The Rebel Son Backdrop Blur
The Rebel Son Poster

The Rebel Son

During the 16th century the Cossacks and their Ukraine homeland is ruled by Poland. This is the story of the leader of the Cossacks and how his son was sent to study under the Poles to learn how to defeat them in battle. However, the son falls in love with the daughter of a Polish nobleman.

Top Cast

  • Harry Baur

    Harry Baur

    Taras Bulba

  • Anthony Bushell

    Anthony Bushell

    Andrei Bulba

  • Frederick Culley

    Frederick Culley

    Prince Zammitsky

  • Joe Cunningham

    Joe Cunningham

    Sachka

  • Charles Farrell

    Charles Farrell

    Tovkatch

  • Joan Gardner

    Joan Gardner

    Galka

  • Stafford Hilliard

    Stafford Hilliard

    Stutterer

  • Roger Livesey

    Roger Livesey

    Peter Bulba

  • Bernard Miles

    Bernard Miles

    Polish Prisoner

Overview

During the 16th century the Cossacks and their Ukraine homeland is ruled by Poland. This is the story of the leader of the Cossacks and how his son was sent to study under the Poles to learn how to defeat them in battle. However, the son falls in love with the daughter of a Polish nobleman.

Rating

8.0 / 10
2 Reviews
0 Popular

1 Reviews

  • CinemaSerf
    CinemaSerf
    6 Nov 15, 2025

    Now you do have to suspend belief a bit with this as neither Roger Livesey nor Anthony Bushell make for especially convincing Cossacks, but once the brothers “Peter” and “Andrew” (not “Andrei”) return from their educational sojourn to Kiev, the scene is swiftly set for a mixture of betrayal, rebellion and romance. The Poles are in charge and it’s the prince “Zamnitsky” (Frederick Culley) who commands these unruly serfs, before his daughter “Marina” (Patricia Roc) attracts the attention of “Peter” who quickly forgets all his familial and tribal loyalties and soon has his father “Taras” (a positively exuberant Harry Baur) in conniptions that could induce a double hernia, if the dancing didn’t do that first! Despite the plentiful and unconvincingly plummy English characterisations on display - Bernard Miles as a Pole is a tough ask, I still quite enjoyed this decently paced adventure story. It manages to keep most of the slushy stuff under wraps as the story gathers pace with plenty of cannon and musket balls flying; some lively cultural stereotyping and quite a lot of decent action photography as the battle lines ebb and flow. Roc does fine as the smouldering princess without many lines, and if you just sit back and imagine the rousing score from Franz Waxman’s 1962 version accompanying this, then you will probably find it’s nowhere near as bad in the end as the start suggests it might be.

Recommendations

Black Gold

On the Arabian Peninsula in the 1930s, two warring leaders come face to face. The victorious Nesib, Emir of Hobeika, lays down his peace terms to rival Amar, Sultan of Salmaah. The two men agree that neither can lay claim to the area of no man’s land between them called The Yellow Belt. In return, Nesib adopts Amar’s two boys Saleeh and Auda as a guarantee against invasion. Twelve years later, Saleeh and Auda have grown into young men. Saleeh, the warrior, itches to escape his gilded cage and return to his father’s land. Auda cares only for books and the pursuit of knowledge. One day, their adopted father Nesib is visited by an American from Texas. He tells the Emir that his land is blessed with oil and promises him riches beyond his wildest imagination. Nesib imagines a realm of infinite possibility, a kingdom with roads, schools and hospitals all paid for by the black gold beneath the barren sand. There is only one problem. The precious oil is located in the Yellow Belt.

Black Gold

6.5 2011