Richard III (1955)
Country: GB
Technical: col/Vistavision 161m
Director: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke
Synopsis:
As the ailing king, Edward IV, seems about to bequeath the crown to the elder of his two sons, both still in their minority, his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, conceives a political marriage and political murder.
Review:
Shakespeare famously alters the sequence of events somewhat, and concretizes the rumour and suppositions surrounding the Princes in the Tower and other dastardly deeds. All of which is gleefully embraced here by actor and director, who follows a patriotic pageant (Henry V) and a Freudian nightmare (Hamlet) with this garish grand guignol. The film has atmosphere and theatricality in abundance, then opens out more for the Bosworth sequence; Walton's music provides effective counterpoint, and there are moments, such as when Richard commands Buckingham kneel with outstretched ring, or in his death throes, that performance and score together achieve indelible genius.
Country: GB
Technical: col/Vistavision 161m
Director: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke
Synopsis:
As the ailing king, Edward IV, seems about to bequeath the crown to the elder of his two sons, both still in their minority, his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, conceives a political marriage and political murder.
Review:
Shakespeare famously alters the sequence of events somewhat, and concretizes the rumour and suppositions surrounding the Princes in the Tower and other dastardly deeds. All of which is gleefully embraced here by actor and director, who follows a patriotic pageant (Henry V) and a Freudian nightmare (Hamlet) with this garish grand guignol. The film has atmosphere and theatricality in abundance, then opens out more for the Bosworth sequence; Walton's music provides effective counterpoint, and there are moments, such as when Richard commands Buckingham kneel with outstretched ring, or in his death throes, that performance and score together achieve indelible genius.
Country: GB
Technical: col/Vistavision 161m
Director: Laurence Olivier
Cast: Laurence Olivier, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Cedric Hardwicke
Synopsis:
As the ailing king, Edward IV, seems about to bequeath the crown to the elder of his two sons, both still in their minority, his brother, Richard Duke of Gloucester, conceives a political marriage and political murder.
Review:
Shakespeare famously alters the sequence of events somewhat, and concretizes the rumour and suppositions surrounding the Princes in the Tower and other dastardly deeds. All of which is gleefully embraced here by actor and director, who follows a patriotic pageant (Henry V) and a Freudian nightmare (Hamlet) with this garish grand guignol. The film has atmosphere and theatricality in abundance, then opens out more for the Bosworth sequence; Walton's music provides effective counterpoint, and there are moments, such as when Richard commands Buckingham kneel with outstretched ring, or in his death throes, that performance and score together achieve indelible genius.