There can have been few bigger certainties in Academy Award history than James Goldman's Oscar for his screenplay on this brilliantly written film, adapted from his own play. It's principally a game of verbal chess with a cutting edge, played out at Christmas 1183 between King Henry II and his estranged wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, whom he has shut away to stop her interference in affairs of state. In these plum roles, Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn coat Goldman's coruscating dialogue in venom. The serious humour cuts deep as these two constantly hack away at each other, distant respect and attachment lurking behind years of bitterness as they amuse and stimulate us with the cut and thrust of it all. Add early appearances by Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton and you have a rich pageant of entertainment for which Hepburn took her third Oscar (the first actress to win three). But she had to share the title of Best Actress with Barbra Streisand for Funny Girl - the only time the Academy voters had tied on a major award.

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