Movie-A-Day #234: Richard III (1955).

The Battle of Bosworth Field, one of the major turning points in British history, went down on this day in 1485. Richard III was killed in the battle, marking the culmination of the War of the Roses. It was also the end of the Plantagenet dynasty and the beginning of the reign of the Tudors – under whose patronage William Shakespeare wrote his tragedy “Richard III” just over a century later. There are lots of good film versions of the play out there, but Laurence Olivier’s 1955 adaptation is appropriately proper and British.