I was extremely surprised how ordinary and dull this film was considering it starred Basil Rathbone and Boris Karloff (who had both just starred in a Frankenstein movie together). While I wasn't sure if it was going to be a horror film (it really wasn't), I sure expected a lot more from it than it delivered. Instead of excitement, it offered a muddled and uninvolving history lesson about Richard III as well as the rest of the late of the Plantagenet rulers. While the film fortunately doesn't look too much like Shakespeare's RICHARD III (his version of British history makes historians cringe), it is still very much influenced by it (such as the whole idea of Richard being a hunchbacked and evil man who killed off Edward V and his younger brother). The actual truth is quite muddled and confusing--to this day no one is sure if it was Richard or even Henry VII or someone else who was behind the children's disappearance.
So apart from the historical aspects of the film, how is the overall product? Well, the battle scenes are amazingly dull and the story itself is at times interesting and at other times like a snooze-fest. In fact, aside from the few scenes with Karloff (he wasn't in the movie nearly enough to suit me---he really brightened up the film) and the drowning of Vincent Price (a great scene), the film just seems to drag. This is a case of generally good actors but dull dialog and direction. The only exception to this was Barbara O'Neil, as Queen Elizabeth. She was amazingly poor in the film, as there were several times when she just stared into the camera or made facial expressions that just didn't suit the events taking place (such as deaths of her husband or other family members).
So if you want to watch a dull historical piece interrupted occasionally by cool scenes involving Karloff as Richard's henchman and chief torturer, then this film is for you. Otherwise, this is a very forgettable film and probably not worth your time.
PS--Despite the video art on IMDb, the film did not star Karloff and he was not exactly a major figure in the film.
So apart from the historical aspects of the film, how is the overall product? Well, the battle scenes are amazingly dull and the story itself is at times interesting and at other times like a snooze-fest. In fact, aside from the few scenes with Karloff (he wasn't in the movie nearly enough to suit me---he really brightened up the film) and the drowning of Vincent Price (a great scene), the film just seems to drag. This is a case of generally good actors but dull dialog and direction. The only exception to this was Barbara O'Neil, as Queen Elizabeth. She was amazingly poor in the film, as there were several times when she just stared into the camera or made facial expressions that just didn't suit the events taking place (such as deaths of her husband or other family members).
So if you want to watch a dull historical piece interrupted occasionally by cool scenes involving Karloff as Richard's henchman and chief torturer, then this film is for you. Otherwise, this is a very forgettable film and probably not worth your time.
PS--Despite the video art on IMDb, the film did not star Karloff and he was not exactly a major figure in the film.