A shot of the crown of England, held high, opens Laurence Olivier's adaptation of Shakespeare's Richard III …; a close-up of the new king, Edward IV, tense, almost incredulous, and then the crown descends with ambiguous firmness upon his head…. The mood has been instantly and excitingly set, in a brilliant expansion of the play—for this opening scene is actually the last scene of Henry VI, Part Three, and it also makes a highly effective prologue to the introduction of Gloucester that follows. A Gloucester not exaggeratedly repellent, who will assume his full depravity through subtler means than greasepaint as the action unfolds; his first soliloquy (shot with remarkable agility in a single take) blocks in with irresistible authority the character's general outlines—the rasping staccato voice with its hint of hysteria ready to burst through the sarcastic arrogant inflections, the deadly seriousness behind the levity betraying a...