Laurence OlivierFilmography

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Actors: Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Gambon, Bai Ling, Omid Djalili

Synopsis: Directed by Kerry Conran, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow revolves around the mysterious disappearance of some of the world's most revered scientists. When an investigation is launched, Polly Perkins (Gwyneth Paltrow), reporter for the prestigious Chronicle, and Sky Captain (Jude Law) Read More

Shakespeare's Women

Synopsis: Acclaimed Shakespearean thespian Claire Bloom takes viewers on a made-for-TV romp through the women's roles of William Shakespeare in script, stage, and screen, many of which Bloom herself played in the decades of her classical theatrical career. Not only does Bloom read some of her most prized Read More

British Documentary Movement, Vol. 4: Wartime Homefront

Synopsis: The important role of non-fiction in recording history is profiled in British Documentary Movement, Vol. 4: Wartime Homefront. Humphrey Jennings was one of the most important filmmakers of his time. His artful explorations of the British experience during the Blitz made him a favorite of viewers Read More

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

Synopsis: This made-for-cable documentary traces the filming of the imperishable classic Gone with the Wind, from its inception to its triumphant Atlanta premiere in December of 1939. Filmmaker David Hinton interviews as many survivors of the experience as he's able to round up, but the main attraction of Read More

War Requiem

Actors: Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Laurence Olivier, Patricia Hayes, Rohan McCullough

Synopsis: The first BBC television film to be given a British theatrical release, Derek Jarman's War Requiem is a cinematic interpretation of composer Benjamin Britten's famed oratorio. Narrated by Lord Laurence Olivier, whose last film this was, War Requiem combines Britten's music with the words of Read More

Directed by William Wyler

Actors: William Wyler, Bette Davis, Laurence Olivier, Lillian Hellman, Gregory Peck, Terence Stamp

Synopsis: This excellent biographical documentary looks at the life and work of director William Wyler. The film is dominated by clips from many of Wyler's better-known works, such as Roman Holiday, Ben-Hur, and Funny Girl. A long interview with the director himself (conducted a few days before he died) Read More

Peter the Great

Synopsis: A TV mini-series, this is a visually pleasant movie about the life of Russia's colorful ruler, from childhood on. Big name cast is wasted on small roles, however. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide Read More

The Ebony Tower

Actors: Roger Rees, Greta Scacchi, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: In one of his last film appearances, Laurence Olivier portrays an elderly painter who has locked himself away from the world in a crumbling French chateau. Olivier is not quite a hermit; he enjoys the attentions of two nubile admirers, played by Greta Scacchi and Toyah Willcox. This situation is Read More

The Wild Geese 2

Actors: Scott Glenn, Barbara Carrera, Edward Fox, Laurence Olivier, Robert Webber

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier trots out his late-career German accent once again, playing Rudolf Hess in this sequel to Wild Geese. Richard Burton was set to star in the film, but when he died, Edward Fox was brought in as a replacement, playing Burton's younger brother. (the film is dedicated to Burton). The Read More

The Last Days of Pompeii

Synopsis: This three-part, seven-hour TV adaptation of Edgar Bulwer-Lytton's 1834 best-seller The Last Days of Pompeii was arguably more faithful to its source than any of the earlier film versions -- and inarguably the most expensive version of all, boasting a 19,000,000-dollar budget and a truly Read More

King Lear

Actors: Diana Rigg, Dorothy Tutin, Laurence Olivier, Anna Calder-Marshall

Synopsis: Shakespeare's tragedy, made for British television, is given a full-blooded rendition here with the great Laurence Olivier in the title role and a stellar cast to support him, in the tale of a king torn apart by the ambition and treachery within his family and by his own pride. ~ Mark Hockley, All Read More

Voyage' Round My Father

Actors: Alan Bates, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: John Mortimer's autobiographical play Voyage 'Round My Father was given a class-A TV adaptation in 1984. Mortimer, best known for his Rumpole of the Bailey stories, has fashioned an unexpurgated but affectionate portrait of his highly eccentric lawyer father Clifford Mortimer, played by Sir Read More

The Jigsaw Man

Actors: Michael Caine, Laurence Olivier, Susan George, Robert Powell, Charles Gray

Synopsis: This spy film purports to be inspired by the true story of Kim Philby (1912-1988), a British intelligence officer and Soviet spy during the 1940s and '50s who gained international notoriety when he blew his cover and defected to the USSR in 1963. But this fictional, unsophisticated, if not naive Read More

The Bounty

Actors: Mel Gibson, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis

Synopsis: This fourth film dramatization of the 1789 mutiny aboard the H.M.S. Bounty is based not on the familiar Nordhoff and Hall book, but on Richard Hough's novel Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian. This time, the infamous Captain Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) is as strict a disciplinarian as ever. He is Read More

Mister Halpern and Mister Johnson

Synopsis: A recent widower (Laurence Olivier) agrees to have a drink with his late wife's old flame (Jackie Gleason) after the funeral. While there, he is surprised to learn that the man remained an oft-seen platonic friend until just before his wife's death. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide Read More

Wagner

Actors: Richard Burton, Vanessa Redgrave, Laszlo Galffi, John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson

Synopsis: Originally a nine-hour British miniseries, this film on the last four decades in the life of Richard Wagner may have taken its long-winded cue from the lengthy operas of the famous 19th-century German composer and musical theorist -- the Ring des Nibelungen is 14-15 hours in itself, divided into Read More

Brideshead Revisited

Actors: Jeremy Irons, Anthony Andrews, Diana Quick, John Gielgud, Claire Bloom, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited was offered to television viewers in this 11-part adaptation that originally aired on the U.K.'s ITV network. The miniseries, like the book, lays bare the eccentricities of the young British aristocracy, concentrating upon several Oxford students. The Read More

Clash of the Titans

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Harry Hamlin, Claire Bloom, Judi Bowker, Maggie Smith

Synopsis: The eschewing of modern optical effects techniques in favor of the classic stop-motion animation work of special effects legend Ray Harryhausen was a delightful highlight of this action adventure that attempted to give Greek mythology the Star Wars (1977) treatment. Harry Hamlin stars as Perseus Read More

Inchon

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Jacqueline Bisset, Ben Gazzara, Toshiro Mifune, Richard Roundtree

Synopsis: This infamous Korean War drama is best known as the movie produced by Rev. Sung Myung Moon's Unification Church, though more people seem to have read stories about its troubled production or disastrous reception at the box office than to have actually seen it: on its initial release, it grossed Read More

The Jazz Singer

Actors: Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz, Catlin Adams, Franklyn Ajaye, Paul Nicholas

Synopsis: Pop singer Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of Al Jolson's seminal 1927 musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with Yussel Read More

A Little Romance

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Arthur Hill, Sally Kellerman, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard

Synopsis: The disarming comedy A Little Romance features Diane Lane as a 13-year-old American, living in Paris with her businessman stepfather (Arthur Hill) and her promiscuous mother (Sally Kellerman). Mom is currently enamored with pretentious-filmmaker David Dukes, and it is on the set of Dukes' latest Read More

Dracula

Actors: Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, Donald Pleasence, Kate Nelligan, Trevor Eve

Synopsis: In the late '70s, Frank Langella starred in the hit Broadway play Dracula, written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. Langella's charisma and the surreal, black-and-white sets designed by cartoonist Edward Gorey were the chief outstanding features of the play, which was otherwise Read More

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

Actors: Laurence Olivier

The Betsy

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Jane Alexander

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Harold Robbins, this is the story of Loren Hardeman, Sr., a Midwestern automobile manufacturer (Lord Olivier) who pins his future on The Betsy, a "wonder car" named after his daughter (Kathleen Beller). The Betsy is designed to last practically forever, which doesn't rest Read More

Daphne Laureola

Synopsis: Sir Laurence Olivier stars in this film about a group of people in a Soho restaurant who are all invited by a boisterous woman to a tea at her husband's home. Enraptured by the woman is an elderly businessman who may find that things with this enchanting woman may not be what they seem. ~ Cammila Read More

The Boys From Brazil

Actors: Gregory Peck, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Lilli Palmer, Uta Hagen

Synopsis: This film of Ira Levin's novel The Boys from Brazil wastes no time in establishing the fact that several seemingly unrelated men have been mysteriously murdered. Elderly Jewish Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier), brought into the case when the clues seem to point to a neo-fascist plot Read More

Come Back, Little Sheba

Crew: Producer

Actors: Joanne Woodward, Laurence Olivier, Carrie Fisher, Nicholas Campbell

Synopsis: Burt Lancaster was too young to play alcoholic, disillusioned Doc Delaney in the 1952 film version of William Inge's Come Back Little Sheba. At age 70, Laurence Olivier was too old for the part, yet Olivier's performance is far more persuasive than Lancaster's in this 1977 TV-movie remkae of Read More

A Bridge Too Far

Actors: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox

Synopsis: It's late 1944, and the Allied armies are confident they'll win the World War II and be home in time for Christmas. What's needed, says British general Bernard Law Montgomery, is a knockout punch, a bold strike through Holland, where German troops are spread thin, that will put the Allies into Read More

Jesus of Nazareth

Actors: Robert Powell, Olivia Hussey, Peter Ustinov, Christopher Plummer, Anne Bancroft, James Mason, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier, Rod Steiger

Synopsis: Because director Franco Zeffirelli noted publicly that he intended to depict Jesus Christ as a human being rather than a religious icon, his expensive made-for-TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth fell victim to protestors long before its April 3, 1977, debut. Despite the pullout of several sponsors Read More

The Seven-Percent Solution

Actors: Alan Arkin, Vanessa Redgrave, Robert Duvall, Nicol Williamson, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend Read More

Hindle Wakes

Crew: Director

Marathon Man

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier, Roy Scheider, William Devane, Marthe Keller

Synopsis: Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) is an American secret agent who has been running interference between the U.S. government and escaped Nazi war criminal Szell (Laurence Olivier). Believing that Doc has stolen a valuable cache of gems, Szell emerges from his South American hiding place and heads for New Read More

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Crew: Producer

Actors: Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Laurence Olivier, Maureen Stapleton

Synopsis: This TV adaptation of Tennessee Williams' prize-winning play stars Robert Wagner as Brick, a college sports champion who hasn't made it in the real world, and Natalie Wood as Brick's wife Maggie, the sexually frustrated "cat" of the title. Brick and Maggie are staying at the home of Brick's Read More

Genocide

Synopsis: Documents Hitler's extermination of the Jews, with interviews of survivors and the British Foreign Secretary during WWII. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

The Collection

Synopsis: Listed variously as a 1975 and 1978 release (it was actually produced in 1976), The Collection is a videotaped staging of the play by Harold Pinter. Described by one observer as the theatrical equivalent to a musical chamber work, this production stars Alan Bates, Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren Read More

The Gentleman Tramp

Synopsis: Gentleman Tramp utilizes clearer-than-usual vintage filmclips to trace the life and career of comedy giant Charlie Chaplin. This made-for-TV documentary was produced in the wake of Chaplin's "special Oscar" win of 1972 and the subsequent renewal of interest in his work. Walter Matthau provides the Read More

Love Among the Ruins

Actors: Katharine Hepburn

Synopsis: Made for television, Love Among the Ruins was a precious one-time-only collaboration between stars Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver, and director George Cukor. The scene is Victorian London, where wealthy widow Hepburn is being sued for breach of promise by her much-younger ex-fiance. Olivier Read More

Lady Caroline Lamb

Actors: Fanny Rowe, Sarah Miles, Jon Finch, Richard Chamberlain, John Mills, Margaret Leighton

Synopsis: Screenwriter Robert Bolt's directorial debut is a lushly romantic saga concerning the 1812 love affair between the wife of William Lamb, Lord of Melbourne, and the author of the poem Childe Harold, Lord Byron. Excited and embarrassed by the attendant affections heaped upon him, Byron found his Read More

The World at War, Vol. 16: Inside the Reich - Germany 1940-44

Synopsis: This video is part 16 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The programs, narrated by Laurence Olivier, originally aired on television in 1974. This volume examines life inside Germany during the war years from 1940-1944. It shows how the German people Read More

The World at War, Vol. 13: Tough Old Gut

Synopsis: This video is part 13 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The award-winning series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired on television in 1974. This episode derives its name from a statement made by Winston Churchill that Italy was the "soft Read More

The World at War, Vol. 17: Morning

Synopsis: This video is part 17 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The award-winning television series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired in 1974. The title of this episode refers to an expression of hope voiced by Winston Churchill, as he promised his Read More

The World at War, Vol. 12: Whirlwind

Synopsis: This video is part 12 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The acclaimed television series, hosted by Laurence Olivier, was first broadcast in 1974. In this episode, the air war against Germany is documented with archival film footage. The European Read More

The Rehearsal

The World at War, Vol. 10: Wolf Pack

Synopsis: This video is part ten in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The television program, narrated by Laurence Olivier, originally aired in 1974. In this episode, the deadly aim of the high-tech German U-boats takes its toll on the supply ships of the Allied Read More

The World at War, Vol. 15: Home Fires

Synopsis: This video is part 15 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The highly acclaimed television series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired in 1974. This episode documents life on the home front in England during the war years. Archival film footage Read More

The World at War, Vol. 14: It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow

Synopsis: The World at War is an award-winning series of programs using film from national and international archives to produce a definitive history of WWII. In The World at War, Vol. 14: It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow, the Burmese army learns to endure the appalling conditions when monsoon rains fall for Read More

The World at War, Vol. 24: The Bomb

Synopsis: This video is volume 24 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The award-winning television series, hosted by Laurence Olivier, was first broadcast in 1974. This episode examines the decision by the United States to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Was that Read More

The World at War, Vol. 23: Pacific - The Island to Island War

Synopsis: Born in the Texas Hill Country German immigrant town of Fredericksburg, the low-key Admiral Chester Nimitz (1885-1966) had a completely different command style than the arrogant, showboating General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964). Yet, as this video shows using archival combat footage, interviews Read More

The World at War, Vol. 26: Remember

Synopsis: This video is the last episode in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The highly acclaimed series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired on television in 1974. This program is entitled World at War, Vol. 26: Remembering, and is a tribute to the 55 Read More

The World at War, Vol. 25: Reckoning

Synopsis: This video is episode 25 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Narrated by Laurence Olivier, the highly acclaimed series first aired on television in 1974. This program considers the aftermath of the war. The political considerations and decisions had Read More

The World at War, Vol. 22: Japan 1941-45

Synopsis: This video is part 22 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The highly acclaimed series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired on television in 1974. This episode examines the Japanese war machine. Japan's military strategy was based on a quick Read More

The World at War, Vol. 19: Pincers

Synopsis: This video is part 19 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Laurence Olivier narrates this highly acclaimed series, which first appeared on television in 1974. Episode 19 covers the events that led up to the Battle of the Bulge, and the hard-won Allied Read More

The World at War, Vol. 18: Occupation

Synopsis: This film is part of a British series that chronicles the major events and figures of World War II. With help from archival footage from both the Allied and Axis powers, the program tells the story of the devastation, destruction, and reconstruction of the war years. This episode describes the Read More

The World at War, Vol. 21: Nemesis

Synopsis: Part of The World at War series, which chronicles the events of World War II, featuring interviews with military leaders and ordinary people alike, The World at War, Volume 21: Nemesis takes viewers to the weakened front lines of Germany. As the Royal Air Force and the United States Air Force bomb Read More

The World at War, Vol. 20: Genocide

Synopsis: This video is volume 20 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The highly acclaimed television series, hosted by Laurence Olivier, first aired in 1974. This episode depicts the horrors of the holocaust. Hitler's program for racial purity called for the Read More

The World at War, Vol. 9: Stalingrad

Synopsis: This video is part nine in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The award-winning television production, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired in 1974. In this episode, the story is told of the Battle of Stalingrad that ended in November, 1942. The Read More

The World at War, Vol. 2: Distant War 1939-40

Synopsis: This video is part two in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Hosted by Laurence Olivier, the programs were originally televised on Sunday evenings in 1974. This episode focuses on the German advance on Poland and Norway from September, 1939, through May Read More

The World at War, Vol. 3: France Falls, May - June 1940

Synopsis: This video is part three in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. These historic television broadcasts originally appeared on Sunday evenings in 1974. This episode follows the advance of Hitler's army into France in May and June of 1940, and its frightening Read More

The World at War, Vol. 11: Red Star

Synopsis: This video is part-11 in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The award winning television series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, first aired in 1974. In this volume, the long and dreadful battle between the German and Soviet armies is documented. The death Read More

The World at War, Vol. 1: A New Germany 1933-39

Synopsis: This video is volume one in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Originally appearing on television in 1974, the popular show was hosted by Laurence Olivier. In this first episode, the producers show the terrible cost of the war -- worldwide devastation Read More

The World at War, Vol. 4: Alone - Britain, May 1940 - June 1941

Synopsis: This video is part four in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Originally appearing on television in 1974, the popular programs were hosted by Laurence Olivier. This volume features archival film footage of "Britain's finest hour," when the country beat Read More

The World at War, Vol. 7: On Our Way - America Enters the War

Synopsis: This video is part seven in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Originally airing on television in 1974, the series was hosted by Laurence Olivier. This episode follows the controversy in America from 1939 into the early '40s over American involvement in Read More

The World at War, Vol. 8: Desert - The War in North Africa

Synopsis: This video is part eight in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. The highly acclaimed series, hosted by Laurence Olivier, first aired on television in 1974. This volume chronicles the war in the desert of North Africa, where the forces of the Eighth Army Read More

The World at War, Vol. 5: Barbarossa, June - December 1941

Synopsis: This video is part five in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Laurence Olivier narrates the historic 1974 television programs. In this volume, the topic is the German-Soviet Pact of 1939, in which the two nations agreed to take control of Europe. Read More

The World at War, Vol. 6: Banzai - Japan Strikes

Synopsis: This video is part six in the 26-volume World at War series that chronicles the history of World War II. Hosted by Laurence Olivier, the programs originally aired on television in 1974. In this episode, the story of Japanese aggression leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor is told. Archival Read More

Long Day's Journey into Night

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Constance Cummings, Denis Quilley, Ronald Pickup, Maureen Lipman

Synopsis: British actors perform Eugene O'Neill's family drama A Long Day's Journey Into Night in a made-for-television performance. This filmed play was originally broadcast on March 10, 1973. For his portrayal of aging actor James Tyrone, Laurence Olivier won an Emmy for Outstanding Single Performance by Read More

Merchant of Venice

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Plowright, Anthony Nicholls, Jeremy Brett

Synopsis: Olivier stars in this production of the Shakespearean tragedy about greed and vengeance. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Sleuth

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Michael Caine

Synopsis: The mystery stage play by Anthony Shaffer was adapted by the author into this stylish film from director Joseph L. Manciewicz. Laurence Olivier stars as Andrew Wyke, a best-selling author of detective fiction living in a grand 16th century mansion. Andrew is visited by Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) Read More

Nicholas and Alexandra

Actors: Curd Jürgens, Alexander Knox, Michael Redgrave, Alan Dalton, Ralph Neville, Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman, Harry Andrews, Irene Worth, Jack Hawkins, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: Nicholas and Alexandra covers the rise and fall of the last of the Russian Romanovs. We first meet Czar Nicholas (Michael Jayston) and his German bride Alexandra (Janet Suzman) at their 1894 wedding. Though Nicholas is devoted to Alexandra, the Russian populace is less politely inclined to having Read More

Three Sisters

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Jeanne Watts, Joan Plowright, Louise Pumell, Derek Jacobi

Synopsis: Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's three upper-class Prozorov sisters -- Masha, Olga, and Irina -- come no closer to their dream of returning to Moscow in director Laurence Olivier's 1970 film version of Three Sisters than they did in Chekhov's original 1900 play. This melancholy classic about Read More

David Copperfield

Actors: Richard Attenborough, Cyril Cusack, Edith Evans, Pamela Franklin, Susan Hampshire

Synopsis: This lackluster 1970 version of Charles Dickens' classic novel, David Copperfield (made as a film twice before) turns Dickens' picaresque tale into an extended flashback, with David Copperfield (Robin Phillips) as a young man, brooding on a deserted beach, recalling his youth. The characters are Read More

Battle of Britain

Actors: Harry Andrews, Trevor Howard, Michael Caine, Curd Jürgens, Ralph Richardson, Ian McShane, Laurence Olivier

Synopsis: James Bond-flick director Guy Hamilton helmed this episodic, all-star World War II film. With Sir Laurence Olivier heading up an ensemble cast as flight commander Sir Hugh Dowdling, The Battle of Britain pays tribute to other nationalities instrumental in fending off the waves of Luftwaffe planes Read More

Oh! What a Lovely War

Actors: Ralph Richardson, Meriel Forbes, Wensley Pithey, Ruth Kettlewell, Ian Holm

Synopsis: Oh! What a Lovely War is an every-man-for-himself adaptation of Charles Chilton's 1963 play, as staged in London by Joan Littlewood. The tragedy of World War I is redefined in bawdy music-hall terms, beginning with a verbal free-for-all involving the Crowned Heads of Europe. The war is presented Read More

Romeo and Juliet

Actors: Olivia Hussey, Leonard Whiting, Milo O'Shea, Michael York, John McEnery

Synopsis: Director Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was touted at the time of its release (successfully, if the box-office receipts are any indication), as something of a "youth trip" movie. This is because Zeffirelli broke the long-standing tradition of casting over-aged Read More

The Dance of Death

Synopsis: This Swedish melodrama is set upon a small fortresslike island. Upon the island lives a bitter artillery captain, his wife and his family. The officer is angry at never receiving the promotion he felt was his due. He constantly argues with his wife. Complicating matters is the captain's illness Read More

The Shoes of the Fisherman

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Laurence Olivier, Oskar Werner, David Janssen, Vittorio De Sica

Synopsis: A Pope contends with the prospects of nuclear world destruction in this Cold-War saga of religious faith and international politics. (Anthony Quinn) plays a Russian priest who has spent 20 years in a Siberian labor camp. When Russian and Chinese relations deteriorate, Russian Premier Kamenev (Laurence Olivier Read More

Khartoum

Actors: Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Richard Johnson, Ralph Richardson, Alexander Knox

Synopsis: After declaring a holy war to rid the Sudan of Anglo-Egyptian rule in the 1880s, the fanatical Sudanese leader Muhammad Ahmad (Laurence Olivier) massacres a British-led force of 8,000 and marches on the strategic city of Khartoum at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile. The British Read More

Othello

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Frank Finlay, Maggie Smith, Joyce Redman, Derek Jacobi

Synopsis: The 1965 Othello is literally a photographed stage play: a filmed record of the National Theatre Production of 1964, as staged by John Dexter and starring Laurence Olivier. As the easily led, fatally jealous Moor of Venice, Olivier wears thick black-faced makeup and speaks in an Read More

Bunny Lake Is Missing

Actors: Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea, Laurence Olivier, Noël Coward, Martita Hunt

Synopsis: Based on the mystery novel by Marryam Modell (using the pseudonym Evelyn Piper), Bunny Lake Is Missing is a bizarre study in motherhood, kindness, enigma, and insanity. Ann Lake (Carol Lynley), an American freshly relocated to England, wishes to drop off her daughter Bunny for the girl's first day Read More

Uncle Vanya

Crew: Director

Synopsis: This version of Chekov's classic play was recorded at the 1963 Chichester Festival. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Term of Trial

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, Sarah Miles, Roland Culver, Frank Pettingell, Terence Stamp, Thora Hird

Synopsis: Based on James Barlow's novel The Burden of Proof, this is a thoughtful drama revolving around the relationship between a schoolteacher and his students, in particular a fifteen year old girl (played by the debuting Sarah Miles, although she was in fact 21 at the time), who has become infatuated Read More

The Power and the Glory

The Entertainer

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Brenda de Banzie, Joan Plowright, Roger Livesey, Alan Bates, Albert Finney

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier recreates his stage role of Archie Rice in this in-your-face film adaptation of John Osborne's play. The son of a legendary music hall comedian (Roger Livesey), Archie is strictly a third-rater, headlining a tacky music hall revue in a seedy seaside resort town. Archie can't admit Read More

Spartacus

Actors: Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov

Synopsis: Spartacus (Kirk Douglas) is a rebellious slave purchased by Lentulus Batiatus (Peter Ustinov), owner of a school for gladiators. For the entertainment of corrupt Roman senator Marcus Licinius Crassus (Laurence Olivier), Batiatus' gladiators are to stage a fight to the death. On the night before Read More

The Devil's Disciple

Actors: Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier, Janette Scott, Eva Le Gallienne

Synopsis: This film version of George Bernard Shaw's satirical take on the American Revolution had a troubled production history (with a director change in mid-production), but nevertheless boasts a cutting performance by Laurence Olivier. Shaw's tale depicts his version of how the British lost the American Read More

The Prince and the Showgirl

Crew: Director, Producer

Actors: Marilyn Monroe, Laurence Olivier, Sybil Thorndike, Richard Wattis, Jeremy Spenser

Synopsis: The title of the Anglo-American The Prince and the Showgirl could well have alluded to the genuine stations in life of stars Sir Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe. Based on the Terence Rattigan play The Sleeping Prince, the film casts Olivier as Charles, prince regent of Carpathia, who is in Read More

Richard III

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Cedric Hardwicke, Laurence Olivier, John Gielgud, Nicholas Hannen, Claire Bloom, Ralph Richardson, Alec Clunes

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier was the director, co-screenwriter (with Alan Dent), and star of this robust adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, which, as Bruce Eder has written, "was the final, crowning glory of the British studio system and the end of the great cycle of British films aimed at international Read More

The Beggar's Opera

Crew: Producer

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Stanley Holloway, George Devine, Hugh Griffith, Daphne Anderson, Mary Clare, Athene Seyler

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier makes his singing debut in this lively adaptation of John Gay's 18th century theatrical piece The Beggar's Opera. Olivier stars as Captain MacHeath, the leader of all bandits and cutthroats in England. MacHeath is in love with Polly Peachum (Dorothy Tutin), the daughter of beggar Read More

A Queen Is Crowned

Carrie

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Eddie Albert, Miriam Hopkins, Basil Ruysdael

Synopsis: Carrie is based on Sister Carrie, a novel by Theodore Dreiser. Dreiser's clumsy, unwieldy prose is streamlined into a neat and precise screenplay by Ruth and Augustus Goetz. Jennifer Jones stars as Carrie, who leaves her go-nowhere small town for the wicked metropolis of Chicago. Here she becomes Read More

The Magic Box

Actors: Robert Donat, Margaret Johnston, Maria Schell, Robert Beatty, John Charlesworth, James Kenney

Synopsis: The Magic Box was the English film industry's contribution to the 1951 Festival of Britain. Its all-star cast generously forsook their usual salaries for the privilege of paying tribute to that unsung pioneer of cinema, William Friese-Greene, here played by Robert Donat. Adapted by Eric Ambler Read More

Hamlet

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Eileen Herlie, Basil Sydney, Jean Simmons, Norman Wooland, Felix Aylmer

Synopsis: Although criticized by Shakespeare devotees upon its release because of director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier's decision to excise large portions of the text, his cinematic version of Hamlet is widely considered the best out of several dozens (and counting). Hamlet (Olivier) is a medieval Read More

Henry V

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Robert Newton, Renée Ashershon, Esmond Knight, Leslie Banks, Leo Genn, Felix Aylmer, Janet Burnell

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Henry V is one of the finest Shakespeare films ever made, full of rousing action, beautiful colors and passionate performances. Henry V is the story of the newly crowned king of England who fights the French for possession of Normandy. Olivier's direction is Read More

Volunteer

This Happy Breed

Actors: Robert Newton, Celia Johnson, John Mills, Kay Walsh, Stanley Holloway

Synopsis: With This Happy Breed, playwright Noel Coward hoped to glorify the British working class in the same manner that he'd celebrated the "higher orders" in Cavalcade. The film begins just after World War I. Middle-class Londoner Robert Newton hopes to improve his family's lot by moving them into a Read More

The Demi-Paradise

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Marjorie Fielding, Margaret Rutherford, Leslie Henson

Synopsis: Demi-Paradise stars Laurence Olivier as a Russian inventor (accent and all). In Europe to promote his new propeller device, Olivier is put off by English customs and manners-or, rather, the lack of the latter. No one in 1939 England trusts a foreigner, least of all one of those shifty "Reds", but Read More

The 49th Parallel

Actors: Leslie Howard, Raymond Massey, Laurence Olivier, Anton Walbrook, Glynis Johns

Synopsis: 49th Parallel is a British wartime entreaty for Empire solidarity, concentrating on rousing the patriotic fervor of the citizens of Canada. A group of Nazi naval officers and crewmen are stranded on Canadian soil (we have no sympathy for the castaways, inasmuch as we have just seen them refusing Read More

That Hamilton Woman

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray, Sara Allgood, Gladys Cooper

Synopsis: Acting spouses Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh star in Alexander Korda's tragic tale of the adulterous love affair between Emma Lady Hamilton and Lord Horatio Nelson. The story begins in 1786, as the young and vivacious Emma Hart (Vivien Leigh) marries Sir William Hamilton (Alan Mowbray), the Read More

Rebecca

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Joan Fontaine, George Sanders, Judith Anderson, Nigel Bruce

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Daphne du Maurier, the classic psychological thriller Rebecca was Alfred Hitchcock's first American film. Joan Fontaine plays the unnamed narrator, a young woman who works as a companion to the well-to-do Mrs. Van Hopper (Florence Bates). She meets the wealthy widower Maxim Read More

21 Days

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier, Francis L. Sullivan, Hay Petrie

Synopsis: Laurence Olivier plays a young Londoner implicated in a brutal murder. According to the rules of British law, he is permitted 21 days of comparative freedom from the time of the first hearing to the time of trial -- provided he does not leave London. As the three weeks pass, Olivier falls deeply Read More

Pride and Prejudice

Actors: Greer Garson, Laurence Olivier, Mary Boland, Edna May Oliver, Edmund Gwenn, Maureen O'Sullivan

Synopsis: Long before 19th-century novelist Jane Austen became a hot property in Hollywood, MGM produced this opulent and entertaining adaptation of one of Austen's best-known novels. The elegant and slyly satirical comedy of manners gets under way when socially conscious Mrs. Bennet (Mary Boland), with the Read More

Clouds over Europe

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson, Valerie Hobson, George Curzon, George Merritt

Synopsis: This British spy thriller concerns the theft of valuable aircraft secrets by enemy agents. Laurence Olivier plays a firebrand test pilot who falls under suspicion when several planes disappear. Costar Ralph Richardson steals the film as a seemingly befuddled secret service operative assigned to Read More

Wuthering Heights

Actors: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, David Niven, Flora Robson, Geraldine Fitzgerald

Synopsis: William Wyler's Wuthering Heights is one of the earliest screen adaptations of the classic Emily Brontë novel. A traveler named Lockwood (Miles Mander) is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, where the housekeeper, Ellen Dean (Flora Robson), sits down to tell him the Read More

The Divorce of Lady X

Actors: Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier, Binnie Barnes, Ralph Richardson, Morton Selten

Synopsis: Filmed in lavish Technicolor and given Tiffany production values by producer Alexander Korda, the British comedy Divorce of Lady X is at base a trivial little farce, buoyed by the sprightly performances of star Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier. Ms. Oberon plays a costume-party guest who is forced Read More

Fire Over England

Actors: Flora Robson, Raymond Massey, Leslie Banks, Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh

Synopsis: The war between England and Spain in the late 16th century serves as backdrop for the fictional machinations of Fire Over England. Laurence Olivier plays a British naval officer who offers his services to Queen Elizabeth (Flora Robson) after his father is executed by the Spaniards. The queen Read More

As You Like It

Actors: Henry Ainley, Felix Aylmer, Stuart Robertson, Leon Quartermaine, Austin Trevor, Laurence Olivier, Mackenzie Ward, Elisabeth Bergner, Sophie Stewart

Synopsis: This film version of the famed Shakespearean comedy features Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. As the story goes, Rosalind, smitten by Orlando and not able to get his attention, disguises herself as a boy to more easily remain in Orlando's vicinity. Eventually Orlando Read More

Conquest of the Air

Synopsis: This interesting early docu-drama offers a complete chronicle of the history of aviation from prehistoric times through the mid 1930s. Though the film was finished by 1935, it was not released until much later. H.G. Wells assisted on the first drafts of the script. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Read More

I Stand Condemned

Actors: Harry Baur, Laurence Olivier, Penelope Dudley-Ward, Athene Seyler, Hay Petrie, Kate Cutler, Morton Selten, Robert Cochran

Synopsis: Anthony Asquith evokes a vivid impression of Russia in 1916 in I Stand Condemned. The story follows handsome Russian officer Captain Ignatoff (Laurence Olivier), who is carried into a hospital in a delirious condition from severe war wounds. When he comes to his senses, he sees the beautiful Red Read More

No Funny Business

Actors: Gertrude Lawrence, Laurence Olivier, Jill Esmond, Gibb McLaughlin, Muriel Aked

Synopsis: Back before there was "no-fault divorce" couples wanting to split up had to provide hard evidence of spousal wrong-doing before a judge. This comedy centers on the attempts of one such couple to prove that the other is a schnook so they can be rid of each other. Separately, they hire detectives Read More

Perfect Understanding

Actors: Gloria Swanson, Laurence Olivier, John Halliday, Nigel Playfair, Michael Farmer

Synopsis: Star Gloria Swanson also co-produced this British film, a romantic comedy/drama that teamed her with a young Laurence Olivier. Judy Rogers (Swanson), an American vacationing in England, meets aristocrat Nicholas Randall (Olivier) and the two fall in love. They agree to marry but insist they'll Read More

Westward Passage

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Ann Harding, ZaSu Pitts, Julie Compton, Irving Pichel

Synopsis: A starry-eyed girl marries an impoverished but talented young writer. Though easily frustrated and given to temperamental outbursts, the wife's presence soothes him and their marriage is happy. Then she gives birth to their daughter. The child grows up to be a mischief maker and this causes the Read More

The Yellow Ticket

Actors: Elissa Landi, Lionel Barrymore, Laurence Olivier, Walter Byron, Sarah Padden

Synopsis: Based upon a much-filmed play by Michael Morton (which may in turn have been based upon a story by Frank Harris, The Yellow Ticket is also an indirect descendant of the opera La Tosca. In pre-Revolutionary Russia, a Jewish peasant girl named Marya Kalish (played by Elissa Landi) has reason to Read More

Friends and Lovers

Actors: Adolphe Menjou, Lili Damita, Laurence Olivier, Erich Von Stroheim, Hugh Herbert

Synopsis: The old bromide about joining the Foreign Legion to "forget," so often parodied by such comedians as Laurel and Hardy, was played straight in 1931's Friends and Lovers. A very young Laurence Olivier plays Lt. Nichols, who has retreated to the desert to get over his affair with Alva Sangrito (Lily Damita Read More

Potiphar's Wife

Synopsis: A spiteful, young noblewoman, married to a prominent lord attempts to ruin the life of the highly-principled chauffeur who spurned her philandering advances. This is one of Sir Laurence Olivier's film appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Too Many Crooks

The Temporary Widow

Actors: Lilian Harvey, Laurence Olivier, Felix Aylmer, Frank Stanmore

Synopsis: This German comedy contains the feature film debut of Sir Lawrence Olivier. He plays a modern artist who has not yet found an audience for his futuristic visions. The trouble begins when he apparently drowns during a boating accident and leaves his wife standing accused of murder. Eventually Read More