1958 Playhouse 90 The Plot to Kill Stalin DVD TV Eli Wallach
It is reported that in his last years Stalin grew more and more feverishly suspicious of the men around him. Tonight's play opens in the fall of 1952, six months before the Soviet premier's death. On the eve of the 19th Communist Party congress, Stalin confides to his personal secretary Poskrebyshev his plan to centralize power even more completely in his own hands. He will abolish the Politburo, and replace it with a Presidium. This will be of such cumbersome dimensions that it will be virtually ineffectual. Then Stalin takes a further step to insure his control, he secretly records the conversations of his lieutenants. Beria, who eventually was executed by Stalin's successors, receives the first hint of his fall from favor when his portrait at the party congress is moved further down from its original position. Before long, others begin to realize that they too are being watched.
Luther Adler ... Molotov
Paul Bryar ... Zhukhov
Harry Davidson ... Rymim
Lawrence Dobkin ... Shtemenko
Melvyn Douglas ... Stalin
Bert Freed ... Sokolovsky
Thomas Gomez ... Malenkov
Oskar Homolka ... Khrushchev
Edwin Jerome ... Senoir Physician
Paul Lambert ... Rassine
E.G. Marshall ... Beria
Paul Maxwell ... Recorder
Marian Seldes ... Mme. Molotov
David J. Stewart ... Ignatiev
Eli Wallach ... Poskrebyshev
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