Laurence Olivier's (1907-1989)

Richard lll

(1956)

As one of the best and most psychologically penetrating of Shakespeare's early plays, Richard III has always been among his most popular in performance. Ironically, the success of Olivier's film resulted in the play being infrequently produced until the 1980s, though in the last twenty years it has returned to its traditional popularity, often in modern or ahistorical dress. Ian Mackellen produced a Richard III set in a fascist 1930s Britain.

The hero of Richard III is quite clearly a villain, but an engaging one who takes the audience into his confidence for most of the play until he succeeds and is crowned king. At this point he is emotionally distant from his chief co-conspirator, the Duke of Buckingham, and his wife, Queen Anne, as well as from the audience. When he has his two young nephews murdered, he loses all audience sympathy.

Olivier's film is the third and last of his big Shakespeare productions. Starting with Henry V (1946) and Hamlet (1948), Richard III was the last of its kind. It climaxes with huge battle scenes which Shakespeare wants the audience to visualize, but could never even think about showing on stage. He repeatedly apologizes for this in Henry V, but in Olivier's film, there is nothing to apologize for. The sets are large and stylized, though far less two-dimensional than the Henry V sets, which were meant to evoke medieval illuminated manuscripts. Richard III features surrealistic sets that make different parts of London seem adjacent and assist in moving the action along. Often they are purposely claustrophobic. The climactic battle of Bosworth Field was filmed on location in Spain with only 500 extras.

Richard III was the fourth play of a tetrology including the three parts of Henry VI, and the opening of the film is actually the last scene of Henry VI Part Three, featuring the coronation of Richard's older brother Edward IV. The three parts of Henry VI are rarely performed today, and are products of an immature and inexperienced playwright emulating his older contemporary Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe's three parts of Tamberlaine the Great, a trilogy on world conquest, was Shakespeare's model for the Henry VI - Richard III tetrology. Richard III was a landmark in the young playwright's evolution. It succeeds more than any of his earlier history plays because it centers on one individual, who is both uniquely repellent and uniquely attractive.

The Wars of the Roses started when the weak Richard II was deposed by Henry Bollingbroke the Duke of Lancaster, who reigned as Henry IV. He was succeeded by his son, the warlike Henry V, who won the right to succeed to the throne of France as well as England. His son, Henry VI, was crowned king of France and England as a child, but lost most of his French territories, as well as the English ones. He was twice deposed by the oldest son of the Duke of York, who reigned as Edward IV. Edward was chiefly backed by his two brothers, the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester (Richard), as well as the powerful Earl of Warrick, called the kingmaker. Well into Edward's reign, Henry VI's son, the Prince of Wales led a revolt, which Warrick joined. Warrick and the prince were killed in battle and Edward had the old King Henry secretly murdered in the Tower.

At the beginning of Richard III, Edward IV is being crowned the second time after this revolt, when all enemies have been defeated, and the future looks extremely promising. This scene is actually the closing scene of Henry VI Part Three. Richard shares with the audience that he will plot and kill to possess the crown, and then proceeds to do just that. He woos the Prince of Wales's widow, daughter of the late Earl of Warrick, and his slanders move the king to imprison their brother George the Duke of Clarence. He then spreads lies about the queen and her family, Lords Rivers, Grey, and Dorset. Their enemy Lord Hastings is released from prison, and Richard hopes to enlist his aid. When the king dies, shortly after learning of Clarence's execution, Richard, his co-conspirator Buckingham (a cousin), Rivers, and Grey journey forth to escort the young new king back to London. Richard has Rivers and Grey executed, and imprisons the king (Edward V) and the Duke of York (also named Richard - he is Richard's godson) in the Tower. The queen and the queen mother (Richard's mother the Duchess of York) take sanctuary under the protection of Cardinal Ealey the Archbishop of Canterbury. Richard hopes to sway Lord Hastings to his side with the execution of Hastings's enemies Rivers and Grey, but Hastings remains loyal to King Edward's sons and must be executed. Richard denounces Hastings and his mistress Lady Jane Shore for witchcraft and has Hastings put to death. The Archbishop and Lord Stanley are powerless to act against Richard. Richard and Buckingham engineer a phony display of popular support and Richard "reluctantly" agrees to accept the throne. He is crowned in Westminster Abbey just like his brother, but his growing isolation and paranoia foreshadow his overthrow. Buckingham falls from grace when he merely hesitates to take a hand in murdering the young princes. Buckingham decides to support the Earl of Richmond, who invades from France. Buckingham is captured and executed. The armies converge on Bosworth Field in Salisbury. Richard is haunted by the ghosts of his victims the night before the battle.

Dramatis Personnae

The House of York

Sir Cedric Hardwicke ... King Edward lV of England

his sons ...

Paul Huson ...

Edward the Prince of Wales, afterward King Edward V
Andy Shine ... Young Richard Duke of York
his brothers ...

Sir Laurence Olivier ...

Richard the Duke of Gloucester, afterward King Richard lll
Sir John Gielgud ... George the Duke of Clarence

their mother ...

Helen Haye ... Duchess of York

their cousin ...
Sir Ralph Richardson ... Duke of Buckingham

Pamela Brown ... Lady Jane Shore, mistress to King Edward lV, afterward mistress to Lord Hastings
Alec Clunes ... The Lord Hastings, Lord Chancellor
Laurence Naismith ... The Lord Stanley

Richard Bennett ... George Stanley, stepson to Lord Stanley, stepbrother to Henry Tudor the Earl of Richmond
Andrew Cruickshank ... Sir Robert Brackenbury, Warder of the Tower of London
John Phillips ... Duke of Norfolk

Nicholas Hannen ... Cardinal Ealy the Archbishop of Canturbury

Lately adherent to the House of Lancaster
Mary Kerridge ... Queen Elizabeth, Queen to King Edward lV, mother to King Edward V and young Richard the Duke of York

her brothers ...

Clive Morton ... The Lord Rivers

Dan Cunningham ... The Lord Grey

her son ...
Douglas Wilmer ... The Lord Dorset
Claire Bloom ... The Lady Anne, formerly wife to the late Edward Prince of Wales, afterward Queen to King Richard lll
Stanley Baker ... Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond, afterward King Henry Vll

Richard's henchmen

Norman Wooland ... Catesby, a lawyer (the cat)

Esmond Knight ... Ratcliffe (the rat)
John Laurie ... Lovel (the dog)
Michael Gough ... Dighton, 1st murderer
Michael Ripper ... Forrest, 2nd murderer
Patrick Troughton ... Sir James Tyrrell, murderer of the two princes

Divers other persons
Stewart Allen ... Page to Richard

Russell Thorndike ... First Priest
Wally Bascoe ... Monk
Norman Fisher ... Monk
Terence Greenidge ... Scrivener
Roy Russell ... Abbot
George Woodbridge ... Lord Mayor of London
Peter Williams ... Messenger to Hastings
Timothy Bateson ... Ostler
Willoughby Gray ... 2nd Priest
Ann Wilton ... Scrub woman
Bill Shine ... Beadle
Derek Prentice ... Clergyman
Deering Wells ... Clergyman
Brian Nissen ... First Messenger to Richard
Alexander Davion ... Second Messenger to Richard
Lane Meddick ... Third Messenger to Richard
Robert Bishop ... Fourth Messenger to Richard

Richard III was filmed in Vista Vision, a superior widescreen process used in the 1950s. After the introduction of Cinema Scope by Twentieth Century Fox with Henry Koster's The Robe (1953), Michael Curtiz's The Egyptian (1954), and Delmer Daves's Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954), MGM produced their first Cinema Scope film under license from Fox, Knights of the Round Table (1954). Warner Brothers produced Rebel without a Cause (1955) and Elia Kazan's East of Eden (1955) under license. The traditional film aspect ratio of 1.37 to 1, the Academy aspect ratio, approximates the proportions of a TV set (1.33:1). Widescreen was intended to offer moviegoers something they could not get with television - a bigger picture with a whopping 2.66 to 1 aspect ratio. Basically, this was supposed to mean the picture was about twice as wide. Although some directors, particularly Akira Kurosawa, successfully exploited the new medium - after Kurosawa made The Hidden Fortress (1957), he never made another film in the Academy aspect ratio - others never really adapted. Fritz Lang famously said that Cinema Scope was only good for filming a parade or a snake. One real problem with early Cinema Scope was optical distortion, ("Cinema Scope mumps") which is particularly noticeable in East of Eden. Fox licensed Cinema Scope to other studios, but the other studios began to develop their own widescreen processes, such as Todd AO with a deeply curved screen and Technicolor Laboratories' Technirama. Cinerama was an extreme widescreen process requiring three cameras, three projectors and a curved screen. Vista Vision was developed for Paramount, and notable films in this medium include Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), John Sturges's Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), and Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), an MGM production with a licensed widescreen process. Vista Vision was especially prized for its optical clarity, touted as "Motion Picture High Fidelity" and represented an improvement over early Cinema Scope in this regard. Vista Vision was an intermediate widescreen process, with an aspect ratio of only about 1.85 to 1, wider than the Academy aspect ratio, but not as wide as Cinema Scope, similar to the aspect ratio most commonly used for widescreen films today. Kurosawa makes the best use possible of the wide screen, using the whole space for composition. William Wyler in contrast, in filming Ben Hur (1959), (filmed in Ultra Panavision MGM Camera 65,) was instructed only to use the middle of the screen for dialogue shots, so that when the film was cropped for narrowscreen theaters and television, nothing would be lost. Such films are much less interesting to watch, but for an intermediate widescreen film, it really makes little difference. Kurosawa only used intermediate widescreen once, for Ran (1985). His approach was that the Panavision screen is just as wide as the Tohoscope screen, but has the benefit of being higher, so more action can be added on the top and bottom of the screen, effectively deepening the field of vision. Panavision became the industry standard by the end of the 1960s.

Richard III was released first in the UK, but was broadcast by NBC simultaneous with its American release. NBC paid $500,000 for the one-time broadcast, but the film was not a big success in its North American theatrical release. Apparently no one was willing to pay to see the film in color and widescreen after they had seen it in black and white on TV. It was said that more people watched Richard III on NBC than had ever seen the play since it was written. When theatrically rereleased in the U.S. in 1967, Richard III broke box office records in many cities.

Like Olivier's films of Henry V and Hamlet, Richard III features an incredible musical score composed by Sir William Walton. Walton's Henry V score features themes from the medieval Agincourt Hymn, also used in Rowland V. Lee's Tower of London (1939) starring Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff, which tells much of the same history as Richard III, and medieval songs based on Joseph Canteloube's (1879-1957) "Chants d'Auvergne," a collected orchestration of medieval French folk songs. Hamlet and Richard III feature mostly original, though authentic-sounding themes. The Richard III score features different leitmotivs for different characters, and particularly different themes associated with Richard's Yorkist party, and the opposing Lancastrians.