Dragonwyck

Dragonwyck (1946)

A high drama, historical drama, and drama drama. And the drama part works, so that's most of the movie. It's a fairly stiff arrangement, however, including the purposely stiff Vincent Price, who plays a noble Dutch American (a patroon) with a fabulous estate on the Hudson. Director Mankiewicz is great at nuanced characterizations, including a zealous father played by Walter Huston. This may not be his best product, but it's rich with details and lush textures both visually and in the narrative, and it gets more intense as the small events come to conflict by the end.

What sometimes hobbles the whole thing is the simplified tenant farmer revolt, whatever its roots. (I live near to where this is fictionally set, and there is no trace of this kind of culture at all here, just some place names, and I have a suspicion it was never this exaggerated, not in the 1800s, though perhaps in the 1600s, when the Dutch really ruled the area, then called New Netherland.) The pageantry, the great house, the storms, and the big dances, all of this is romantic Bronte territory, well done, and great atmosphere. The music by Alfred Newman and the photography by Arthur C. Miller, both great talents at their professional best, do their usual best, as well.

So what works best, beyond the overall mood, is the presence of the two women: the visiting niece of course, the star, Gene Tierney, and equally, in a subtle way, Connie Marshall, the suffering wife of the patroon. Tierney has a kind of cool reserve that works here, letting the light work on her pretty head. Eventually, the handsome doctor's role takes on more complex importance (played by Glenn Langan), and Price has a fine end, which Price fans will greatly admire.

"Dragonwyck" has the atmosphere of a Hawthorne's tale. Typical is the contrast between the clean, blessed New England farm where Miranda (Gene Tierney) lives with her parents, and the bleak, doomed ancient manor where she goes and later marries the aristocratic Van Ryn (Vincent Price). Gene Tierney's angelic beauty and wholesome look perfectly fit to a romantic heroine in Hawthorne's style: she recalls the Phoebe Pyncheon of "The house of seven gables" (the novel; I haven't seen the movie). Miranda shows another typical aspect of Hawthorne's heroines: differently from the classical romantic maiden, Miranda is not apt to be a meek innocent victim of the force of evil, but she is ready to face it and to fight for her life. Note Tierney's skill in entering into the personality of the characters she plays. She was a pattern of sex-appeal in movies such as "Laura" and "Leave Her to Heaven": here her Miranda is an example of maidenly modesty. From her arrival to the castle the scenes become increasingly darker. The black-and-white photography is outstanding. Vincent Price gives his usual superb performance in the role of the mysterious Van Ryn, whose extreme haughtiness and family pride drive him to madness. Of course, nowadays we follow the story of "Dragonwyck" with a certain amount of irony, yet, perhaps for this very reason, the movie is a treat. I wish current movies were like it (and also that present actresses had a beauty comparable to Gene's, but this is plainly unimaginable).

I really liked this movie, even if it owed a lot to "Rebecca." In some ways it is an odd mix of Gothic horror, Americana and "women's picture." However, it held together, thanks to the performances of Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, and (especially) Vincent Price. Price practically turns the film into a Poe movie before the fact. He can be both romantically charming and sinister, which is a combination that is hard to beat.

I loved the scenes with Price's first wife, who is obsessed with food. In fact, I found the movie curiously disjointed. In the first half of the film, Spring Byngton plays a rather daft "Mrs. Danvers" type, and then she vanishes from the movie without any mention made of it (Not even "We had to fire that old bid d y.") Likewise the haunted daughter from the patroon's first marriage. She had a couple of powerful scenes, and then she was gone without a word. (Not even "Gee, too bad she died of scarlet fever.")

I never would have guessed that Mankiewicz was the director of this film. (Well, perhaps in the scene in which the aristocratic women were making sport of Tierney's commonness.) Very powerful Gothic atmosphere in the key scenes. A very enjoyable film, especially for Vincent Price fans.

Gene Tierney, Vincent Price and Walter Huston and Joseph L Mankiewicz were reasons enough to maintain interest in seeing Dragonwyck. While I had no problem with any of them, I did have a fair lot of issues with the film. The film is overlong and is rather ponderously paced. It further suffers from some clumsy scripting, a consequence of trying to cram too many different genres, and a story that has some suspense but suffers from the fact that it doesn't go anywhere for a bit of the time and the ending underwhelmed also. However, the production values are simply gorgeous, and the score is resolutely haunting. Mankiewicz's direction is solid. Gene Tierney looks beautiful and is adorable and touching. Walter Huston, Anne Revere and Jessica Tandy give terrific support. The best asset is the performance of Vincent Price, one that is devilishly handsome, sometimes frightening and always commanding. All in all, Price makes a deeply flawed movie worth watching. 6/10 Bethany Cox

The success of Hitchcock's 'Rebecca (1940)' triggered a mighty insurgence of similarly-themed Gothic post-marriage melodramas – in which naive young women mistakenly fall in love with wealthy but secretly-disturbed, and usually recently widowed, husbands. They were whisked off the production shelf with admirable efficiency, each title starring a promising or established young beauty of the decade: Fontaine in 'Rebecca,' Bergman in 'Gaslight (1944),' and Bennett in 'Secret Beyond the Door (1947).' John M. Stahl's 'Leave Her to Heaven (1945)' is notable in that it turns the gender tables, emphasising the lovely Gene Tierney as the spouse whose dubious intentions could destroy an innocent lover's life. The following year, in 'Dragonwyck (1946),' Tierney appeared in a more conventional variation of the theme, as an inexperienced Connecticut farm girl who falls for Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price), an aristocratic patroon who represents arrogance, injustice and everything against which her strictly-religious father (Walter Huston) had warned her. This, the fourth and final film to co-star Tierney and Price, features one of the latter's most demented, unforgettable performances.

I could tell you that I watched 'Dragonwyck' to enjoy the earliest available film from director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, but you and I both know this to be untrue: I watched it because of Gene. Her mere presence is enough to brighten up even the darkest drama, displaying a graceful poise even as the picture's innocent and vulnerable heroine. Price, in one of his early, largely-neglected roles, is absolutely wonderful, a simmering melting-pot of self-pride and contempt, obscured behind a icy blue-eyed stare. He obviously relished the opportunity to play a tyrannical aristocrat wife-hater, though his drug addiction (presumably to opium) regrettably remains unexplored beyond a brief mention. Glenn Langan, playing the obligatory nice-guy character, is a largely uninteresting creation, serving only to remind us that it's the raving maniacs whom we enjoy watching the most. Cinematographer Arthur C. Miller pulls out the usual photographic tricks, turning the looming Dragonwyck estate into a moody mansion of shadows and suffused light.

The screenplay was adapted by Mankiewicz from a novel by Anya Seton, and, despite the story's clear derivation from previous films, his writing is adequate if unremarkable. Some elements have undoubtedly aged, most especially Miranda Wells' ecstatic Bible-school exclamation of "golly Moses!," and nowadays Nicholas' fervent atheism doesn't seem like quite the evil quality it was sixty years ago. The story itself also feels half-cocked, the screenplay skipping key moments of the narrative, as though with the understanding that we've seen enough of these sorts of films to fill in the gaps ourselves. Additionally, and perhaps most damningly, the supernatural subplot – of the tragic Van Ryn ancestor who can occasionally be heard playing beautiful music – is underexplored to such an extent that I wonder why this was even included to begin with. But, of course, in my haste to criticise, I'm neglecting to mention the finer points of Mankiewicz's screenplay, with plenty of sharp dialogue and strong characterisations for the most part. This isn't 'Rebecca,' but it's worth a look.