Laurence Olivier Blinks...a lot

He sure does.

You only have to check out his "now is the winter" etc monologue from Richard III (1955) to know what I'm talking about:

Them's some serious blinking.

I've previously noticed those fluttering eyelashes in The Entertainer (1960), Term of Trial (1962), Bunny Lake is Missing (1965), The Beggar's Opera (1953), and The Devil's Disciple (1959).

And it's one of those quirks that, once you notice it, you can never unsee, and once you do, are always on the lookout for. Herbert Marshall's another actor who shares the same distracting habit.

But Larry O is the only performer I can think of with such a visual tick that reoccurs over multiple films; rhythmically batting his eyes as if a bit of dust flew in, and he had to wait until the camera stopped rolling before he could rub it out. 

Sounds like a reasonable explanation. Or maybe Olivier felt that rapid blinking was a good way to convey visual a character's calculating nature.

Or it's just a inconsequential thingamajig I only noticed because The Devil's Disciple was so diabolically dull, and something had to take my notice.

Othello (1965)

This movie made me doubt Laurence Olivier's acting cred. I had to go to youtube and watch clips from Wuthering Heights (1939) to remind myself that yes, Olvier could act. Everyone else was fine, I have nothing praise for the rest of the cast, which included Maggie Smith and Derek Jacobi. But Olivier, oh dear, Olivier...

He was bad. Well, bad doesn't properly convey what's on screen. Grotesque would be the better word for it. And I'm not just referring to the blackface, which in and of itself is gross. I mean, look at it: 

But it's somehow made worse by Olivier's decision to consistently ham his role up. If he was a understated Othello, then the shoe polish makeup, "exotic" clothing, and bare feet would only be in terrible taste. However, by shouting, swooning, and raising his hands as if he were launching into the repetoire of Al Jolson:

his performance goes beyond a fatal case of values dissonance, and into a sickening minstrel show. There is no sign of the subtly and dignity he afforded Henry V, Hamlet and Richard III.This is the ultimate white representation of the Black Man as Savage Inhuman Brute, in all its disgusting inherent racism.

But all this didn't stop Olivier from getting his last Oscar nomination for this....thing. Go fucking figure.