fought against. The studio and Lee eventually agreed to finish all scenes with the higher-salaried actors, starting with Karloff. Production completed on Tower of London on September 4. The budget was exceeded by nearly $80,000. Ford Beebe signed on to complete a few remaining shots. Film score For the score of the film Hans J. Salter used authentic period music for incidental music. When a preview screening for the film was shown in early November 1939, studio heads at Universal demanded new music written, but due to a lack of time, music from Frank Skinner's Son of Frankenstein was used, including a slightly altered title theme. Release Tower of London was distributed theatrically by Universal Pictures on 17 November 1939. The film inspired a remake in 1962 with United Artists signing Roger Corman to direct Tower of London. This film, along with Night Key, The Climax, The Strange Door and The Black Castle, was released on DVD in 2006 by Universal Studios as part of The Boris Karloff Collection. It was released in high definition on Blu-ray as part of Scream Factory’s Universal Horror Collection Volume 3 in December 2019. Reception From contemporary reviews, The Hollywood Reporter stated that Rowland V. Lee "has turned in probably the finest effort in his career. He has executed the difficult feat of making this type of picture human personal, building powerfully to his climaxes, injecting curiously apt touches of humor, crowning the effort with the power, spectacular battle scenes". A reviewer in Time found the film "less authentic than its elaborately spooky reproductions of London's Tower...But the battles of Tewkesbury and Bosworth set a new high for realistic racket than should deafen the most demanding". Variety stated that the film "so strong that it may provide disturbing nightmares as aftermath" and that "Rathbone provides a most vivid portrayal of the ambitious Duke". Frank Nugent of The New York Times found the film "all too painful and pointless" noting that "Karloff can't be taken seriously" and that "even the Rialto's audience, which no one dare accuse of hypsersensitivy, grew silent after a while and stopped applauding Mr. Rathbone's villainies. He was almost too bad to be true". When actors and crew involved in the picture later discussed the film, Vincent Price stated that he "saw it again only recently and found it ponderous but interesting. The drinking match was all ad-libbed and had to