Shakespeare's conception of Richard III followed that forwarded by certain historical interpretations which are open to question. But it was based equally on the popular notion that disfigured or disabled people were by nature bearers of evil: disability served both as a social and a literary device. "Shakespeare depicts Richard as a crafty villain whose soul is as deformed as his body, though the blackness of the portrait is relieved somewhat by Richard's courage, his wit, and his freedom from self-delusion." (W. R. Benét, The Reader's Encyclopedia). As Pauline Kael's review attests, "Laurence Olivier makes Shakespeare's 'son of hell' such a magnetic, chilling, amusing monster that the villainy arouses an almost immoral delight. As director and star, Olivier succeeds with the soliloquies as neither he nor anyone else ever did on film before; they're intimate, yet brazen. (None of the film's shortcomings matter) very much when you can watch Olivier's lewd courtship of Claire Bloom and hear the inflections he gives lines like 'I am not in the giving vein today.'"