The Shoes of the Fisherman

The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) is a Cold War political drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Michael Anderson and drawn from Morris West's 1963 international bestseller. Anthony Quinn plays Cardinal Kiril Lakota, a Ukrainian church official who spent two decades inside a Soviet labor camp before the Kremlin releases him without explanation.

Lakota arrives in Rome to find the Vatican navigating a crisis. The Papal throne is suddenly vacant. Outside, the world edges toward nuclear confrontation — China faces mass starvation, and Soviet Premier Kamenev (Laurence Olivier) is playing a dangerous geopolitical hand. When the conclave settles on an unexpected new Pope, the new pontiff is left with a question: at what cost can the Church stop a war?

The cast runs deep even by late-1960s Hollywood prestige standards: Vittorio De Sica, Oskar Werner, John Gielgud, Leo McKern, David Janssen, and Frank Finlay all carry substantial parts. West's novel had sold internationally well before cameras rolled; the film matches its ambition. Measured, serious, and deliberately paced — Quinn handles it with exactly the weight the role demands. Stream The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) on iFILM.