Don Quixote (1957 film)

Don Quixote Russian , translit.Don Kikhot is a 1957 Soviet drama film directed by Grigori Kozintsev. It is based on Evgeny Shvartzs stage adaptation of Miguel de Cervantess novel of the same name. It was entered into the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. It opened in the United States in 1961, beginning its U.S. run on January 20.

Although largely faithful to the storyline of the Cervantes novel, the film makes several significant changes and adopts an overall more outwardly serious tone than does the original book. The order of Quixotes adventures is completely changed, with the famous windmill scene occurring towards the end, just after Don Quixote has been completely humiliated and mocked by Altisidora, the damsel at the Ducal Palace who pretended to be dead out of love for him. Quixote then angrily leaves the palace, where he and Sancho have been repeatedly treated to practical jokes, and at the same time, Sancho, who has been mockingly made governor of a nonexistent island, is overthrown by a staged revolt. The separated knight and squire encounter each other again on the road, and soon come upon the windmills. Immediately after tilting against them and being injured by being thrown to the ground by the sails, they encounter the Knight of the White Moon, who is really Sanson Carrasco in disguise. He challenges Quixote, who is now too weak to fight, to a joust and easily defeats him. Carrasco then reveals his true identity to Quixote and Sancho. The three of them make their way back to Don Quixotes village, where the old man is soon at deaths door. As in several adaptations but not as in the novel, Aldonza, the wench whom Don Quixote believes to be his lady Dulcinea, actually makes an appearance in the film. She appears at the beginning, when Don Quixote is first preparing to sally forth as a knight and christens her Dulcinea, and at the end, grieving with the knights family at his deathbed.

Source: Wikipedia