TOWER OF LONDON

Original British 17 inch x 22 inch Trade Advertisement for the 1939 Rowland V. Lee Horror Movie TOWER OF LONDON starring Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Barbara O’Neil, Ian Hunter, Vincent Price, Nan Grey, Leo G. Carroll and Miles Mander.

The film is based on the traditional depiction of Richard rising to become King of England in 1483 by eliminating everyone ahead of him. Each time Richard accomplishes a murder, he removes one figurine from a dollhouse resembling a throneroom. Once he has completed his task, he now needs to defeat the exiled Henry Tudor to retain the throne.

The Advertisement was originally on two separate pages but has now been professionally joined and backed onto conservation paper. The overall size is now 18 1/2 inches x 23 3/4 inches.

Trade advertisements are colourful posters aimed at cinema managers, which were either slipped in, or part of, the weekly film trade journals which were available to them by subscription but were not sold to the general public. The large size Trade advertisements are about the size of US half sheet posters and have a centre fold which is usually hard to discern when flat. Most were designed to be pulled out, and some were attached by staples. Most have the date in tiny letters in one of the top corners.
The publishers own copies from the 1930’s were destroyed by fire and water damage during the Blitz and Wartime paper drives decimated those held by cinemas making them quite rare.