, which just makes Kolya look even taller.

I love moments in Cherkasov's films where he's standing next to his co-stars, and it's clear how incredibly tall he was (6'6''). Like in this still from Spring where Lyubov Orlova is standing on the raised border in heels to be the same height as Kolya.