In 1483, Richard, Duke of Gloucester (Vincent Price), is disappointed when his dying brother, King Edward IV (Justice Watson) names George, Duke of Clarence (Charles Macauley) as protector of his son and heir, Prince Edward (Eugene Mazola). Richard wanted that job for himself. He secretly stabs George to death with a dagger belonging to the Woodville Family, the King’s in-laws, and they are blamed. Now, Richard is protector and has power over the heirs. His wife Anne (Joan Camden) encourages him. After the King dies, Richard tries to intimidate the King’s widow’s lady-in-waiting, Mistress Shore (Sandra Knight), into claiming that the King’s two children are illegitimate. When she refuses, he tortures her and she dies on the rack. He says he executed her for spreading lies, and the two princes would be safe in his protective custody.
The ghosts of Clarence, King Edward, and Mistress Shore haunt Richard and say that they will have their revenge at Bosworth, when he will be killed by a dead man. Shore’s ghost enters his wife Anne’s body and he kills her, then he is filled with guilt and loneliness. He consults the sorcerer Tyrus (Richard Hale), who promises that he will be King, but Tyrus is worried about Richard’s mental state. He fears for the young princes and informs the young aristocrat who is looking after them, Sir Jasper, who plots to get them to safety, but is trapped with child-king Edward (Eugene Mazzola), plus Lady Margaret. Richard and his henchman, Sir Ratcliffe (Michael Pate), murder the two princes and Richard becomes King.
The ghosts of the princes lure Richard to his death from the battlements of the Tower, but he is saved by Buckingham (Bruce Gordon), who confides in Ratcliffe and is betrayed to Richard and dies by torture. Tyrus helps Jaspar to rescue Margaret but is mortally wounded. Richard is crowned but still haunted by fear. Stanley marches to Bosworth with an army and is joined by the Earl of Richmond. On Bosworth field, Richard is alone on the battlefield and the ghosts of his victims appear. Richard tries to mount a horse to escape but is thrown and falls on a battle-axe held by a dead soldier.
The film was directed by Roger Corman, shot in fifteen days, and produced by Edward Small Productions of United Artists. The story is from Shakespeare’s Richard III, with touches of Macbeth. There is no connection to the 1939 version of Tower of London, in which Vincent Price also appeared. It was produced in the middle of the Corman run of Edgar Allan Poe films and the overwrought dialogue proves it. Francis Ford Coppola wrote some of it. Vincent Price was pleased with his performance, but the box-office was not what it should have been, largely because it was a black-and-white film. Those who did see it, tended to like it. Much of the climactic battle was stock footage from the 1939 version. Vincent Price chewed the scenery with bravado, the score was powerful and haunting, and the ghosts were impressive. Any resemblance to real history is coincidental.