63 Richard Burton Movies, Ranked Best to Worst

King Henry installs his close friend Thomas Becket as the Archbishop of Canterbury, as he hopes that his old friend will help him and be compliant in his ongoing battles with the church. However, things don’t go according to the King’s plans.  

During WWII, American Gen. Carnaby is held captive by Nazis at a mountaintop fortress accessible only by cable-car. A daring rescue mission, led by British Maj. Smith and American Lt. Schaffer, is launched wherein the commandos, disguised as Nazis, are parachute-dropped in Germany. As the team realizes that there is a traitor amidst them, secret objectives of the mission come to the forth.

Over the course of a distressing night, a bitter aging couple, with the help of alcohol, use their young guests to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. 

The Night of the Iguana is a drama film which tells the story of Lawrence Shannon, who is working as a tour guide in Mexico. While leading a tourist group from a Baptist women’s college, he finds himself attracted to Charlotte, the younger niece of Judith, the group’s leader, after the girl tries to seduce him. However, Judith accuses Shannon of trying to seduce her, and declares that she is going to ruin him.

The Longest Day is a epic war film, which revolves around the events of the famous D-day, told from both the perspectives of the Allied Forces as well as the Germans. 

Zulu is a historical war drama film which depicts the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in 1879, between the Zulus and the British Army. The film portrays how 150 British soldiers, including 30 sick ones, battle with a force of 4000 Zulu warriors and successfully manage to hold them off. 

King Henry VIII of England discards his wife Catharine of Aragon, after she fails to provide him with a male heir. He chooses a young and beautiful woman named Anne Boleyn, but even she is unable to give him a male child. Her daughter Elizabeth is a disappointment to Henry, but eventually he claims that he will make Elizabeth the next Queen, if Anne can find Jane Seymour, her former maid, whom she had banished as the King was attracted to her.

The Medusa Touch is a science fiction horror thriller film which tells the story of Inspector Brunel, a French detective in London, who tries to reconstruct the life of a man lying in hospital with severe injuries. He learns that the man was delusional, and starts going through his diary. Over time, he begins to think that the man may not be delusional, but might have possessed powerful telekinetic abilities.

The Wild Geese is an action adventure drama film which tells the story of a British banker who hires a former colonel to rescue an imprisoned African President, from a corrupt dictator. The colonel recruits several mercenaries for the mission. However, when they are in trouble, the banker refuses to send help.    

This epic historical drama film chronicles the story of Queen Cleopatra, who in order to save her kingdom from the imperial ambitions of Rome, became the mistress of Julius Caesar.

Based on the play of the same name by William Shakespeare, this film tells the story of the young prince Hamlet, who returns home to find that his father, the King of Denmark, is dead, and his uncle Claudius has usurped the throne and married Hamlet’s widowed mother. As Hamlet tries to uncover the truth behind his father’s death, he is visited by his father’s spirit, who asks him to avenge Claudius for his murder. 

Winston Smith, a low-ranking bureaucrat in the totalitarian Super-state Oceania’s Ministry of Truth, works on re-writing the history as per the omnipresent supreme leader Big Brother’s guidelines. He falls in love with Julia, who, like him, longs for freedom from the repressive regime. As they meet clandestinely, their illicit relationship flourishes. What would be the consequences if the ‘Thought Police’ captures them?

Marcellus, a tribune serving in the Roman Military, is ordered to crucify Jesus Christ. However, after the event, he is haunted by nightmares, and tormented by his guilty conscience. Therefore, he decides to set out on a journey, hoping that he can learn more about Jesus of Nazareth.

The Taming of the Shrew is a romantic comedy drama film which tells the story of a woman named Katherine, whose father Baptista Minola, will marry off his youngest daughter Bianca, only if someone will marry Katherina, his eldest one. Problem is that Katherina is quite a shrewish and ill-tempered woman. A young British nobleman named Petruchio takes on the challenge of taming and marrying her.       

Martin Dysart is a psychiatrist who works for disturbed teenagers. His friend Hesther asks him to help Alan, a seventeen year old boy who blinded six horses in a stable. He tries to learn the truths behind the boy’s demons.

In the 1970s London, gangster Vic Daikin is violent, brutal and mother-obsessed. He moves from his usual protection/extortion rackets and plans an ambitious robbery of a factory payroll. He goes ahead to blackmail a Member of Parliament. However, Scotland Yard Police Inspector Bob Matthews is after him and may eventually bring about Daikin’s downfall.

Based on the play of the same name by Harold Pinter, this British drama film tells the story of a naive and lonely man named Aston, who allows a homeless old man to live with him, out of sympathy for the latter. However, Aston’s brother Mick starts tormenting the old man. 

Inspired by true incidents, this Italian language movie is set during WWII when Rome was under the Germans. When Italian protesters kill 33 members of the SS military police, the enraged German authorities issue an order to kill ten Italian soldiers for every German soldier killed. Caught in between is a priest who has to choose either his beliefs or obey orders from higher authorities.

At a Catholic boys’ school, a bright student Benjie Stanfield confesses before a strict disciplinarian Father Goddard that he unintentionally murdered his friend, Blakey. After probing the matter, Goddard realises that it was a mere joke. However, Benjie again confesses to a murder and this time a shocked Goddard really finds a body. Moreover, another student Arthur has disappeared unexpectedly.

In order to destroy a wealthy art dealer emotionally and financially, young theater usherette and her ex-lover devise a scheme. Will they succeed?

Post-WWI, canner Zeb Kennedy and fishing boat captain Thor Storm plan a cannery in an Alaskan town, but Zeb’s attraction towards Thor’s fiancé, Bridie, causes a rift that keeps widening as Zeb’s greed for money threatens fishermen’s livelihood which infuriates Thor. Later, Thor strives for Alaskan statehood while ‘Czar Kennedy’ works to better his financial prospects. The hostilities end with Alaska attaining statehood.

Circle of Two is a drama film which tells the story of a sixty year old artist, Ashley St. Clair, who had lost his inspiration after his muse left him years ago. But he regains it years later, after he falls for a sixteen year old girl.

Michael is a playboy by nature, who is determined to reform and stay faithful to his fiancée Carole. Things however get complicated when several attractive women get charmed by him.  Eventually, he is forced to ask for help from a demented psychologist who is having romantic problems of his own.

Dr. Faustus uses necromancy to conjure up a demon called Mephistopheles. He then goes on to sign a pact with Lucifer, bargaining his soul in exchange of Mephistopheles serving him as his slave for twenty-four years. Very soon he starts indulging in all kinds of whims. But as time passes, the excitement wears off and he decides to repent. But Lucifer is not ready to let him off.  

After Adriana’s husband, Antonio is killed in a car crash, his brother Cesare, who once loved Adriana, starts trying to woo her. Things get even more complicated when she falls ill and a doctor finds that her disease is incurable. 

Based on Dylan Thomas’s famous radio play, the film portrays a day in the life of the peculiar residents of a fictional seaside Welsh village, ‘Llareggub'. As the wizened Captain Tom Cat, who is going blind, walks with a stranger down the village street, he reminisces about many incidences and people, including his ship-mates and love of his young age, Rosie Probert. 

Stuck in a loveless marriage, British aristocrat, Lord Esketh, and his wife, Lady Edwina, arrive in Ranchipur, India to purchase some horses. When Esketh announces his intention to divorce her on returning to England, Edwina tries to seduce physician Dr. Rama Safti. Eventually the two fall in true love, but fate has other plans for them. 

The story, told in flashback, focuses on four shipwrecked passengers of a cargo ship that leaves Singapore in 1942. Full of evacuees, it is torpedoed on the way, leaving a beautiful nun, a military officer, a black purser, and a racist businessman as only survivors. Escaping in a small lifeboat, they begin their journey, which is plagued by tension and distrust.

This American comedy drama film is about a devilish inmate who is admitted to a psychiatric hospital run by a doctor. He offers an innocent orderly vast riches if the latter helps him to escape.

World War 1 veteran Baron Kurt von Sepper of Austria, with a blue-tinged beard, forbids his new wife from entering one particular room in his castle. As curiosity takes over, dark secrets about the Baron are revealed including his pogrom against the Jewish community and the mysterious death of all his former wives. 

A good-looking and successful young doctor returns to his hometown in New England to pay a last visit to his dying friend. His friend is going through extreme suffering, and he asks his doctor friend to commit euthanasia on him.

Charles and Harry are an ageing gay couple, who work as hairstylists. They have been living together for more than two decades, but they can’t dream of a future without each other.

This romantic drama fantasy film is about a love triangle between King Mark of Cornwall, Isolt and Tristan. When Mark discovers that Isolt loves Tristan, Tristan is banished. However, when Tristan is mortally wounded, Isolt persuades Mark to rescue him.

In a small town in the south of USA, violent rapes and assaults on black and white women by opposite races instigate racial tensions and violence between the whites and the blacks. Sheriff Track Bascomb and liberal landowner Breck Stencil try to stop the violence as the Klu Klax Clan gets involved. 

In this unofficial sequel to Cross of Iron, a German sergeant Rolf Steiner is convinced by General Hofmann to meet and negotiate a surrender of his troops to the Americans after Hitler is killed. However, the plan goes awry as the plot to kill Hitler itself fails.

Exorcist II: The Heretic is a supernatural horror film which tells the story of a teen girl who was once possessed by a demon. Four years later, she finds that the demon may still be lurking within her. Meanwhile, a priest is investigating the strange death of the girl’s exorcist. 

Sen noci svatojánské is a Czechoslovak animated puppet film, which is based on Midsummer’s Night Dream, a play by the famous author William Shakespeare.