Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Movie review – Corman #34 - “The Tower of London” (1962) **1/2

Decent version of the Richard III story, provided you can take Vincent Price’s hammy Richard. Borrows heavily from Shakespeare, with the king definitely the villain. It’s a pretty gory film – Clarence is stabbed, a pretty girl is flogged then racked to death, the two princes are smothered, Richard impales himself on an axe. Michael Pate offers strong support as Dick’s henchman number one and there are some pretty girls but the male juvenile (as usual in Corman-Price collaborations) weak.

Low budget, but as most of the film is set in a castle and Dan Haller was the art director that doesn’t matter; it only strains at the final battle of Bosworth Field where the lack of extras hurts – but it’s not as bad as the sight of Vincent Price in armour. The main regret you have about the film is that it wasn’t shot in colour, but it races by and is quite fun to watch.

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