CinemaSerf
6
|
Jun 05, 2023
I think this might have been Vincent Price's first leading role in a film here, and he actually carries it off quite well - if a little too hammily. His elder brother King Edward IV is dying and Prince Richard of Gloucester is determined to usurp his sons and claim the English crown for himself. What ensues now are three stories illustrating his ability to be cruel, to manipulate and to murder - but each act comes with it's own form of spiritual retribution from the victims. The first is a lady-in-waiting whom he wants to discredit the paternity of the new Edward V, then his own brother, the Duke of Clarence, (Charles Macaulay) before, finally, the reckoning with the victims the blame for which history is still uncertain it can lay at his door. It's a bit wordy but the simple visual effects have a suitably haunting feel to them and Price exudes a malevolent vulnerability that plays very much to the Shakespearean interpretation of his character. Short and sweet with plenty going on, it passes the time quite effortlessly but an history lesson it isn't.
