Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM, (IPA: [ˈlɒɹəns əˈlɪvieɪ]; 22 May 1907 – 11 July 1989) was an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA and four-time Emmy winning English actor, director, and producer. He is one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson. Olivier played a wide variety of roles on stage and screen from Greek tragedy, Shakespeare and Restoration comedy to modern American and British drama. He was the first artistic director of the National Theatre of Great Britain and its main stage is named in his honour. He is considered by many to be the greatest actor of the 20th Century, in the same category as David Garrick, Richard Burbage, Edmund Kean and Henry Irving in their own centuries. Olivier's Academy acknowledgments are considerable—fourteen Oscar nominations, with two wins for Best Actor and Best Picture for the 1948 film Hamlet, and two honorary awards including...
Created by dipity on Feb 7, 2008
Last updated: 03/11/10 at 01:30 AM
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Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a film released on September 17, 2004 in the United States. It was written and directed by Kerry Conran, in his directorial debut. The film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Michael Gambon, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie and Sir Laurence Olivier. It is set in New York City in an alternative 1939 and is a pulp adventure style science fiction adventure film.
The film takes place in an alternative 1930s where there is no sign of Germany preparing for war or that America is in the grip of an economic depression. The fantastic technology, a mixture of super-advanced science and early 20th century (developed in science fiction works and comics of that age), points to an alternate history.
The film opens with the arrival of the zeppelin Hindenburg III in New York City, mooring at the Empire State Building (the building was originally designed to do just that). Before he vanishes, a frightened scientist named Dr. Jorge Vargas makes arrangements for a...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346156
Laurence Olivier died
The Wild Geese is a 1978 film about a group of mercenaries in Africa. It stars Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Richard Harris and Hardy Krüger. The film was the result of a long-held ambition of its producer Euan Lloyd to make an all-star adventure film similar to The Guns of Navarone.The film was based on an unpublished novel titled The Thin White Line by Rhodesian author Daniel Carney. The film was re-named The Wild Geese and Carney's novel was subsequently published under that title by Corgi Books.The novel was based upon rumors and speculation following the 1968 landing of a mysterious airplane in Rhodesia, which was said to have been loaded with mercenaries and "an African President" believed to have been a dying Moise Tshombe.Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), a British mercenary, is hired by merchant banker Sir Edward Matherson (Stewart Granger), to rescue Julius Limbani, the former leader of a central African country, who is due to be executed by the military dictator who overthrew...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090323
The Bounty is a 1984 historical film made by Dino De Laurentiis Productions and distributed by Orion Pictures Corporation and Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment. It was directed by Roger Donaldson and produced by Bernard Williams with Dino De Laurentiis as executive producer. The screenplay was by Robert Bolt and was based on the book Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian (1972) by Richard Hough. The music score was composed by Vangelis and the cinematography was by Arthur Ibbetson.
The film stars Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins with Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis, Bernard Hill, Philip Davis, Liam Neeson, John Sessions and Neil Morrissey.
The film is based on the real life story of Captain William Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny, led by his Master's Mate, Fletcher Christian on his ship, the Bounty.
This is the fifth film version of the story of the mutiny on the Bounty.
The first version, an Australian silent film, The Mutiny of the Bounty was made in 1916. The second, In...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086993
Inchon is a 1982 film directed by Terence Young about the Battle of Inchon during the Korean War.
The movie was panned by reviewers as overpriced and poorly-acted. Filmed over five years, Inchon lost an estimated 44.1 million USD. One of the major financial backers of Inchon was the Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, the church's founder, was a "Special Advisor" to the film. After hearing that the movie was backed by the Unification Church, the United States Department of Defense, which had supplied 1,500 troops as extras, withdrew support for the movie.
A portion of the movie was filmed on the U.S.S. Cleveland LPD-7. It was filmed during an amphibious operation off the coast of Korea in 1978. [1]The story of how Sun Myung Moon became involved in movie-making is almost certainly apocryphal: One day, Sun Myung Moon began crying and could not stop. To raise his spirits he took a trip to the movie theatre and the crying stopped. He saw this as a sign from God and resolved to make his...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084132
Clash of the Titans is a 1981 fantasy and mythology movie based on the myth of Perseus.
Stop motion animation is used to a large extent in the film to animate the various monsters. The special effects creatures were created by Ray Harryhausen, who retired from filmmaking shortly after the movie was released.
King Akrisius of Argos expresses anger towards Zeus for impregnating his daughter, Princess Danae. He then casts Danae and her infant son Perseus out to sea in a wooden chest. Unknown to everyone, a white bird who witnessed everything was really Poseidon, who informs Zeus of Akrisius' unfaithfulness. Zeus orders Poseidon to release the Kraken to destroy Argos by flooding his entire kingdom. While Argos is completely devastated, Danae and Perseus are safely brought to the island of Seriphos where they live a happy life and Perseus grows up to manhood.
Calibos - the spoiled son of Thetis, the goddess of the Sea - was a handsome young man destined to marry Princess Andromeda, the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082186
The Jazz Singer was a 1980 musical remake of the 1927 classic, The Jazz Singer. It starred Neil Diamond, Lucie Arnaz and Laurence Olivier, and was co-directed by Richard Fleischer and Sidney J. Furie. Ironically, Neil Diamond was nominated for both the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and Razzie Award for Worst Actor awards for his role, though he only won the latter.
The soundtrack was enormously successful, eventually reaching platinum status. While the film is commonly considered a flop, its suffering in the box office was due to its being swallowed up by the in-cinema competition. The film was released two days before the very successful hits Nine to Five and Scorsese's Raging Bull, not to mention the still-onscreen Stir Crazy. Clint Eastwood's Any Which Way You Can also opened on the same day.
Taglines:Jess Robin, whose real name is Yussel Rabinovitch, is a young Jewish cantor performing at the synagogue of his imperious father. Yussel is married to his childhood sweetheart,...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080948
Dracula is a 1979 horror/romance film starring Frank Langella as Count Dracula. The film was directed by John Badham and the cinematography was by Gilbert Taylor. The original music score is composed by John Williams. The film's tagline is: "Throughout history, he has filled the hearts of men with pure terror, and the hearts of women with pure desire."
The film also starred Sir Laurence Olivier as Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Donald Pleasence as Dr. Jack Seward, Kate Nelligan as Lucy Seward, Trevor Eve as Jonathan Harker, Tony Haygarth as Milo Renfield, and Jan Francis as Mina Van Helsing. It won the 1979 Saturn Award for Best Horror Film.
Like Universal's earlier 1931 version starring Bela Lugosi, the screenplay for this adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula is based on the stage adaptation by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which ran on Broadway and also starred Langella in a Tony Award-nominated performance. Notable for its Edwardian setting, and strikingly designed by,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079073
A Little Romance is a 1979 romantic comedy film starring Laurence Olivier, directed by George Roy Hill. The screenplay is written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill. The original music score is composed by Georges Delerue.Lauren King (Diane Lane) is 13 years old, highly intelligent, and rich. She is an American girl living in Paris who spends her free time reading Heidegger. Daniel Michon (Thelonious Bernard) is 13 years old, highly intelligent, and poor. He is a French boy who loves Hollywood films and who uses his talent with mathematics to make imaginary bets on horse races.When the two meet and fall in love, Lauren's flirtatious mother (Sally Kellerman) fiercely objects and tries to split the two up. Lauren and Daniel decide to run away to Venice, in order to "kiss under the Bridge of Sighs at sunset while the bells toll", which they have been told will mean that they will be in love forever. They are aided in this plan by Julius (Laurence Olivier), an elderly well-bred pickpocket....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079477
The Boys from Brazil is a 1978 thriller made by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment, and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and produced by Stanley O'Toole and Martin Richards with Robert Fryer as executive producer. The screenplay, by Heywood Gould, is loosely based on the novel by Ira Levin. It is not related to another film Boys from Brazil from 1993 [1]). The music score was by Jerry Goldsmith and the cinematography by Henri Decae.
The film was shot on location in Vienna, Austria, England, Portugal and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA.
A new remake of the Ira Levin novel by Brett Ratner as director from a script by Richard Potter and Matthew Stravitz is planned for 2008 or 2009.
The film follows the attempts of aging Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Sir Laurence Olivier) to discover and thwart a plan by surviving Nazi Josef Mengele (Gregory Peck). The plan is revealed over the course of the film and involves the deaths of 94 aging (60s) men as well as some...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077269
The Betsy is a 1978 film made by the Harold Robbins International Company and released by Allied Artists. It was directed by Daniel Petrie and produced by Robert R. Weston and Emanuel L. Wolf with Jack Grossberg as associate producer. The screenplay was by William Bast and Walter Bernstein, adapted from the novel of the same title by Harold Robbins.
The film starred Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones with Jane Alexander, Joseph Wiseman, Kathleen Beller, Edward Herrmann, Paul Rudd and Lesley-Anne Down.
The plot involves a fading family owned automobile manufacturer that pins its hopes for a return to profitability based upon a new model named for the granddaughter of the firms founder. Intrigue within the book centers on corporate secrets, and family betrayal. Several of the characters are very loosely based upon members of the Ford family, the most notable dynamic is between the character player by Olivier and that of Henry Ford.
Assembly plant footage...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077228
A Bridge Too Far is a 1977 film based on the 1974 book of the same name.
The film tells the story of Operation Market Garden, a failed Allied attempt to break through German lines at Arnhem in the occupied Netherlands during World War II. It was directed by Richard Attenborough and featured an ensemble cast of many film stars. The name for the film comes from a comment made by British Lt Gen Frederick Browning, deputy commander of the First Allied Airborne Army, who told Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery before the operation, "I think we may be going a bridge too far."
Directed by Richard Attenborough and featuring an ensemble cast of many period film stars, including Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliott, Elliott Gould, Edward Fox, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Jeremy Kemp, Laurence Olivier, Robert Redford, Liv Ullmann, Maximilian Schell, Hardy Krüger and Ryan O'Neal. The music for the film was scored by John Addison, who was a soldier with the...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075784
Marathon Man is a 1974 paranoid thriller novel by William Goldman. In 1976 it was made into a film of the same name starring Dustin Hoffman and Laurence Olivier, and directed by John Schlesinger.The story is about a former Nazi SS dentist from Auschwitz, Dr. Christian Szell (inspired by Josef Mengele, the last doctor in charge of Auschwitz II), now residing in Paraguay, trying to smuggle a large quantity of diamonds out of the U.S. This involves an ultra-secret intelligence agency called "The Division." The plot revolves around Thomas "Babe" Levy, a history graduate student at Columbia University and runner who is haunted by the suicide of his father, which was caused by the witchhunts of McCarthyism decades earlier. Thomas also has a brother, who unbeknownst to him works for this secret governmental body....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074860
The Rehearsal (Gr. I Dokimi)is a 1974 film produced by Jules Dassin that is a cinemagraphic indictment of the Greek junta of 1967-1974.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072074
Lady Caroline Lamb is a 1972 film based on the life of the notorious Lady Caroline Lamb, lover of Lord Byron and wife of Prime Minister Viscount Melbourne. The film was written and directed by Robert Bolt and starred his wife, Sarah Miles, as Lady Caroline.
Other stars included Jon Finch as the long-suffering Mr Lamb, Laurence Olivier as the Duke of Wellington, Richard Chamberlain as Byron, and Ralph Richardson as King George III.
The film was both a critical and box-office failure; the film was criticized both for its historical inaccuracies and for its own (lack of) merits. The film's failure dissuaded Bolt from further directorial work, and may have contributed to his break up with Sarah Miles.
...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068827
Sleuth is the 1972 film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play by British playwright Anthony Shaffer, who wrote the screenplay. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, it stars Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine.
The plot centers on Andrew Wyke, a wealthy writer of detective novels who delights in playing elaborate games. Aware that Milo Tindle, the owner of a chain of hairdressing salons, is having an affair with his wife, Marguerite, Wyke invites him to his country manor house. Wyke is also having an affair with a girl named Thea and is delighted his wife is occupied elsewhere. His main concern is that Tindle, a struggling businessman, will be unable to maintain Marguerite in the style to which she has become accustomed, and she’ll leave him and return to Wyke.
Wyke suggests that Tindle steal some valuable jewellery and sell it in order to live happily with Marguerite, while Wyke will claim the insurance in order to live happily with Tea. The proposal sets off a series of schemes...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069281
Three Sisters is a 1970 film starring Alan Bates, Laurence Olivier and Joan Plowright, based on the play by Anton Chekhov. Olivier also directed, with co-director John Sichel. The film was based on a theatre production that Olivier directed at the Royal National Theatre in 1967....
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066454
Oh! What a Lovely War is a stage musical and 1969 musical film. The title is derived from the music hall song Oh! It's a Lovely War, which is one of the major numbers in the productions.It began life at the Theatre Royal Stratford East, in 1963 as a production by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop. It was based on The Donkeys by historian Alan Clark, with some scenes adapted from The Good Soldier Švejk by Czech humorist Jaroslav Hašek. The play was an ensemble production with no "stars" as such, but featured members of the company, such as Brian Murphy, Victor Spinetti and Glynn Edwards playing multiple roles. The production transferred intact to Wyndham's Theatre the same year.This satire on World War I (and by extension against war in general), was a surprise hit. It was adapted by the BBC for radio more than once, and in 1969 Richard Attenborough transformed it into a film. His star-studded cast included Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Jack...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064754
Dance of Death is a filmed version of the play The Dance of Death by August Strindberg as presented by the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. It was released in 1969 and starred Laurence Olivier and Geraldine McEwan....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062857
Battle of Britain is a 1969 film directed by Guy Hamilton, and produced by Harry Saltzman and S Benjamin Fisz. The film broadly relates the events of the Battle of Britain. The script by James Kennaway and Wilfred Greatorex was based on the book The Narrow Margin by Derek Wood and Derek Dempster.
The film aimed to be an accurate account of the Battle of Britain, when in the summer and autumn of 1940 the British RAF inflicted a strategic defeat on the Nazi Luftwaffe and so ensured the cancellation of Operation Sealion — Hitler's plan to invade Britain. The huge strategic victory of the outnumbered British pilots would be summed up by Winston Churchill in the immortal words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
The film is notable for its spectacular flying sequences, echoing those seen in Angels One Five (1952) but on a far grander scale than had been seen on film before. These made the film's production very expensive.
The film has a large all...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064072
The Shoes of the Fisherman is a 1963 novel by Morris West, as well as a 1968 movie based upon it.The book reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list for adult fiction on June 30, 1963, and it was the #1 bestselling novel in the United States for that year, according to Publishers Weekly.Set during the Cold War, The Shoes of the Fisherman opens as protagonist Kiril Pablovich Lakota, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Lviv, is unexpectedly set free after twenty years in a Siberian labor camp. He is sent to Rome, where the elder Pope makes him a Cardinal.When the Pontiff dies, Lakota finds himself elected Pope when the Cardinals cannot decide between the leading candidates. But as the new Pope, Kiril I, he is plagued by self-doubt, by his years in prison, and by a Western world he knows little about.The world is in a state of crisis: a famine in China is exacerbated by U.S. restrictions on Chinese trade and the ongoing Chinese-Soviet feud. Can he find a solution before it is too late?...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063599
Khartoum is a 1966 film written by Robert Ardrey and directed by Basil Dearden.
The film stars Charlton Heston as General Gordon, with Laurence Olivier as the Mahdi (Mahommed Ahmed), and is based on Gordon's defence of the Sudanese city of Khartoum from the forces of the Mahdist army (see: Battle of Khartoum).
Khartoum was filmed by cinematographer Ted Scaife in Ultra Panavision 70, and was exhibited in 70 mm Cinerama in premiere engagements.
The film is about the last months before the British lost their emplacement in Sudan in january 1885. In a shortened and simplified way it shows how Khartoum was under siege by the Mahdist army while General Gordon had been planning last strategies before Khartoum fell and he was murdered.
As an example of fictional elements in the film there is the fact that there was no last encounter of Gordon and the Mahdi in the camp of the forces of the Mahdi which the film alleged.
The following words are from the closing scene of the film, spoken by a...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060588
Othello is a 1965 film based on the Shakespeare play Othello; starring Laurence Olivier, Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay, and Joyce Redman. It was simply a filmed version of a performance by the actors for the National Theatre, staged by John Dexter, from 1964-66. It even used enlarged duplicates of the original stage settings, rather than having elaborate new and different sets built specifically for the film. Olivier's former backers for his Shakespeare films were all dead by 1965, and he was not able to raise the money to do a real film version. Olivier had in fact been planning on doing Macbeth, but the film's main backer, Alexander Korda, died a year after the release of Richard III. In the U.S., it did not play the usual several-week run given to most films; instead, it received an extremely limited release.
Ironically, it is the only Shakespeare film in which all the leading actors and actresses have been nominated for Oscars. Olivier's portrayal of Othello, for which he wore highly...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059555
Bunny Lake Is Missing is a film in the psychological thriller genre directed by Otto Preminger. Filmed in the UK in black and white widescreen format, it was released in 1965. The film score is by Paul Glass and uses the opening theme as a constant refrain. The Zombies also appear, playing their own songs.Dismissed by critics (and Preminger) as being insignificant upon release, it has since earned a reputation as a cult classic. Critics such as Andrew Sarris have long championed it, and its fans have long demanded it be released on video and DVD, which it was in 2005.Ann Lake, who left the US for a new life in London, where she plans to settle with her daughter Bunny Lake and brother Stephen, arrives at Bunny's new school to collect her. But Bunny is not there and the school has no record of her. She reports the apparent abduction to the police, but when they fail to locate the child, suspicion mounts that Bunny never existed.When Stephen arrives, he supports Ann, but also undermines...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058997
Uncle Vanya is a tragicomedy by the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov published in 1899. Its first major performance was in 1900 under the direction of Konstantin Stanislavski.
Uncle Vanya is unique among Chekhov's major plays because it is essentially an extensive reworking of a play published a decade earlier, The Wood Demon. By elucidating the specific revisions Chekhov made during the revision process, including reducing the cast-list from almost two-dozen down to a lean nine, changing the climactic suicide of the The Wood Demon into the famous failed homicide of Uncle Vanya, and altering the original happy ending into a more problematic, less final resolution, critics such as Donald Rayfield, Richard Gilman, and Eric Bentley have sought to chart the development of Chekhov's dramaturgical method through the 1890s.
Uncle Vanya was published in 1899, but it is difficult to determine when the work was originally finished, or when the revision process took place. Rayfield cites...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331
Spartacus is a 1960 film directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the novel of the same name by Howard Fast about the historical life of Spartacus and the Third Servile War. The film stars Kirk Douglas as rebellious slave Spartacus and Laurence Olivier as his foe, the Roman general and politician Marcus Licinius Crassus. The film also stars Peter Ustinov (who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as slave trader Lentulus Batiatus), John Gavin (as Julius Caesar), Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Herbert Lom, Woody Strode, Tony Curtis, John Dall and Charles McGraw. The titles were designed by Saul Bass. The film begins at a mine worked by slaves in the Roman province of Libya. Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), a burly Thracian, comes to the aid of an old man who has fallen down. A Roman soldier tells Spartacus to get back to work, only to be attacked and bitten on the ankle, apparently on the Achilles tendon. (In the film, he is said to have "hamstrung" the guard, which is...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331
The Entertainer is a 1957 play by John Osborne, made into a film in 1960, which told the story of a failing third-rate music hall stage performer who tried to keep his career going even as his personal life fell apart.
The story is set against the backdrop of the dying music hall tradition, and this has usually been seen as symbolic of Britain's general post-war decline, its loss of its Empire, its power, and its cultural confidence and identity.
The film starred Laurence Olivier, Brenda De Banzie, Roger Livesey, Joan Plowright, Alan Bates, Daniel Massey, Thora Hird and Albert Finney. The movie was adapted by Nigel Kneale and John Osborne from Osborne's play, and was directed by Tony Richardson. It was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Laurence Olivier). It was filmed on location in the Lancashire seaside town of Morecambe.
Angry young menKitchen sink realism...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053796
The Devil's Disciple is the only play by G. Bernard Shaw set in America. This historical play takes place in the time of the Revolutionary War and is the fictional story of Richard Dudgeon, an American hero. It was published in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans (together with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and Caesar and Cleopatra). A film version was made in 1959.Dudgeon is secretly a rebel, and is considered by his family and friends to be the "Devil's disciple" because of his rebellious personality and unfaithfulness to religion. The main reason why he has turned so "devilish" is because of his rude and inconsiderate mother's rigid piety, which has deterred Dudgeon from following in her footsteps. In Act I, however, Dick returns home upon the death of his father to hear the reading of the will. His wickedness appalls Judith, the wife of the town's minister, Anthony Anderson.In Act II, Richard is in fact the hero. While visiting Anderson's home, Dick is left alone...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052735
The Prince and the Showgirl is a 1957 Hollywood film starring Marilyn Monroe and co-starring Laurence Olivier who also directed and produced it. The film was released on June 13 1957.
It was written by Terrence Rattigan who based the script on his play The Sleeping Prince.
The film is set in London in June 1911. George V will be crowned king on June 22 and in the preceding days, many of the most important dignitaries arrive. Among those arriving are the future king of Carpathia, Nicholas and the regent, his father, Prince Charles.
The British government realize that Carpathia is critical to the tension in Europe, and to gain favour with them would be wise. They find, that it is necessary to pamper their stay to London and thus the civil servant Northbrook is detached to their service. Northbrook decides to take the Prince Regent out to a cabaret performance, The Coconut Girl. At intermission, the Prince is taken backstage to meet the cast. He does so, and is particularly interested...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050861
Richard III is a 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's historical play Richard III, including elements of Henry VI, part 3. It was directed by Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role. The cast includes many noted Shakespearean actors, including a quartet of acting knights. The film depicts Richard plotting and conspiring to grasp the throne from his brother King Edward, played by Cedric Hardwicke. In the process, many are killed and betrayed, with Richard's evil leading to his own downfall. The prologue of the film states that history without its legends would be "a dry matter indeed", implicitly admitting to taking artistic licence with the events of the time. The film, as the play did before it, has contributed to considerable debate among historians who alternately praise or vilify the actual Richard III. Critics note that Richard's life and times were much richer and more interesting than the one-dimensional villain Shakespeare and Olivier portrayed.
Of...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049674
Peter Brook's film version of The Beggar's Opera was made in 1953 starring Laurence Olivier, Dorothy Tutin, Stanley Holloway and others. Olivier and Holloway do their own singing in this film, but Dorothy Tutin and several others are dubbed. This was Laurence Olivier's only film musical.With additional dialogue and lyrics by Christopher Fry, the film expands on some elements in the opera, notably giving Mrs Trapes (Athene Seyler) a larger role and adding dramatic action sequences to Macheath's escape.The framing device is also changed: the Beggar (Hugh Griffith) is himself a prisoner in Newgate with the real Macheath, who escapes at the end under cover of the confusion created when the Beggar decides that his fictional Macheath should be reprieved.The film also includes one of the first film performances of the Carry On star Kenneth Williams...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045547
The Magic Box is a British film released in 1951.The Magic Box was a project of the Festival of Britain in 1951. It gave a biographic account of William Friese-Greene, who first designed and patented a working cinematic camera. The accuracy of this claim is subject to some controversy, but evidence now tends to support the claim. The film was notable for its cast: many well-known British film actors appeared in it as 'bit-part' cameos (see below). The film was completed and shown just before the end of the Festival, but the general release was not until 1952.The Magic Box was nominated for two BAFTA Awards in 1952—Best Film and Best British Film.TimeOut Film Guide - published by Penguin Books - ISBN 0-14-029395-7...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043769
Hamlet is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. Hamlet was Olivier's second film as director, and also the second of his three Shakespeare films. It is the only one of Olivier's directorial efforts to be filmed in black and white.
Olivier's Hamlet is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor. However, it was poorly received by Shakespearean purists, who felt that Olivier had made too many alterations and excisions to the four-hour play by cutting nearly two hours worth of content.[citation needed]Herlie, who plays Hamlet's mother, was 28 years old when the movie was filmed. Olivier, who plays her son, was 41.
Olivier played the voice of the Ghost himself by recording the dialogue and playing it back at a reduced speed, giving it a haunted, other-worldly quality.
The cinematography, by Desmond Dickinson, makes use...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040416
Henry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play Henry V. The on-screen title is The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France (the title of the 1600 quarto edition of the play). It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The screenplay was adapted by Olivier, Dallas Bower, and Alan Dent. The score is by William Walton.The film begins as a recreation of a stage production of the play in the Globe Theatre, then gradually turns into a stylized cinematic rendition of the play, with sets reminiscent of a medieval Book of Hours. It follows the overall pattern of Shakespeare's play, depicting Henry's campaign in France, through the siege of Harfleur and eventually to Agincourt. The film then shows the Battle of Agincourt in a real setting, after which the film quickly begins to revert to backdrops that conversely now become more and more artificial. It ends with Henry's courtship of Princess Katherine. At the end of the scene,...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036910
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941) is the third film made by the British writer-director team of Powell and Pressburger. It was released in the USA as The Invaders. Despite the title, no scene in the movie is set at the forty-ninth parallel, which forms much of the U.S.-Canadian border. The only border scene is at Niagara Falls, which is located further south.
The British Ministry of Information approached Michael Powell to make a propaganda film for them, suggesting he make "a film about mine-sweeping." Instead, Powell decided to make a different film set in Canada, to sway a still-neutral United States. Said Powell, "I hoped it might scare the pants off the Americans [and thus bring them into the war]." Screenwriter Emeric Pressburger remarked, "Goebbels considered himself an expert on propaganda, but I thought I'd show him a thing or two." After persuading the British and Canadian governments, Powell started location filming in 1940.
Early in WWII, Nazi survivors of a German U-boat sunk...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033627
That Hamilton Woman, its original British title was simply Lady Hamilton, is a 1941 historical film drama, produced & directed by Alexander Korda, for Alexander Korda Films.It tells the story of Emma Hamilton, who was mistress to Admiral Horatio Nelson with these roles played by Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier. Heather Angel also appear in the film in a minor part of a street girl. The story start at the end of Lady Hamilton's Life, in the slums of Calais, and shows her life by means of a flash back.Stars Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier were newlyweds at the time of filming and were considered a "dream couple".In Horatio Nelson's (Laurence Olivier) opening scene, he informs Lord Hamilton that he has received orders from Lord Admiral Hood, a role that Olivier would play 43 years later, in The BountyIt was stated to be the favorite film of Sir Winston ChurchillMade in wartime, Napoleon was equated to Hitler and Nelson to 'Britain fighting on alone' in WWII....,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034272
Rebecca is an Academy Award–winning 1940 psychological thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock as his first American project. It is an adaptation by Joan Harrison and Robert E. Sherwood of British author Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel of the same name, and was produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Laurence Olivier as Maxim de Winter, Joan Fontaine as his second wife, and Judith Anderson as his late wife's servant, Mrs. Danvers.
The film is a gothic tale about the lingering memory of the title character, which still controls her husband, his new bride, and the housekeeper of their estate, Manderley, long after her death.
The film tells of the second Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine), a young woman who works as a companion to the aristocratic Edythe Van Hopper (Florence Bates).
The companion (her name is never given) meets the wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier) in Monte Carlo. They fall in love and within weeks, decide to get married.
Maxim takes his new bride to...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032976
Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) has been the subject of numerous television and film adaptations. This classic Hollywood version was released in 1940. Robert Z. Leonard directed, and Aldous Huxley served as one of the screenwriters on the production.The film was critically well received. Bosley Crowther in a 09 August 1940 review for the New York Times described the film as "the most deliciously pert comedy of old manners, the most crisp and crackling satire in costume that we in this corner can remember ever having seen on the screen." Crowther also praised casting decisions and noted of the two central protagonists, "Greer Garson is Elizabeth—"dear, beautiful Lizzie"—stepped right out of the book, or rather out of one's fondest imagination: poised, graceful, self-contained, witty, spasmodically stubborn and as lovely as a woman can be. Laurence Olivier is Darcy, that's all there is to it—the arrogant, sardonic Darcy whose pride went before a most felicitous fall." [1]...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032943
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 film, directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the celebrated novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, although the film only depicts sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters. The novel was adapted for the screen by Charles MacArthur, Ben Hecht and John Huston. It is considered to be the best film version of Bronte's novel ever made, and was the film responsible for making Laurence Olivier a Hollywood star. The film earned nominations for eight Academy Awards, including the awards for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best cinematography, which Gregg Toland won for his work on the film.
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032145
The Divorce of Lady X is a 1938 British romantic comedy film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Tim Whelan and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Ian Dalrymple and Arthur Wimperis, adapted by Lajos Biró from the play Counsel's Opinion by Gilbert Wakefield. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and Lionel Salter and the cinematography by Harry Stradling.
The film stars Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and Binnie Barnes.
The film was made in Technicolor. It was a remake of the 1933 film, Counsel's Opinion, also made by London Films and in which Binnie Barnes appeared in the role played by Merle Oberon.
Leslie Steele (Merle Oberon), a guest at a costume party is forced to stay overnight in a hotel because of bad weather. As there are no rooms available, the hotel persuades Everard Logan (Laurence Olivier), a handsome but somewhat stiff lawyer, to share his suite with the lady. They spend the night together, quite...,
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0030063
Fire Over England is a 1937 film drama produced by London Film Productions. It was directed by William K. Howard and written by Clemence Dane from a novel by A. E. W. Mason.
The film is a historical drama set during the reign of Elizabeth I, who is played by Flora Robson. It is notable for providing the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and it also stars Raymond Massey and Leslie Banks. James Mason (no relation to the author of the novel on which the film is based) has a bit part as a British traitor.
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028872
As You Like It is a 1936 film, directed by Paul Czinner and starring Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. It is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name. It was Laurence Olivier's first performance of Shakespeare on screen.
It was the final film of stage actors Leon Quartermaine and Henry Ainley, and featured an early screen role for Ainley's son Richard as Sylvius, and for John Laurie, who played Orlando's brother Oliver. Bergner had previously played the role of Rosalind in her native Germany and her German accent is apparent in most of her scenes.
The film is notable for being scored by William Walton, who was to become Olivier's longtime musical collaborator, scoring his films of Henry V,Hamlet and Richard III, and defending his score for the film Battle of Britain against its replacement by Ron Goodwin's.
Duke Frederick (Felix Aylmer) has usurped and deposed his older brother, Duke Senior (Henry Ainley). Frederick allows the exiled Duke's...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027311
Laurence Olivier was born
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