![]() The film does move slowly, despite Olivier's trims. I can't watch that scene without laughing it's a Mel Brooks moment. "Then never man was true!" Richard shouts, and Olivier as he says this rolls his eyes shamelessly, like a silent-screen matinée idol. While wooing that man's wife (strictly for political gain), he actually draws a sword when presenting himself as the widow's new suitor, telling her to plunge it into him if she won't be his bride. "A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman.the spacious world cannot again afford," Richard says of one man he killed, and Olivier invests moments like this with a firm tongue in cheek. ![]() Finally, he finds the ample stores of humor Shakespeare gave this, one of his darker plays. He yells some lines, then coos others, his vocal dynamics challenging even seasoned readers of the play in terms of what he chooses to accent and what he does not. He moves us the audience from one scene to another by pulling back a curtain and nodding to us to come closer, as if we were an old friend. As a director (and uncredited co-writer), Olivier telescopes the action on screen in such a way as to negate the necessary stageiness of Shakespeare's text. Because "Richard III," like "Patton" or "Scarface," is essentially a one-man show, and Olivier was the best Shakespearean actor of his time or since, we are in good hands. ![]() So how do they do on the movie screen? Quite well. He was the world's greatest stage actor of his time, and Shakespeare was the world's greatest stage writer. In the title role, Sir Laurence Olivier manages to be rousing and hate-inducing, menacing and amusing, often all at once. That "Richard III" is one of the all-time great acting performances is hard to argue with.
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