Delightfully droll as the Supreme Being in Time Bandits.
I've been chasing grace/ But grace ain't easy to find

The Heiress
The Fallen Idol
Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Wrong Box

I love Ralph Richardson in every one of his movies. If I had to choose favorites, they would have to be "The Heiress" and "The Holly and the Ivy."
In fact, it's become a tradition for me and my husband to view "The Holly and the Ivy" several times each Christmas season. A very strong cast, including Margaret Leighton, Celia Johnson, and Denholm Elliot. The reconciliation s5b4cene between Richardson and Leighton (as father and daughter)at the end of the movie is one of the most riveting and convincing I've ever seen.
Human beings were invented by water as a device for transporting itself from one place to another.

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I've just seen The Fallen Idol and I thought he was wonderful in that. Watching him in a somewhat romantic part and cheerfully playing with a little boy was different from the parts I've typically seen him in. I'd have to add it to my list of his best performances on film. I think that right now I'd rank his best performances as:

1. Long Day's Journey into Night
2. The Heiress
3. The Fallen Idol
4. The Four Feathers
5. The Citadel
   And if I were to pick my favorite of his comedies, as some other posters have done, I think that I would choose The Wrong Box.

Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Heiress
The Wrong Box

I personally love him in David Coperfield. He plays a wonderful good hearted character who is both hero and scoundral:)
I wish we had actors of his calliber still.

For comedy, check out his performance in "The Divorce of Lady X," a '30s gem with Binnie Barnes and the stunningly beautiful Olivier and Merle Oberon. I haven't seen it in decades but I remember him as hilarious.
And that other poster is right: the greatest actors (Olivier, Gielgud, Maggie Smith, Edith Evans) are invariably great comics.

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His "yes, well I am the nice one" in Time Bandits is fantastic.

Yes, wasn't he great in The Four Feathers? I thought he easily stole the show. If you want to see him in a large tour-de-force dramatic role go for Long Day's Journey into Night.

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Interestingly enough, John Miller in his bio of Richardson notes that Olivier didn't really like the performance of his friend in Richard III. He thought that Richardson's Buckingham should have been more detestable.

Richard IIIbrilliant.

This is the story of a man who could notmake uphis mind.

My very favorite of his movies is Long Day's Journey into Night (though I do question how convincing he is as an Irishman). I also thought he did a remarkable and extremely convincing job in The Heiress. The Citadel is another one that I like him in that no one has mentioned, and of course he was great in the Four Feathers too. I especially like the scene where he's reading brail, quoting Caliban from the Tempest, a role that he did at the Old Vic I believe.

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His performance as a blind man in the Four Feathers is one of most convincing I seen. ( my grandmother on my mum's side was blind)
Also very fond of his cameo as God in Time Bandits.

For my money his best dramatic performances are Dr. Sloper in THE HEIRESS and James Tyrone in A LONG DAYS JOURNEY INTO NIGHT, and his best comic performance was Joseph Finsbury in THE WRONG BOX. But he was marvelous in most of his films. Try catching him in a less remembered film where he was touching as a dying minister, THE HOLLY AND THE IVORY.

The BBC showed Greystoke recently, and it's one of his best performances, even though the film as a whole smells a bit.

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I'd say The Heiress, The Fallen Idol and Richard III for drama and Time Bandits for comedy. I saw Witness for the Prosecution when it first screened on British TV and he made a big impression on me, but as I was only 5 years old I can't really compare it to his other movies.