You know you have reached an advance age when you see somebody in a film getting stretched on a medieval rack and you think about how great your aching back might feel after some time on that. But that’s what I was thinking when Boris Karloff was subjecting some poor soul to this punishment in 1939’s Tower of London.
I found this to be an odd film, though mostly because of the expectations I had going in. This was on yet another installment of the Universal Horrors blu-ray series. But this is not a horror picture, despite the presence of Karloff. If anything, this is a historical mini-epic.
Set in England in the 1400’s, this film stars Basil Rathbone as a duke who has eyes on the throne. Alas, he has a few people in the line of succession ahead of him. He tracks these heirs, and their order, using dolls in a weird diorama of the royal chambers he has constructed. I’ll admit it is rather creepy watching him removing dolls from the display as he dispatches of those people. Keep in mind, a couple of those figures are of children. And yet, I was also deeply amused to be watching our villain play with dolls.
Karloff is his bald, disfigured henchman. I found it interesting that actor has what I consider to be potentially leading man looks, yet he thoroughly transformed himself through horrific makeup throughout his filmography. He has a prosthetic making him appear to have a bum leg, and I am pleased to report I could never quite figure out how they made that work. It is like there’s a bend in his leg that couldn’t be there.
If there are any horror elements in this, it would be the dungeon where Karloff gleefully applies his trade. This may be the most fully repellant character I have seen him play—the first time one has not had a trace of humanity to let the viewer identify with him. Consider how he begs Rathbone to take him into battle with him: “I have never killed in hot blood before.”
That said, Rathbone might be even more intimidating, as he is cold, calculating and ruthless. In one early scene, the queen (Barbara O’Neil) enters a room and her eyes go wide with shock, but we don’t know what it is she has seen. The cut reveals it is Rathbone, and all he is doing is standing over her sons while they sleep. There is nothing suspicious in his expression or behavior, but she knows the threat he poses. Hers is a look that speaks volumes.
I was surprised to see Vincent Price cast in a fairly substantial role in a movie this early in his career. In later years, he would have been able to ace the Rathbone role. His youth makes instead makes him well-suited for playing a decadent coward who is, unfortunately for him, in line for the throne. Price adds some great minor touches to this performance, such as a left eye that starts twitching comically when he becomes overly excited.
But the biggest surprise was how nasty this film is for being released four years after the rollout of the production code, as that had hobbled a great many similar productions. I guess what happens here was determined to be acceptable, so long as the events portrayed took place long in the past.
Please indulge me one snarky aside. In an early scene, O’Neil chastises her daughter, but I couldn’t understand what she said. I turned on the subtitles and rewatched those few seconds, and the text on the screen actually read: “You can broider your (mumbling) for your doll.” This is the first time I have ever seen subtitles fumble.
Tower of London is a good, but not especially noteworthy, film. The strangest thing about it is somebody at Shout Factory thought this was horror. Yes, that aspect is even stranger than the marriage in the film between two children, the boy being so young he lisps when saying, “I will”. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that honeymoon was super uncomfortable for all who were aware of this betrothal.
Dir: Rowland V. Lee
Starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Barbara O’Neil
Watched as part of Shout Factory’s blu-ray set Universal Horror Volume 3