Richard III (1955 Film) - Reception

Reception

Richard III was released in the UK on 16 April 1955, with Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip attending the premiere. Alexander Korda had sold the rights to the film to NBC in the U.S. for $500,000 and the film was released in the U.S. on Sunday, 11 March 1956. The release was unique in that the film had its U.S. premiere on the same day both on television and in cinemas, the first instance of this ever being done. It was not shown during prime time, but rather in the afternoon, and quite likely was the first three-hour telecast of a film ever to be shown.

The film, although slightly cut for television, was generally well received by critics, with Olivier's performance earning particular notice, but due to its simultaneous release through television and cinemas in the U.S., it was a box office failure, and many critics felt at the time that it was not as well-made as Olivier's previous films. However, the airing on U.S. television received excellent ratings, estimated at between 25 and 40 million. In addition, when the film was reissued in 1966, it broke box office records in many US cities. Its critical reputation has since grown considerably, and many critics now consider it Olivier's best and most influential screen adaptation of Shakespeare.

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes records that 79% of its collected reviews of the film are positive. However, the reviewer for the AllMovie website criticizes Olivier's direction for being far more restricted in its style in comparison to the bold filming of Henry V, or the moody photography of Hamlet, and Olivier the actor for dominating the production too much (although the character of Richard certainly dominates Shakespeare's original play). There were some complaints about geographical inaccuracies in the film (the Battle of Bosworth Field was filmed in a region of Spain that does not resemble any locations in England). In response, Olivier wrote in The New York Times: "Americans who know London may be surprised to find Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London to be practically adjacent. I hope they'll agree with me that if they weren't like that, they should have been."

The film's failure at the U.S. box office, however, along with Korda's death, ended Olivier's career as a Shakespeare film director. Olivier had been planning to make Macbeth, but one of his other major backers, producer Mike Todd, died in a plane crash.