Tower of London Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Tower of London Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 26, 2016

Given their iconic status in both the Vincent Price and Roger Corman filmographies, it’s perhaps a little surprising to realize that the actor and writer-director only made eight feature films together. While the two previous Scream Factory sets of Price material, The Vincent Price Collection and The Vincent Price Collection II, have necessarily reached beyond that vaunted pairing to include other titles starring the legendary thespian, the dwindling supply of available titles may mean this third “at bat” will be the last. While there is a Price-Corman collaboration on tap here, this set, like its predecessors, reaches out into Price’s long relationship with American International Pictures (and others) to provide some charming if often hammy opportunities for Price.

For reviews of the many films released in the previous Price collections, please click on the following links:

The Vincent Price Collection Blu-ray review

The Vincent Price Collection II Blu-ray review

Richard Chamberlain was in a desperate attempt to escape the clutches of Dr. Kildare, not to mention a relatively recent disastrous attempt to storm the battlements of the Great White Way in a musicalized version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (with Mary Tyler Moore as Holly Golightly) when he trundled into Seattle in the early 1970s to try his hand at Shakespeare in Richard II. I was still a young boy when I saw Chamberlain in this role, but even then it struck me as peculiar casting at best. Move that appending number up one to Richard III, and the casting of Vincent Price in a role made famous by any number of iconic actors (like Sir Laurence Olivier in his Richard III or Ian McKellen in his Richard III) may strike some as similarly, well, out of character. While one of the supplements on this disc has producer Gene Corman proclaiming Price’s long involvement with Shakespeare, and there are certainly traditional “horror” elements to the character which help connect the role to other Price performances, it’s still just a little strange to see the often ham prone Price traipsing through quasi-Shakespearean dialogue with a pageboy haircut and a kinda sorta hunchback.

Some online data suggests that co-producer Edward Small was the “visionary” behind Tower of London, though Gene Corman at least hints that it was his idea and one which he brought to his brother Roger to direct. Small was a fascinating producer, and I highly recommend those with an interest in Hollywood history to look into his long and varied history as both an independent producer (many of his early films were released through United Artists) or later (as here) as a principal of Admiral Pictures. Small has long caught my fancy since he was one of the rare folks who had the courage to work repeatedly with Frances Farmer (the link will take you to my research on the actress). (Small produced 1937’s The Toast of New York with Farmer and Cary Grant, and then cast Farmer to star in 1940’s South of Pago Pago when originally announced Sigrid Gurie dropped out for some reason.) All of this said, whether it was Small or Corman who was responsible for the concept, the result is an at least occasionally fun, if often uneven, “marriage” between Shakespearean elements and more of a traditional Grand Guignol ambience which will certainly be familiar to lovers of Price’s Poe canon with Corman.

Film lovers with an appreciation for synchronicity or at least coincidence may be interested to know that the "other" film bearing this title, 1939's Tower of London (which featured Price as the Duke of Clarence) was helmed by Rowland V. Lee, the man who directed Farmer in Small's Toast of New York. There's little doubt that the 1939 film is probably the more distinguished entertainment, bolstered by a great performance by Basil Rathbone as the evil and machinating Richard. Price does what he can with the role, but often seems to prefer lapsing into near cartoonish mannerisms instead of really digging beneath the stunted surface of the character. That said, he's probably not helped by an ineffective screenplay that dwells too much on silly horror tropes, as well as a less than opulent physical production. In his commentary included on Diary of a Madman, Steve Haberman lights into Tower of London on a couple of occasions, seeming to think it's near the nadir of Price and Corman's shared oeuvre. Other viewers may want to cut the film a bit more slack than that, but it's a rather odd "combo platter" that never really provides as much nourishment as it might have.

Tower of London Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Tower of London is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.67:1. The transfer is advertised as having been sourced off of a fine grain film print, but as I mentioned in our Master of the World Blu-ray review, the "generational" genesis of an element can sometimes be secondary (no pun intended) to its actual condition, and in this case the source element looks to have been in very good condition indeed. Age related wear and tear is minimal, and contrast is quite convincing throughout the presentation, offering solid black levels and nicely modulated gray scale. Grain can be just slightly mottled looking at times, but overall this is a pleasing looking transfer with commendable levels of detail and an organic appearance. I've rated this a 3.5 to indicate it's better looking than Master of the World but perhaps not quite up to the level of Cry of the Banshee, but would probably push this up toward the 3.75 level if I were able to.

Tower of London Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Tower of London features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix which gets the job done with a minimum of fuss and bother. The film isn't really very ambitious from a sound design perspective, with only elements like slightly spooky sounding ghosts and occasional sound effects livening up what is otherwise a resolutely dialogue driven film. Everything is presented cleanly and clearly with no overt damage, and aside from occasional brittleness in the upper registers, there's little here that will cause concern for most discerning audiophiles.

Tower of London Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Director Roger Corman (1080p; 7:11)


• Producing Tower of London - An Interview with Producer Gene Corman (1080i; 14:04)


• Photo Gallery (1080p; 4:31)


• Science Fiction Theatre Episodes Starring Vincent Price

  One Thousand Eyes (1080i; 26:09)

  Operation Flypaper (1080i; 26:05)

Tower of London Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm not sure I have quite the disdain for Tower of London that Steve Haberman evidently does, and in fact the film kind of appeals to me on its own patently goofy terms, but there's probably no denying that anyone wanting a visceral portrayal of Richard III will probably find better treatments elsewhere. Technical merits are very good and the supplemental package quite enjoyable for those considering a purchase.