In 1962, director Roger Corman and Vincent Price were riding high. Corman, after making several low budget black and white movies, hit it big in a series of color films inspired by the works of Edgar Allan Poe. These movies were inspired by the success of England’s Hammer Films who were remaking, in color, the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s such as FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA. Vincent Price, after appearing in over 30 films since 1938, made a big impression in the horror genre first with HOUSE OF WAX (1953) and then HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1959). His first Poe picture, HOUSE OF USHER, was a critical and financial success followed by PIT & THE PENDULUM and TALES OF TERROR. This led to THE TOWER OF LONDON.
This 1962 remake of the 1939 film of the same name (that had featured a then 28 year old Vincent Price as Clarence) is an odd combination of RICHARD III and MACBETH. It was made for United Artists instead of American International and was a joint effort between Roger Corman. his producer brother Gene, and executive producer Edward Small. The black and white photography (demanded by Small and United Artists to save money) occasionally looks flat although the camerawork is creative and the film is well edited. The sets look decent considering the extremely low budget and would resurface in THE RAVEN and THE TERROR the following year.
The performances from the large cast range from the lively to the wooden. Vincent Price (who was 51 when this was made) is appropriately over the top followed by Michael Pate but many of the the younger performers (especially Sandra Knight as Mistress Shore) are lackluster. This is a perfect example of a film that didn’t completely work for a number of reasons. It’s not without interest (favorite scene: the ghosts of the murdered princes visiting Richard III) but the original 1939 Basil Rathbone – Boris Karloff TOWER OF LONDON, which can be glimpsed in the climactic battle sequence, is a better movie and should be seen for comparison.
The Capsule Critic 