Dragonwyck (1946)

That was an excellent one.

Great Film overall

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Blistering performances.

Vincent Price teams up with Gene Tierney again having appeared with her in 'Leave Her to Heaven'. In this film you can see how Price is evolving into a sinister character rather than just being sinister from the beginning. He is not a sympathetic character, but neither is he a cardboard character. I wouldn't say he's three-dimensional because he doesn't make a one hundred and eighty degree turn in her personality. However, there is some movement in Price's character which shows a slight journey towards his future sinister profile. Tierney is quite well-spoken and proper in this film, but there are no characters that we care about, nor is the story engaging.

Connecticut farm girl (Gene Tierney) goes to live with her wealthy cousin (Vincent Price) and his wife on their estate called Dragonwyck. As is pretty much the standard for people who live on estates in older films, these folks ain't right. The movie's strength lies in its great cast and Gothic ambiance. Vincent Price is good in a role very similar to others he would play in horror films later in his career. Gene Tierney is beautiful and plays her part well. Walter Huston, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, and Jessica Tandy offer solid support. Unfortunately, despite the cast and fine direction from Joseph L. Mankiewicz, it's a rather dull and predictable movie that fails to build any suspense or intrigue. Obviously fans of Price and Tierney will want to check it out for themselves. Gene is certainly gorgeous, so the movie has that going for it.

While Gene Tierney's acting ability is sometimes sneered at, her beauty made her memorable in a handful of top class films of the 40s. Where would "Leave Her to Heaven" be without her icy, aloof beauty, she was completely believable as "Laura", a woman men could kill for and no one else could have captured the cold, evilness of Isabel in "The Razor's Edge". The publicity department went into over drive with "Dragonwyck". Gene had become 20th Century Fox's top star and was at the peak of her beauty. Her performance in this movie justified the emphasis placed on her. She had a part that required many different emotions from her - from an innocent farm girl suddenly confronted by the evil secrets of "Dragonwyck". Unfortunately she had to take a back seat in the early scenes to scene stealing Walter Huston as her religious Puritan father and the quiet dignity of Anne Revere (her mother). Then at "Dragonwyck" there was Vincent Price as the aristocratic Nicholas Van Ryn - giving probably the performance of his career. He was completely mesmerizing as the drug crazed tyrant - yet he is just as convincing as the young man who wins over the innocent country girl.The story opens in 1844 - as Miranda (Gene Tierney) pleads with her mother to allow her to be sent as a governess to Dragonwyck, owned by very distant relations. Miranda is completely awed by the grandness of the mansion and it's master, Nicholas Van Ryn, a landlord who runs his estate as though living in Medieval times. The farmers who till his fields have to pay him every year with produce and money - if they refuse, they are thrown off their farm. Kass Bleeker (Harry Morgan) finds out the hard way that you cannot defy Van Ryn.Miranda is fast losing her illusions, having to cope with her odd pupil, Katrine Von Ryn (Connie Marshall) - "Do my parents love me - I don't love my father" and Von Ryn's frightened and ailing wife, Joanna, who seems to have an eating disorder. When Joanna dies in strange circumstances, Nicholas swoops on Miranda, pleading with her to marry him - she finally flees to her family. Miranda and Nicholas eventually marry - hovering in the background is the kindly Dr. Turner (Glen Langan) - he can see that Nicholas is demented and will not bring Miranda happiness. When Miranda has a son, who dies, Nicholas' unbounded joy turns to hate, he rounds on Peggy (Jessica Tandy), Miranda's crippled maid - "Why do you LIVE and my son dies". He begins to spend all his time in the Tower room and Turner begins to suspect that Miranda will meet the same fate as Joanna. Miranda finally goes to the Tower room to find out his secret.Even though the film proceeds at a leisurely pace, the suspense mounts. The magnificent rooms and brilliant sets are breathtaking. It is also wonderful to see Vivienne Osbourne - so dynamic in "Two Seconds" (1932) and "Supernatural" (1933) - was still given quality roles over 10 years later. The only minus (and a big one) was the strange disappearance from the film of three of the standout characters. You could forgive this in a poverty row production but not in a prestigious A grader. Katrine had three memorable scenes and then she disappeared from the narrative - odd in that she was the reason Miranda was bought to Dragonwyck in the first place - to be Katrine's governess. The next one to go was Magda (Spring Byington) a creepy housekeeper, spouting bits of information designed to give Miranda many sleepless nights. The last was Peggy, Miranda's maid. Jessica Tandy gave an unforgettable impression - even going with her to the tower for the film's climax but in the next scene had completely disappeared from the house. As another reviewer said there was an odd scene where Van Ryn entered Miranda's bedroom, in his pyjamas and strode across to the window - you see Miranda hop out of bed and put on a robe - pretty shocking stuff for the 1840s and even worse for Hollywood in the 1940s. I wondered whether it was out of sequence and was meant for after they were married. Very sloppy editing for an otherwise magnificent production.Highly, Highly Recommended.

This movie had EVERYTHING going for it! A dream cast with Gene Tierney, Vincent Price, Walter Huston, Anne Revere, Spring Byington and Jessica Tandy, a great writer and director in Joseph L Mankiewitz, a rich genre - Gothic, bigger than life characters like Edgar Allen Poe and James Fennimore Cooper, a new setting - the Hudson Valley Catskill Mountains, real historical incidents such as rent wars and steamboat races and a KILLER novel - Dragonwyck by Anya Seton. Too bad that they only kept the cast and the writer director. Mankiewitz made this rich book a formula story. Poor farm girl becomes companion to rich man's daughter, falls in love, wife dies, marries rich man, rich man goes mad, rich man dies, fadeout. I am a Hudson Valley girl, I wanted to like it, I tried to like it. I love "book movies", I have shelves full of the novels that have fostered my favorite movies like Now, Voyager, Mildred Pierce, Random Harvest and Stella Dallas. I can see the value in both and be OK with many of the changes that are made for the screen. This,however, took away the beauty of the Valley, the history of the Patroon system, the mystery of why Miranda could love Nicholas (he was a complex, very cultured, intelligent, obsessed with family, tortured soul), Miranda's romance novel induced dreams, Johanna's despair in her marriage and the eerie Cajun influences of Azilde, Nicholas's "lessons" to Miranda in music and literature - gone, the gaiety of New York City's theaters and restaurants in the 1840's - gone, steamboat races up the Hudson - gone.Skip this movie and read the book, you will not be sorry!