Tower of London is a 1939 black-and-white historical film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Rowland V. Lee. Sold to audiences as a horror film in the Universal cycle because of the teaming of Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff, it is nothing of the kind, although Karloff does play a genuinely creepy character.
It stars Rathbone as the future Richard III of England, and Karloff as his fictitious club-footed executioner Mord, who in true Karloff style plays eloquently.
The film is based on the traditional depiction of Richard rising to become King of England by eliminating everyone ahead of him. He is not particular in how he achieves this and each time Richard accomplishes a murder, he removes one figurine from a dollhouse resembling a throneroom. Once he has completed his task, he now needs to defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain the throne.
The basic outline of the plot, aside from the character Mord, appears to certainly parallel Shakespeare's Richard III, without the use of Elizabethan blank verse. George, Duke of Clarence (Richard's brother) is depicted as something less than the tragically noble figure found in Shakespeare. Ian Hunter portrays Edward IV.
In 1962 a remake starring Vincent Price (who plays the Duke of Clarence in this version). The remake was made on an extremely low budget, and placed more of an emphasis on genuine horror in my unprofessional opinion.
The film is based on the traditional depiction of Richard rising to become King of England by eliminating everyone ahead of him. He is not particular in how he achieves this and each time Richard accomplishes a murder, he removes one figurine from a dollhouse resembling a throneroom. Once he has completed his task, he now needs to defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain the throne.
The basic outline of the plot, aside from the character Mord, appears to certainly parallel Shakespeare's Richard III, without the use of Elizabethan blank verse. George, Duke of Clarence (Richard's brother) is depicted as something less than the tragically noble figure found in Shakespeare. Ian Hunter portrays Edward IV.
In 1962 a remake starring Vincent Price (who plays the Duke of Clarence in this version). The remake was made on an extremely low budget, and placed more of an emphasis on genuine horror in my unprofessional opinion.
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