Richard III (1955 film)

• Sir Laurence Olivier as Richard, Duke of Gloucester (later King Richard III), the malformed brother of the King, who is jealous of his brother's new power, and plans to take it for himself. Olivier had created his interpretation of the Crookback King in 1944, and this film transferred that portrayal to the screen.[4] This portrayal earned Olivier his fifth Oscar nomination, and is generally considered to be one of his greatest performances; some consider it his best performance in a Shakespeare play.
• Sir Cedric Hardwicke as King Edward IV of England, the newly crowned King of England, who, with the aid of his brother, Richard, has secured his position by wresting it from Henry VI of the House of Lancaster. This marked his only appearance in a film version of a Shakespeare play. He was 62 at the time of the film, whereas Edward died at the age of 40.
• Sir John Gielgud as George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Richard and of the new King. Gielgud's standing as the great stage Shakespearean of the decades immediately preceding Olivier's career was a cause of a certain enmity on the part of Olivier, and it was known that he disapproved of Gielgud's "singing" the verse (i.e. reciting it in an affected style that resembles singing).[5] Gielgud's casting in this film can be seen as a combination of Olivier's quest for an all-star cast, and the fact that Olivier had rejected Gielgud's request to play the Chorus in Olivier's 1944 adaptation of Henry V.[4]
• Sir Ralph Richardson as the Duke of Buckingham, a corrupt official, who sees potential for advancement in Richard's plans and eventually turns against him when Richard ignores his wishes. Richardson was a lifelong friend of Olivier's. At first, Olivier wanted Orson Welles as Buckingham, but felt an obligation towards his longtime friend. (Olivier later regretted this choice, as he felt that Welles would have added an element of conspiracy to the film.)[4]
• Paul Huson as Edward, Prince of Wales (later, for a brief while, King Edward V), the eldest son of the King, who holds many strong beliefs, and wishes one day to become a Warrior King.
• Andy Shine as the Duke of York, the younger son of Prince Edward.
• Helen Haye as the Duchess of York, the mother of the King. Haye worked regularly for Alexander Korda. Her character's role is severely cut in the film from the play.
• Pamela Brown as Mistress Shore, the King's mistress. Her character is only mentioned in Shakespeare's play, never seen.
• Alec Clunes as The Lord Hastings (Lord Chamberlain), a companion and friend of Richard who is accused of conspiracy by Richard and is abruptly executed.
• Laurence Naismith as The Lord Stanley. Stanley has a certain dislike for Richard and is not totally willing in his co-operation with him. Stanley eventually betrays Richard at Bosworth and engages him in a one-on-one duel.
• Norman Wooland as Sir William Catesby, Esmond Knight as Sir Richard Ratcliffe, John Laurie as Lord Francis Lovell, Patrick Troughton as Sir James Tyrrell, and John Phillips as John, Duke of Norfolk, all loyal companions of Richard.

• Mary Kerridge as Queen Elizabeth, Queen Consort of Edward. Kerridge did not make many screen appearances, though she did sometimes work for Alexander Korda. Her role has also been reduced from Shakespeare's original.
• Clive Morton as The Lord Rivers, brother of the Queen Consort. Morton was a British actor who mainly played supporting roles on screen.
• Dan Cunningham as The Lord Grey, youngest son of the Queen Consort and stepson of the King. Cunningham's role in Richard III was one of his few screen appearances.
• Douglas Wilmer as the Marquess of Dorset, eldest son of the Queen Consort and stepson of the King.
• Claire Bloom as The Lady Anne, a widow and an orphan thanks to the acts of Richard, though she cannot resist his charms and eventually becomes his wife.
• Stanley Baker, appropriately cast as the young Welshman, Henry, Earl of Richmond (later Henry VII, first of the House of Tudor). Henry, who is Richard's enemy, and Lord Stanley's stepson, claims his right to the throne, and briefly duels Richard at Bosworth.

Of Olivier's three Shakespeare films, Richard III had the longest gestation period: Olivier had created and been developing his vision of the character Richard since his portrayal for the Old Vic Theatre in 1944. After he had made Shakespeare films popular with Henry V and Hamlet, the choice of Richard III for his next adaptation was simple, as his Richard had been widely praised on stage. For the stage production, Olivier had modelled some of the crookback king's look on a well-known theatrical producer at the time, Jed Harris, whom Olivier called "the most loathsome man I'd ever met".[6] Years later Olivier discovered that Walt Disney had also used Harris as his basis for the Big Bad Wolf in the film The Three Little Pigs.[4] Alexander Korda, who had given Olivier his initial roles on film, provided financial support for the film.[4]

Most of the dialogue is taken straight from the play, but Olivier also drew on the 18th century adaptations by Colley Cibber and David Garrick, including Cibber's line, "Off with his head. So much for Buckingham!". Like Cibber and Garrick, Olivier's film opens with material from the last scenes of Henry VI, Part 3, to introduce more clearly the situation at the beginning of the story.

A key change in the story involved the seduction of Anne. It is split into two scenes instead of one, and an element of perversity is added—whereas in the original play she is following a coffin with the corpse of her father-in-law, in this film the coffin contains the corpse of her husband. John Cottrell has been quoted as saying this makes "the young widow's seduction even more daring and revolting than it is in the original, and [gives] Anne's capitulation" in the second part after a passionate kiss "a new and neurotic twist".[7][8] This is accomplished by cutting lines, changing lines, and changing the sequence of some lines.

Olivier makes other small and subtle additions in the stage direction. When Richard's nephew makes a joke about his uncle's hunchback ("you should bear me on your shoulder"), Richard spins round and gives the boy a malevolent glare making the boy stagger back.[8] This bit of stage direction is original to Olivier. Olivier also silently mimes some actions spoken of in his soliloquies such as when he whispers insinuations about Clarence into the ear of King Edward.

In general the lengthy play is heavily cut. In an interview with Roger Manvell Olivier discussed how unwieldy and complex the play is.

If you are going to cut a Shakespeare play, there is only one thing to do, lift out scenes. If you cut the lines down merely to keep all the characters in, you end up with a mass of short ends. This is one of the problems with Richard III. To start with its a very long play. It's not until the little princes come on that the story forms that nice river sweep, going swiftly to its conclusion from about halfway through the play. The first part up until that moment is an absolute delta of plot and presupposed foreknowledge of events. After all, Richard III forms the last part of a cycle of four plays.[8][9]

The character of Queen Margaret is cut entirely, the role of the Duchess of York (Helen Haye) is significantly reduced, the role of Edward IV's wife Elizabeth is also reduced, and the execution of Clarence and other scenes are abridged.[10] These cuts were made to maintain the pace of the film and to cut down the running time, as a full performance of the play can run upwards of four hours. Richard is made more directly responsible for the death of Edward IV than in the play, as Edward has his fatal attack only moments after Richard informs the assembled nobles that Clarence is dead.

Gerry O'Hara was Olivier's assistant director, on hand to help since Olivier was acting in most of the scenes.[4]

Olivier was very precise in getting many of the visual details of the period correct. Actor Douglas Wilmer (Dorset) recounts that when he casually told Olivier that one piece of heraldry on the set was incorrect, that Olivier started pumping as much information out of him as possible as if he was "drilling for oil".[8]

Olivier made the unusual decision to deliver his soliloquies by directly addressing the film audience, something not often done before in film. Near the beginning of the film Richard's herald drops his coronet, a mistake that Olivier decided to keep in, as part of the motif of accidental loss of the crown continued in the final battle.

Most of the film was shot in at Shepperton Studios, but the climactic Battle of Bosworth Field abruptly opens up the setting, as it was shot outdoors, in the Spanish countryside. During one sequence therein, Olivier suffered an arrow wound to the shin when his horse jerked forwards. Fortunately, it was on the leg Richard was supposed to limp on, allowing the scene to continue.[11]

Wilmer also notes

What really amazed me was his energy. His work programme was exhausting; yet he could just sit down in a chair and close his eyes for a short time, then walk straight onto the set and act a long scene perfectly despite the enormous burden he carried of being producer, director, and leading man.[8]

During filming, Olivier's portrait was painted by Salvador Dalí. The painting remained one of Olivier's favourites until he had to sell it to pay for his children's school fees.[4]

The cinematography for the film was by Otto Heller, who had worked on many European films before coming to the UK in the early 1940s. The film uses the Technicolor process, which Olivier had earlier rejected for his Hamlet after a row with the company.[4] The use of Technicolor resulted in bright, vibrant colours. Korda had suggested that Olivier also use the new extreme widescreen format, CinemaScope, but Olivier thought it was nothing more than a gimmick designed to distract the audience from the true quality of the film, and chose the less extreme VistaVision format instead.[4] To this day, Richard III remains the only Shakespeare film made in VistaVision.[12]

The score was composed by Sir William Walton, who worked on all of the films Olivier directed except The Prince and the Showgirl. He composed a score described in Chandos's record catalogue as "rousing" and "filled with pomp and circumstance, to add to the feel of pageantry".[13] The music was conducted by Muir Mathieson, who collaborated on all of films Olivier directed, except for Three Sisters. The film's music was also used for a set of readings of speeches from the play on audio CD featuring John Gielgud.[14] The Chandos catalogue notes that Walton used the main theme throughout the film, especially towards the closing scenes.

In contrast to Olivier's previous work, Richard III was only nominated for a single Academy Award: Academy Award for Best Actor. It was Olivier's fifth nomination in the category, though the award was won by Yul Brynner for his performance in The King and I (1956 film). Richard III was the second film to have won both Best Film awards at the BAFTAS. It dominated that year's awards ceremony, winning, in addition to the two Best Film awards, the award for Best British Actor. It was also the first winner of the newly created Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film, which had been split from the Best Foreign Film Award. Other awards won by the film include the Silver Bear Award at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival[19] and the David di Donatello Award for Best Foreign Production. The Jussi Award was given to Olivier for Best Foreign Actor.[20]

Olivier's performance as Richard III was ranked 39th in Premiere magazine's "100 Greatest Performances of All Time"[21]