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Tower of London (1939) black-and-white historical film released by Universal Pictures and directed by Rowland V. Lee. It stars Basil Rathbone as the future Richard III of England, and Boris Karloff as his fictitious club-footed executioner Mord. Vincent Price appears as George, Duke of Clarence. Actor John Rodion, who appears in a small role, is actually Rodion Rathbone, Basil's son.
The film is based on the traditional depiction of Richard rising to become King of England by eliminating everyone ahead of him. Each time Richard accomplishes a murder, he removes one figurine from a dollhouse resembling a throneroom. Once he has completed his task, he now needs to defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain the throne.
The plot was not derived from Shakespeare's Richard III, but rather was written by Robert N. Lee (director Rowland V. Lee's brother) after reading a great deal of British history. George, Duke of Clarence (one of Richard's brothers) is depicted as something less than the tragically noble figure found in Shakespeare. Ian Hunter portrays Edward IV, who is not depicted here as the feeble, dying King found in Laurence Olivier's 1955 film version of Shakespeare's play.
The film inspired a 1962 remake with Vincent Price now in the lead role. The remake was made on an extremely low budget, was shot in black-and-white with a small cast (and used stock footage from the 1939 version for the battle sequences), and placed far more of an emphasis on genuine horror. Price later told Rathbone's biographer Michael Druxman that he felt Rathbone's performance as Richard was probably more historically genuine than either Laurence Olivier's or his own.
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Oh this is great stuff. We are fans of the old Horror,Mystery and B-Movies as well as those of less than B quality.
Karloff in some of his lesser known movies is always Karloff and always good. The historical "Tower of London" with Basil Rathbone is wonderful pairing.
Other reviewers go into great detail about the films, so let me just say that if you enjoy Karloff, old movies and have not familiar with his movies outside of the Frankenstein franchise, you need to see these movies.
Enjoy
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Night Key(1937)B&W- Karloff creates a security system that he is forced to help burglars commit robberies with. (78 min.)
Tower of London(1939)B&W- A true tale of how a terrible king rises to power with the help of his executioiner.(93 min.)
The Climax(1944)Color- Karloff is a mad doctor whose jealousy over an opera singer might drive him murder again.(87 min.)
The Strange Door(1951)B&W- Karloff tries to free a madmans prisoners but finds himself facing deathtraps in a dungeon.(81 min.)
The Black Castle(1952)B&W- Karloff risks his life to save the captives of a mad count(82 min.)
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I'm an "old" movie fan. I enjoyed watching all these movies with the exception of one (plot was a tad slow). It's great to see how far the film industry has come since the early days of movies. Boris Karloff was a consummate character actor - a true craftsman.
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The Boris Karloff Collection (The Franchise Collection from Universal) is an interesting collection of eclectic films that happen to have Boris Karloff in them as he plays supporting characters in several. Much is made of the phrase "The Master of Horror in His Most Frightening Roles" (rightfully so) because it is a misnomer as several of these films are not horror like Night Key and Tower of London while the rest only have horror elements to them. Once you get past these mistakes in marketing you can then start enjoying the films.
Night Key (1937): I do not know why, but I enjoy watching semi-obscure older films with Boris Karloff. In the Night Key, Boris Karloff plays an aging bespectacled inventor of security devices named Mr. Mallory who is conned (a second time) by a businessman who was once his friend. In order to get even he breaks in, without stealing anything, and leaves a calling card "What I create, I can destroy" and does something silly like open all of the umbrellas in the store. A crime boss, of course, known as The Kid (really played deadpan by Alan Baxter) ends up hearing about this and kidnaps the professor's daughter to make Karloff do "real" robberies. Karloff convincingly plays a much older character than he actually is in another good performance. However, there is not much more to the film. It is low budget; many of the other actors perform in that annoying stiff 30s acting style and the plot moves rather slow.
Tower of London (1939): Probably the last type of movie you would expect with Boris Karloff and Vincent Price as characters in a historical epic of Shakespeare's Richard III. Basil Rathbone (from many Sherlock Holmes films) stars as the infamous lead character whom conspires for the throne. A bit pedantic, the fight scenes are tepid and uninteresting, but good characterization from Karloff as Mord the faithful crippled killer servant to Richard, Price as the foppish (even more than usual) Duke of Clarence and Rathbone as Richard of Gloucester (it did not help recently seeing Laurence Olivier perform this role though).
The Climax (1944): a beautifully shot Technicolor film with gorgeous sets but a vacuously performed movie with tepid script. It had an Oscar nomination for "Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color" and had much in common with "Phantom of the Opera (1943)" including the sets, director George Waggner (who producted Phantom and horror classic "The Wolf Man" amongst others), Jane Farrar and script. I was not convinced with Turhan Bey as the lead, though Boris does a good (not great) job as the Doctor who possessiveness of a past Opera singer borders on insanity. Not a great name for the film either.
The Strange Door (1951): Once you realize that Boris Karloff only has a supporting role in this film, it makes it easier to like this and its sister movie (many of the same sets/actors were used) The Black Castle (1952). I found this an enjoyable film because of the over-the-top maniacal performance by Charles Laughton (The Paradine Case, Island of Lost Souls) whose secretly destroy the life of his niece because of the hatred of his brother. He coerces a supposed rogue (Richard Stapley) and forces him to marry his niece to make her life miserable. The weakness of the film lies in the two leads of the niece and her savior: Sally Forrest and Richard Stapley whose performances are lukewarm at best. The strength is Laughton, Boris, the sets and many of the secondary actors.
The Black Castle (1952): A decent but sometimes lackluster movie that has both Boris Karloff (as a doctor) and Lon Chaney Jr. (as Gargon) in small thankless roles. The lead Richard Greene (who was known for playing Robin Hood on TV in the late 50s, though Blue Underground collectors may recognize him from two of the Fu Manchu films) has came back from Africa to take revenge on Count Karl von Bruno who has possible murdered two of his friends. He later falls in love with the Count's wife. Beautiful sets that were leftover from "The Strange Door" are used well here. The film has elements of "The Most Dangerous Game". Boris fans might be let down because of his lack of screen time though his presence is felt well at the end.
Unfortunately, like far too many of these sets, there are no extras except for a few trailers.
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