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He made his stage debut in 1922 and acted in films from the early '30s, but his initial condescension towards the cinema faded only gradually and it was not until 1944 that he directed <cite class="party">William Shakespeare</cite>'s <cite>Henry V</cite> (co-d. Reginald Beck) for <cite class="party">Two Cities</cite>.</p> <p>The film opens in Elizabethan London's open air Globe Theatre, where a performance of <em>Henry V</em> is in progress. This reconstruction of Elizabethan theatre conditions, on and off stage, ends when King Henry V (Olivier) departs for Southampton en route to France to claim the French crown. The camera then takes over and does not return to the Globe until the very end of the film. In France, Henry unexpectedly routs a vastly superior French army at Agincourt and wins the heart of a French princess (<cite class="party">Ren茅e Asherson</cite>). With a lavish budget for the time, <cite>Henry V</cite> is beautifully filmed in <em>Technicolor</em>, draws on an excellent cast, and benefits from <cite class="party">William Walton</cite>'s stirring but unobtrusive music. <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s central performance is impeccable, while the battle sequences provide a spectacular climax. Rapturously received by critics and at the box office, the film represented a triumph for <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> and arguably the most striking directorial debut in British cinema history.</p> <p>After being knighted in 1947, <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> directed <cite>Hamlet</cite> (1948), again for <cite class="party">Two Cities</cite>. He drastically shortened <cite class="party">Shakespeare</cite>'s text but with much less visual action, the film appealed less to audiences than the flamboyant <cite>Henry V</cite>. Even so, <cite class="party">Desmond Dickinson</cite>'s imaginative monochrome cinematography, which helps create a brooding atmosphere of suppressed tension, is impressive, and <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> assembles a fine cast and gives a memorable performance himself as Hamlet.</p> <p>In 1955 <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> reverted more closely to his <cite>Henry V</cite> formula in his commercially and critically successful version of <cite>Richard III</cite> (co-d. Anthony Bushell) for <cite class="party">Alexander Korda</cite>'s <cite class="party">London Films</cite>. The story of Richard's schemes to seize the English throne before 1483 and his death as King of England two years later at the battle of Bosworth lends itself to <dfn>Technicolor</dfn>, supplies ample opportunities for splendid acting by a high quality cast, is not too set-bound and provides a battlefield climax, albeit a disappointing one compared to <cite>Henry V</cite>. These assets are well buttressed by <cite class="party">Otto Heller</cite>'s cinematography and <cite class="party">William Walton</cite>'s music and, above all, by <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s magnetic interpretation of Richard.</p> <p><cite class="party">Olivier</cite> went on to direct only two more films, each in a more modern setting. <cite>The Prince and the Showgirl</cite> (co-d. Anthony Bushell, 1957) was based upon a <cite class="party">Terence Rattigan</cite> play in which <cite>Olivier</cite> had starred with his second wife <cite class="party">Vivien Leigh</cite>. <cite class="party">Marilyn Monroe</cite> had bought the film rights with a view to inviting <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> to be her co-star and director. The story concerns the regent of Carpathia (<cite class="party">Olivier</cite>), visiting Britain in 1911 for <cite class="party">King George V</cite>'s coronation, who comes to love and then loses an attractive chorus girl (<cite class="party">Monroe</cite>). The undemanding material was better suited to <cite class="party">Monroe</cite>'s acting style than <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s, the two seem ill at ease together on screen and the comedy is tepid. Both contemporaneously and in retrospect the film does nothing for <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s directorial reputation.</p> <p>In 1970, the year he was created a life peer, <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> directed an adaptation of <cite>The Three Sisters</cite>, <cite class="party">Chekhov</cite>'s play about a prosperous Tsarist Russian family, the three fatherless daughters of which constantly dream of a better life in Moscow. Despite a good cast, including <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> himself and his third wife, <cite class="party">Joan Plowright</cite>, and music by <cite class="party">William Walton</cite>, the film is worthy but dull, without cinematic vitality. This was his last film before his death at Steyning, West Sussex, on 11 July 1989.</p> <p>In his review of <cite>The Three Sisters</cite> for the <em>Guardian</em> on 29 October 1970, <cite class="party">Derek Malcolm</cite> described <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> as "no film director". This is unfair: <cite>The Three Sisters</cite> compares favourably with other screen versions of <cite class="party">Chekhov</cite>, whose preoccupation with Tsarist upper class frustrations is not easily adaptable to film, and <cite class="party">Malcolm</cite>'s harsh verdict takes too little account of <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s immense Shakespearean cinematic achievements. <cite class="party">Olivier</cite> remained throughout his career a figure of the theatre rather than of the cinema, but his <cite>Henry V</cite>, <cite>Hamlet</cite> and <cite>Richard III</cite> did more to popularise <cite class="party">Shakespeare</cite> and to bridge the gap between stage and screen than any other <cite class="party">Shakespeare</cite> adaptations. Though they are derived from plays and are arguably too theatrical at times, all his five films are essentially his own works (his nominal co-directors only arranged his movements in front of the camera) and <cite class="party">Olivier</cite>'s visionary conception of <cite>Henry V</cite> alone warrants a high place for him among his country's film directors.</p> <p><em>Bibliography</em><br /> Wardle, Irving, 'Laurence Olivier' in Nicholls, C.S. (ed.), <em>The Dictionary of National Biography</em> (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 332-5.<br /> BFI National Library microfiches on Laurence Olivier, <em>Henry V, Hamlet, Richard III, The Prince and the Showgirl</em> and <em>The Three Sisters</em></p> <p class="bricksrc">James C. Robertson, Reference Guide to British and Irish Film Directors</p> <img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" width="1" height="10" border="0" alt="" /> </td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"></td></tr> </table></td>  <td width="1" class="verticaldots"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td> <td width="312" valign="top"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr><td colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="312" height="20" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="3" height="1" border="0" /></td><td><p class="smg">More information</p></td></tr> <tr><td class="underline" colspan="2"><img src="../../../images/spacer.gif" alt="" width="1" height="1" border="0" /></td></tr> <tr><td colspan="2"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="rh-item"> <tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="10"><img src="../../../images/gt/GT_articles.jpg" class="rh-thumbpic" alt="" border="0" 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