Tower Of London (1962)

 

TOWER OF LONDON (1962)

By Ralph Santini - **

In 1939 Vincent Price appeared in a previous version of “Tower Of London” as only The Duke Of Clarence, one the brothers of Richard III who in that version was played by Basil Rathbone. After more than 20 years Price appeared in B-filmmaker Roger Corman’s so-called remake taking over Rathbone’s role as Richard III, but with rather generic and hammy portrayal in comparison to the former.

This 1962 version seems to have nothing to do the 1939 version with the only exception being the setting of late 15^th century England in the title location and only the characters that existed in the history of Richard III’s existence, nothing more. The story is different and the additional made-up characters are completely new here and this film even lacks the minor qualities of the 1939 film that starred Rathbone. The previous film had more wit, ingenuity and more dignity than this forgettable scare yarn.

The story for this film is just a horror show retelling of Richard III being haunted by the ghosts of his murder victims ranging from his brother Clarence (this time played by Charles Macaulay) to his nephew heirs (which did happen the 1939 film and, in fact, history as well) all of them telling him he will perish himself to hell for his treacherous consequences.

The other victims in his murders that haunt Richard as ghosts include a young lady, Mistress Shore (the ever lovely Sandra Knight) which even causes Richard to kill his own wife, Anne Neville (Joan Camden). Neville’s ghost doesn’t exactly haunt Richard, she just tells him the consequence of his obsessive murders to buy his way to the throne of England.

Besides the ghosts of his relatives and wife and the young lady, there are also the physician wizard Tyrus (Richard Hale) and his royal Earl of Buckingham (Bruce Gordon). But enough about the ghosts. This film is just a second-rate attempt to revamp the horror show of Richard III’s murder ambitions that fared a lot better in the 1939 film with Basil Rathbone. Also, Corman’s involvement in this film seems to lack the campy fun of the other horror film collaborations that he and Price had gone other times.

This film is just formulaic hogwash from the beginning, the middle to the end. The only good things about this film are just the well intentions of the use of the haunting ghosts that attack Richard III and the somewhat satisfying performance by Hale as the trusting physician who allies with the conspiring enemies of the over-ambitious Duke of Gloucester. Everything else is just ho-hum, mundane mumbo-jumbo.