Dragonwyck

I believe in myself, and I am answerable to myself! I will not live according to printed mottoes like the directions on a medicine bottle! Dragonwyck is directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who also adapts the screenplay from the Anya Seton novel of the same name. It stars Vincent Price, Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Jessica Tandy and Spring Byington. Music is by Alfred Newman and cinematography by Arthur C. Miller. Connecticut farm girl Miranda Wells (Tierney) is recruited by her aristocratic patroon cousin Nicholas Van Ryan (Price) to be governess to his young daughter at his Hudson Valley mansion. Originally thinking it to be a new step up in life, Miranda finds that Nicholas and the Dragonwyck mansion have dark secrets to tell. Bluebeard and Rebecca come swirling together in this neatly constructed Gothic thriller. It has the requisite eeriness about it, the period atmosphere is strong and Price turns in a wonderfully sinister performance as the tormented Van Ryan. Narratively there's other interests besides the core story of "mad love and dark secrets", such as observations on faith and class structure issues, while the patroon land owner system forms a most historically interesting backdrop. PCA presence means that the spicy aspects of the story (drug use and poisoning) are sketched in grey, but we know what's going on and film doesn't suffer for it. It takes a while to really get going, for the drama to take a hold, and the light dustings of the supernatural hint at what a better film it could have been. Yet this is comfortably recommended to Gothic thriller fans and fans of Price and Tierney especially. 7.5/10

Vincent Price excels in this sinister romance that has shades of Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940) about it. Gene Tierney ("Miranda") is brought up in a devoutly religious family under the auspices of the zealous "Ephraim" (Walter Huston) when she is offered the chance of a lifetime by her distant cousin "Nicholas van Ryn" (Price) to go and live in his mansion "Dragonwyck" to help care for his wife. When she dies, "Miranda" returns to her family only to be surprised when she is followed by her erstwhile host with an offer of marriage. What occurs now is a wonderfully - if, maybe a bit slowly, paced thriller as we just know - but we don't - that there is much more to "van Ryn" than initially meets the eye. His high-handedness and superiority is writ large - not just with his new wife, but with virtually all he encounters and you can but hope that he is heading for a fall....The film's Gothic theme is expertly captured by Arthur Miller's photography: light, darkness and shadow play as much a part in this unfolding drama as Joseph L. Mankiewicz' direction and adapted screenplay but ultimately the film belongs to Price; his mellifluous tones and benignly evil manner deliver a film to remember.

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John Chard

CinemaSerf