Richard III kicks off after the events of (deep breath) “King John,” “Richard II,” parts I and II of “Henry IV,” “Henry V,” and parts I through III of “Henry VI.”1 “Henry VI: Part III” ends with the ascendency of the Yorkists over the Lancastrians after the Battle of Tewkesbury and the murder of the titular Henry in the Tower of London by Richard, Duke of Gloucester (the guy that’s gonna be Richard III). Okay, now you’re caught up.
Richard III picks up with the coronation of Yorkist Edward IV (Cedric Hardwicke) and a good monologue from his brother, the murderous hunchback Richard (Laurence Olivier). That monologue starts:
Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this son of York.
Richard lets the audience know that he’s going to be king once he successfully kills all the people in front of him in the line of succession. His first victim is his brother George, Duke of Clarence (John Gielgud), who is drowned in a barrel of wine.2 When his brother, King Edward IV, dies of natural causes. Richard then needs to knock off his two young nephews, one of whom first ascends to the thrown as Edward V. He sends the princes to the Tower of London “in preparation for the coronation,” then spreads rumors about the illegitimacy of the kids to get himself made king.
As Richard plots against his family, he also spits game at Lady Anne Neville (Claire Bloom), whose husband and father he killed.3 He wants to marry her because of how fabulously wealthy she is and, despite his sins against her family and his big ol’ hunchback, he gets her to marry him. Ominously, he says “I'll have her but I will not keep her long”—and when Anne outlives her usefulness, Richard poisons her so he can try to marry his brother Edward’s daughter to improve his royal legitimacy.
Richard's cousin, the Duke of Buckingham (Ralph Richardson), has assisted in some of these bloody machinations, but when Richard asks him to go kill the princes in the Tower, he won’t.4 Knowing refusal means death, Buckingham flees to Brittany, where the Lancastrian Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond is in exile. Richmond marches on England to have a showdown for the crown with Richard at the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485). That battle doesn’t go Richard’s way—it’s the one that ends with him yelling “A HORSE! A HORSE! MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE!” right before he’s killed.
Also, it's not, like, the most important thing, but look at Olivier’s completely bonkers hair:
Actually, maybe it is the most important thing. No one could possibly follow the plot of Richard III, but everyone can enjoy that hair.
Rating: 7/10, a convoluted plot in old-timey English that still ends up being a pretty entertaining watch.
Cast and Crew
Look, this is the first movie I’ve seen Laurence Olivier in. I don’t know anything about this guy. But holy hell, the fact that this isn’t the man’s most iconic role says something incredible about his career. He’s exceptional as Richard III, with his ability to seamlessly go from devoted brother and loving uncle to heartless, conniving villain. It isn’t a parlor trick either, like Fredric March’s loony eyes in Death of a Salesman; instead, it’s like he’s showing you his soul when he lets the mask fall.
We mentioned Olivier when discussing Vivien Leigh, to whom he was married, but let’s hit on his early career. He became a legend on the stage, but since this is a film newsletter (sorta), so let’s talk about Laurence Olivier, the guy with nine Best Actor nominations. The ones pre Richard are Wuthering Heights (1939), Rebecca (1940), Henry V (1946), and Hamlet (1948, which he also directed). Not bad, Larry. If you’re counting, that means we’ve got four more Olivier films to go, so we’ll see him again.
Another Shakespeare adaptation, another role for John Gielgud. I’ve nothing left to say about him after his turn as Cassius in Julius Caesar, but if you’re not familiar with him (as I wasn’t), it’s nice to see his name again. Maybe say his name out loud a couple of times so it sticks. Giel-gud. Giel-gud. Giel-gud. That first “G” is a soft one, the second’s hard. Giel-gud.
Ralph Richardson was the third of the “holy trinity” of actors who dominated the 20th century British stage. Olivier wanted the three of them to be in this movie together, but eventually conceded that Richard III would've been better if he had cast Orson Welles instead. Sorry, Ralph.
Claire Bloom, who played the Lady Anne, had an amazing career that we’re not going to talk about. Instead, we’ll do what trivia does sometimes: focus on a woman’s marriages. Bloom married Rod Steiger, who we saw in On the Waterfront and who we'll watch win a Best Actor trophy in 1968. She also wed the novelist Philip Roth. One of Bloom's autobiographies is about her time with Roth; it was entitled “Leaving A Doll’s House,” which, ouch. We’ll see Bloom three more times in this column, including in 2010 (!!), so we’ll put some respect on her name in those appearances.
The Trivia
The truth about Richard III is a tricky thing. You should keep in mind that Shakespeare’s “Richard III” is not a primary source—instead, it was written over a hundred years after the fact and was written for a monarch who had a bias.5 Among the things that might not be correct about Shakespeare’s depiction of Richard III: he might not have killed Edward, Prince of Wales; he might not have killed his brother Clarence; he might not have killed Lady Anne; he might not have killed the princes in the Tower; he might not have even been a bad king.
I'll also offer a brief discussion of the Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1487), which will abridge the abridged discussion from this CGP Grey video. Essentially, the grandchildren of Edward III, both of whom belonged to the House of Plantagenet, battled it out to be king of England. Henry VI was from the Lancastrian cadet branch (called the red rose) while Edward IV was from the York side (white rose). They battle, and battle, and battle some more, passing kingship back and forth, both dying. Then Richard III gets in on the action, but he's defeated by Henry Tudor (who becomes Henry VII). Henry, a Lancastrian, then marries Elizabeth of York, combining the red and white roses, ending the wars, and beginning the House of Tudor.
Odds and Ends
“Hamlet” is Shakespeare’s longest play, but “Richard III” is the 2nd-longest…note that the English flag at this time had the fleur-de-lis on it, showing how they controlled some of France6...the badge of Richard III was a white boar…“white-livered” is an old-timey way to say “cowardly” (implying the liver doesn’t have enough bile, or “choler”)...Richard’s horse was named Surrey…the breaking of the 4th wall in Richard III was considered revelatory, and it’s still pretty great…the king of England holds an orb an a scepter; the current scepter, the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross, has the Cullinan I diamond in it, known as the “Star of Africa.”
Does that mean starting with Richard III is the equivalent of starting the Fast and the Furious series with F9? Yeah, probably.
Specifically, he’s drowned in a “butt of malmsey wine”; a butt is a 100 gallons and “malmsey” is a type of madeira.
Her husband was Edward of Westminster, Prince of Wales, the son of Henry IV. In “Henry VI: Part III,” Richard stabs a captured Edward after the Battle of Tewkesbury, but contemporary sources suggest he died in battle. Richard also may be speaking figuratively about killing Anne’s father (the Earl of Warwick, known as “Warwick the Kingmaker”), since he also died in battle. Interestingly, Clarence (Richard’s brother and the guy in the wine barrel) was married to Anne’s sister.
Instead, Richard gets Sir James Tyrrell (Patrick Troughton, a future Dr. Who) to go and smother those pesky kids.
That monarch was Elizabeth I, who was descended from Henry VII, the guy who defeated Richard III at Bosworth Field.
And would until losing Calais in 1558. The fleur-de-lis wouldn’t come off the royal standard until 1801, though, since it represented England’s claim to France (even if they didn’t actually have any of it).