by Moe Zilla

Created on: September 18, 2008

It's 1939, and Hollywood found a real-life melodrama in the history of England. "No age is without its ruthless men," warns the prologue, "who, in their search for power, leave dark stains upon the pages of history."

Boris Karloff plays a goon - the creepy henchman in the tower, waiting for orders from the treacherous Richard III. Karloff's character - named "Mord" - wields the axe at beheadings, and he's first spotted with a raven on his shoulder while he sharpens it in the tower's torture chamber. He's a merciless, scowling giant whose slow, deep voice creates an intense menace. And he drags his deformed foot behind him as he creeps deliberately up the stairs...

"It's very queer," says one young prince to another. "One day everyone is so pleasant. And the next they tell me I'm no longer king..." The two princes have been locked in a room in a tower, and history remembers that they would soon disappear, never to be seen again. Mord arrives in the night, and a strange pang of compassion seems to creep into his face. But he may be simply measuring the children so he can fit them into their coffins.

Basil Rathbone plays the evil mastermind behind the castle's plots. "I will not always be sixth in succession to the throne," he murmurs to himself, as he arranges the miniature statuettes in a secret model of the royal court. "I have plans for you all, my little ones" Richard gloats - and whenever a rival meets his death, he burns their figurine on the fire. He tricks "paper crown Henry" into a dangerous battle, and his brother Henry IV dies of natural causes. Vincent Price plays the Duke of Clarence, who finds himself in a harrowing drinking contest against Richard. History remembers that Clarence was accused of treason, and one story says his body was drowned in an enormous barrel of wine. So as a young Vincent Price laughs dementedly and drunkenly at Richard, the audience knows his victory celebration is horribly premature.

"Behead your friends and marry your enemies," the king advises a young gentleman. In the midst of all these cruel plots, the young man wants to marry for love - instead of an arranged marriage which the king feels would be more advantageous. Will the treachery in the tower end their chances at romance? The movie shows the agonized mother of "the princes in the tower," who knows firsthand that Richard can't be trusted.

In the end these suffering characters lead the movie to its climax. Do they dare cross the royal family, stealing treasure from the Tower of London to fund a rival royal family? In true Hollywood style, there's a big medieval battle that will determine the fate of England. And it also seals the fate of all the characters from the tower of London.

Even Richard the treacherous hunchback and his clubfooted henchman Mord.

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.