Becket

(Dir. Peter Glenville) (1964)

Henry II raises his Saxon friend to Archbishop against his friend’s very advice and then asks: who will rid me of him?  Adapted from the Anouilh play, this is terrific, brilliantly shot and souped-up by Richard Burton as Becket and Peter O’Toole as the King.  Burton captures the saint’s worldliness and stoic integrity that seduced and then baffled his monarch; O’Toole makes Henry authentic, likeable yet murderous.