Trivia / How Czar Peter the Great Married Off His Moor

• Creator Backlash: Vysotsky was extremely disappointed with the film, claiming they turned the serious piece he wanted to make into "some half-operetta".
• Fake Nationality: Ibrahim is played by Vladimir Vysotsky in Brownface.
• Troubled Production: Many scenes of the film were cut due to censorship (or fear thereof).
• Underage Casting: Since Peter the Great already has the title of Emperor, he is supposed to be at least forty-nine at the time of the plot. His actor Alexey Petrenko was thirty-eight — ironically, the exact age as Vladimir Vysotsky, even though the animated opening clearly shows Peter to be at the very least a decade Ibrahim's senior.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The film was intended to follow Pushkin’s ideas more closely but became Lighter and Softer during the production.
  • It was planned to call the film The Moor of Peter the Great, like Pushkin’s novel. The name change occurred at the censor board’s request and was another of the things that made Vysotsky angry about the final product.
  • Vysotsky had written two songs for the film, but both were eventually cut, which he took very hard. There are several opinions on why it happened: Mitta mentioned that it was done on Mosfilm's orders and due to Alfred Schnitke fearing the songs would overshadow the music, while Valery Frid, the scriptwriter, claims that the songs were removed since they had a lot more depth than the final version of the film and would have clashed with the rest of it.
  • The Brownface casting might have been averted as Alexander Mitta was given permission to look for a black actor in an Ethiopian theatre troupe which was at the time successfully performing in Paris. Mitta, who wanted to cast Vysotsky from the start, declined.

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