Tower Of London (1939)

The Duke of Gloucester (Basil Rathbone) lusts after the throne sat on by his brother King Edward IV (Ian Hunter) and plots to eliminate those standing in the way of his ascent to the throne of England. Directed by Rowland V. Lee (THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY), this is like RICHARD III but without the poetry of Shakespeare's language. It's rather graceless and lumbering in its execution but more entertaining than not. The performances are good with Rathbone making for a marvelously malevolent usurper and Vincent Price in one of his early film roles already showing a talent for effete aristocrats. The pageantry is impressive but the battle scenes are weak. For some inexplicable reason, the movie is often labeled a horror film rather than an historical drama. True, torture and murder are horrific but using that as a benchmark I suppose we could call CLOCKWORK ORANGE or MARATHON MAN "horror" films. With Boris Karloff, John Sutton, Barbara O'Neil, Nan Grey, Leo G. Carroll and Rose Hobart.