21 Movies Starring Laurence Olivier

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1939-04-07

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

104 min

Rated:

PASSED

IMDB Ratings:

7.7 (11918 Reviews)

Director:

William Wyler

Genres:

DramaRomance

Cast:

Writer:

Charles MacArthur (screen play)

Ben Hecht (screen play)

Emily Brontè (from the novel by)

Fullplot:

The story of unfortunate lovers Heathcliff and Cathy who, despite a deep affection for one another, are forced by circumstance and prejudice to live their apart. Heathcliff and Cathy first meet as children when her father brings the abandoned boy to live with them. When the old man dies several years later Cathy's brother, now the master of the estate, turns Heathcliff out forcing him to live with the servants and working as a stable boy. The barrier of class comes between them and she eventually marries a rich neighbor, Mr. Edgar Linton, at which point Heathcliff disappears. He returns several years later, now a rich man but little can be done.

Rebecca

Rebecca

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1940-04-12

Languages:

English, French

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

130 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

8.2 (79450 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Daphne Du Maurier (celebrated novel)

Robert E. Sherwood (screen play)

Joan Harrison (screen play)

Philip MacDonald (adaptation)

Michael Hogan (adaptation)

Fullplot:

A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderley, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderley.

That Hamilton Woman

That Hamilton Woman

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1941-04-30

Languages:

English, French, Italian

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

128 min

Rated:

APPROVED

IMDB Ratings:

7.4 (2626 Reviews)

Director:

Alexander Korda

Cast:

Writer:

Walter Reisch (original screenplay)

R.C. Sherriff (original screenplay)

Fullplot:

Sir William Hamilton, a widower of mature years, is British ambassador to the Court of Naples. Emma who comes for a visit with her mother wouldn't cut the grade with London society but she gets along well with the Queen of Naples. Emma likes being Lady Hamilton and life goes smoothly until Lord Nelson pays a visit. Sir William decides at first to let his young wife have her fling and pretends not to know what is going on. But the real life lovers, whose first screen romance was in "Fire Over England" (1937) have an even more burning passion for each other in this film.

Carrie

Carrie

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1952-10-31

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

118 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.5 (1458 Reviews)

Director:

William Wyler

Genres:

DramaRomance

Cast:

Writer:

Theodore Dreiser (novel)

Ruth Goetz

Augustus Goetz

Fullplot:

Carrie boards the train to Chicago with big ambitions. She gets a job stitching shoes and her sister's husband takes almost all of her pay for room and board. Then she injures a finger and is fired. This is the 1890s. Charles Drouet, a salesman she met on the train, comes to her rescue, invites her to dine at Fitzgerald's where the manager George Hurstwood sends over a bottle of champagne. Stay in Drouet's apartment. He will be on the road 10 days. When she leaves the apartment many months later -- on a train bound for New York -- her traveling companion is Hurstwood. Why is he in such a hurry?

Richard III

Richard III

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1956-03-11

Languages:

English, Latin

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

161 min

Rated:

NOT RATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.6 (2868 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

William Shakespeare (plays)

David Garrick (textual alterations for his production of the play)

Colley Cibber (textual alterations)

Fullplot:

Richard's military skills have helped to put his older brother Edward on the throne of England. But jealousy and resentment cause Richard to seek the crown for himself, and he conceives a lengthy and carefully calculated plan using deception, manipulation, and outright murder to achieve his goal. His plotting soon has tumultuous consequences, both for himself and for England.

The Entertainer

The Entertainer

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1960-12-02

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

96 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (1828 Reviews)

Director:

Tony Richardson

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

John Osborne (screenplay)

Nigel Kneale (screenplay)

John Osborne (adaptation)

Fullplot:

Archie Rice, a pathetic music hall comic, plagued by debts, manipulates those around him in a defiant and selfish attempt to survive against improbable odds. He drinks, makes crude philosophical jokes about sex and politics and humiliates his lamenting, gin-soaked wife. Archie lures his father, Billy Rice, out of retirement for a benefit performance which will ultimately bring financial aid to Archie and his impractical investments.

Spartacus

Spartacus

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1960-10-07

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

197 min

Rated:

PG-13

IMDB Ratings:

(91559 Reviews)

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Cast:

Writer:

Dalton Trumbo (screenplay)

Howard Fast (based on the novel by)

Fullplot:

In 73 BCE, a Thracian slave leads a revolt at a gladiatorial school run by Lentulus Batiatus. The uprising soon spreads across the Italian Peninsula involving thousand of slaves. The plan is to acquire sufficient funds to acquire ships from Silesian pirates who could then transport them to other lands from Brandisium in the south. The Roman Senator Gracchus schemes to have Marcus Publius Glabrus, Commander of the garrison of Rome, lead an army against the slaves who are living on Vesuvius. When Glabrus is defeated his mentor, Senator and General Marcus Licinius Crassus is greatly embarrassed and leads his own army against the slaves. Spartacus and the thousands of freed slaves successfully make their way to Brandisium only to find that the Silesians have abandoned them. They then turn north and must face the might of Rome.

The Power and the Glory

The Power and the Glory

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1961-10-29

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

90 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (40 Reviews)

Director:

Marc Daniels

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

Graham Greene (novel)

Dale Wasserman (adaptation)

Fullplot:

A cynical catholic priest is sent to Mexico to preach. It's the 30's and Mexican government sees the church as competition. They send a secret agent to assassinate the priest.

Bunny Lake Is Missing

Bunny Lake Is Missing

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1965-10-03

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

107 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.3 (4777 Reviews)

Director:

Otto Preminger

Cast:

Writer:

John Mortimer (screenplay)

Penelope Mortimer (screenplay)

Marryam Modell (novel)

Fullplot:

Ann Lake has recently settled in England with her daughter, Bunny. When she goes to retrieve her daughter after the girl's first day at school, no one has any record of Bunny having been registered. When even the police can find no trace that the girl ever existed, they wonder if the child was only a fantasy of Ann's. When Ann's brother backs up the police's suspicions, she appears to be a mentally-disturbed individual. Are they right?

Othello

Othello

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1967-01-01

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

165 min

Rated:

UNRATED

IMDB Ratings:

7.3 (993 Reviews)

Director:

Stuart Burge

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

Desdemona defies her father to marry the Moor of Venice, the mighty warrior, Othello. But Othello's old lieutenant, Iago, doesn't like Othello, and is determined to bring about the downfall of Othello's new favorite, Cassio, and destroy Othello in the process, by casting aspersions on Othello's new bride.

Khartoum

Khartoum

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1966-06-15

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

128 min

Rated:

APPROVED

IMDB Ratings:

6.9 (4540 Reviews)

Fullplot:

After an Egyptian army, commanded by British officers, is destroyed in a battle in the Sudan in the 1880's, the British government is in a quandary. It does not want to commit a British military force to a foreign war but they have a commitment to protect the Egyptians in Khartoum. They decide to ask General Charles "Chinese" Gordon, something of a folk hero in the Sudan as he had cleared the area of the slave trade, to arrange for the evacuation. Gordon agrees but also decides to defend the city against the forces of the Mahdi - the expected one - and tries to force the British to commit troops.

The Shoes of the Fisherman

The Shoes of the Fisherman

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1968-11-14

Languages:

English, Latin, Hebrew

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

162 min

Rated:

G

IMDB Ratings:

7.2 (2433 Reviews)

Genres:

Drama

Cast:

Writer:

John Patrick (screenplay)

James Kennaway (screenplay)

Morris L. West (novel)

Fullplot:

Ukrainian Archbishop Kiril Lakota is set free after two decades as a political prisoner in Siberia. He is brought to Rome by Fr. David Telemond, a troubled young priest who befriends him. Once at the Vatican, he is immediately given an audience with the Pope, who elevates him to Cardinal Priest. The world is on the brink of war due to a Chinese-Soviet feud made worse by a famine caused by trade restrictions brought against China by the U.S. When the Pontiff suddenly dies, Lakota's genuine character and unique life experience move the College of Cardinals to elect him as the new Pope. But Pope Kiril I must now deal with his own self-doubt, the struggle of his friend Fr. Telemond who is under scrutiny for his beliefs, and find a solution to the crisis in China.

Sleuth

Sleuth

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1972-12-10

Languages:

English, Italian

Countries:

USA, UK

Runtime:

138 min

Rated:

PG

IMDB Ratings:

8.1 (35256 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Anthony Shaffer (play)

Anthony Shaffer (screenplay)

Fullplot:

Milo Tindle and Andrew Wyke have something in common, Andrew's wife. In an attempt to find a way out of this without costing Andrew a fortune in alimony, he suggests Milo pretend to rob his house and let him claim the insurance on the stolen jewelry. The problem is that they don't really like each other and each cannot avoid the zinger on the other. The plot has many shifts in which the advantage shifts between Milo and Andrew.

Marathon Man

Marathon Man

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1976-10-08

Languages:

English, French, German, Spanish, Yiddish

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

125 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

7.5 (41412 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

William Goldman (screenplay)

William Goldman (from: his novel)

Fullplot:

In New York, the brother of an infamous Nazi war criminal is killed in a head-on collision with an oil truck. Shortly thereafter, members of a covert U.S. government group called the Division begin being murdered one by one. Meanwhile, graduate student and marathon runner Thomas "Babe" Levy researches history as his father, who committed suicide after the Communist witch hunts of the McCarthy era ruined his reputation. When he sees his brother, one Division member, stabbed to death, it is revealed that Christian Szell, the White Angel of Auschwitz, is wrapping up loose ends to smuggle priceless diamonds from the United States.

The Boys from Brazil

The Boys from Brazil

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1978-10-12

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK, USA

Runtime:

125 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

(19452 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Ira Levin (novel)

Heywood Gould (screenplay)

Fullplot:

Barry Kohler, a young Nazi hunter, tracks down a group of former SS officers meeting in Paraguay in the late 1970s. The Nazis, led by Dr Mengele, are planning something. Old Nazi hunter, Ezra Lieberman, is at first uninterested in Kohler's findings. But when he is told something of their plan, he is eager to find out more. Lieberman visits several homes in Europe and the U.S. in order to uncover the Nazi plot. It is at one of these houses he notices something strange, which turns out to be a horrible discovery.

Dracula

Dracula

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1979-07-20

Languages:

English, Dutch, Romanian, Russian

Countries:

USA, UK

Runtime:

109 min

Rated:

R

IMDB Ratings:

6.4 (6517 Reviews)

Director:

John Badham

Cast:

Writer:

W.D. Richter (screenplay)

Hamilton Deane (play)

John L. Balderston (play)

Bram Stoker (novel)

Fullplot:

When a ship is wrecked off Whitby, the only survivor, Count Dracula, is discovered lying on the beach by the sickly young Mina Van Helsing, who is visiting her dear friend Lucy Seward. Lucy, her fiancè Jonathan Harker (a solicitor), and her father Dr. Jack Seward (who runs the local asylum) try to make the Count feel welcome to England. The Count quickly takes the life of Mina, and proceeds to romance Lucy, with the intention of making her his greatest bride. Soon after the death of Mina, the Sewards call her father Dr. Abraham Van Helsing to come to their home. As Lucy falls deeper under the spell of the Count, Dr. Van Helsing almost immediately comes to understand that his daughter fell prey to a vampire and discovers the culprit to be none other than the Count himself. Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Seward, and Harker work together to foil the Count's plans to take Lucy away to his native Transylvania.

A Little Romance

A Little Romance

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1979-04-27

Languages:

English, French, Italian

Countries:

USA, France

Runtime:

110 min

Rated:

PG

IMDB Ratings:

7.5 (3739 Reviews)

Director:

George Roy Hill

Cast:

Writer:

Allan Burns (screenplay)

Claude Klotz (novel)

Fullplot:

A French boy (Daniel) and an American girl (Lauren), who goes to school in Paris, meet and begin a little romance. They befriend Julius who enchants them with his storytelling. In an attempt to ensure the teens' love forever, the three journey to Venice.

The Jazz Singer

The Jazz Singer

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1980-12-19

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

115 min

Rated:

PG

IMDB Ratings:

5.7 (2819 Reviews)

Cast:

Writer:

Samson Raphaelson (play)

Herbert Baker (screenplay)

Stephen H. Foreman (adaptation)

Fullplot:

Neil Diamond stars in this motion picture as Yussel Rabinovitch, a young Jewish cantor who strives to make a career outside the synagogue in popular music as Jess Robin. Against the wishes of his rigid father and his loving wife, Yussel travels from New York City to Los Angeles to play his music. Swept up by the excitement, he meets a spunky manager who believes in his talent and shares his dream. He grows apart from his family, and becomes confused about what he should ultimately do with his life.

Clash of the Titans

Clash of the Titans

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1981-06-12

Languages:

English

Countries:

USA

Runtime:

118 min

Rated:

PG

IMDB Ratings:

6.9 (30926 Reviews)

Director:

Desmond Davis

Fullplot:

Perseus is the favored son of the god Zeus, but he has unwittingly ticked off the sea goddess Thetis. Just to make things worse, Perseus falls in love with the lovely Princess Andromeda, who used to be engaged to Thetis's son. Soon Perseus is off on one quest after another, with Zeus helping, Thetis hindering, and lots of innocent bystanders getting stabbed, drowned, and squished.

The Bounty

The Bounty

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1984-05-04

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK, USA

Runtime:

132 min

Rated:

PG

IMDB Ratings:

(16723 Reviews)

Director:

Roger Donaldson

Cast:

Writer:

Richard Hough (book)

Robert Bolt (screenplay)

Fullplot:

The familiar story of Lieutenant Bligh, whose cruelty leads to a mutiny on his ship. This version follows both the efforts of Fletcher Christian to get his men beyond the reach of British retribution, and the epic voyage of Lieutenant Bligh to get his loyalists safely to East Timor in a tiny lifeboat.

King Lear

King Lear

Basic Info:

Released Date:

1984-01-26

Languages:

English

Countries:

UK

Runtime:

158 min

IMDB Ratings:

7.7 (586 Reviews)

Director:

Michael Elliott

Genres:

Drama

Fullplot:

Lear is an aging King who wants to retire by abdicating to his three daughters. However, in an act of petty ego stroking, he asks them who among them loves him most. While two daughters eagerly toady to him, his one loving daughter, Cordelia, refuses play along with this foolish charade. In a rage, Lear exiles her along with his one loyal aide who dares to stick up for her. This foolish move works to Lear's sorrow as his two remaining daughters cruelly and gradually strip him of his status and possessions until he is rendered an insane hermit attended only by his fool. All the while, the illegitimate son of another lord is plotting his own ambitions while contributing to this tragic tale of ego and familial cruelty.

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