Ambitious, historical tale with lots of battles (fairly well done) and much power struggling, particularly of course by the hunchbacked Richard. The matters romantic slow things down enormously and although clearly striving for some measure of authenticity, there are just too many characters for the budget or script to be able to deal with as one might have liked. However, given the limited resources, a reasonable result is achieved, helped enormously by three excellent male leads. Basil Rathbone is very fine indeed and very convincing in the role of the scheming, Richard and none of the camp Price would bring to the role another time. A very young Vincent price is also most effective and it is great to see his crooked smile and fluttering eyelids already swinging into action. A bit too fey here perhaps but lets himself go in the infamous drinking scene. Incidental to the main story and probably originally added as a bit of light relief, Boris Karloff brings anything but. An appropriately towering performance and despite very few lines and not a lot of screen time he drags himself into centre frame and haunts one's memory afterwards.
Review of Tower of London
