Sunday, March 28, 2010

Dragonwyck (1946): Gothic Suspense, Fox Style




According to actress Gene Tierney, in her autobiography, Self Portrait, the thing most remembered by her during the filming of Dragonwyck, was her initial meeting of young John F. Kennedy, just home from his service in the South Pacific. “I turned and found myself staring into what I thought were the most perfect blue eyes I had ever seen on a man. He was standing near the camera, wearing a navy lieutenant’s uniform. He smiled at me.” It was the beginning of what would become a heartbreaking romance for the star. But there was certainly much more to remember about the actual film than the off-screen pairing of two very attractive young celebrities. Dragonwyck is a wonderful example of the Gothic suspense genre of films, written and produced in the tradition of Rebecca and Jane Eyre.

Based on Anya Seton’s 1944 novel, Dragonwyck is the name of an enormous estate in the Hudson Valley of New York state in the mid-nineteenth century, owned by patroon Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price). Under the Dutch patroon system, a landholder held rights to large tracts of land in the seventeenth century colony of New Netherland (later New York), which were worked by small farmers for a portion of what they produced (think early sharecropping). Van Ryn invites his “cousin” Miranda Wells, a young country lass from Connecticut, to be governess to his young daughter. When she arrives at Dragonwyck, she senses strange goings on and when Van Ryn’s wife mysteriously dies, he asks Miranda to marry him. All is fine until their firstborn, a male child so desperately wanted by its father, dies shortly after his birth.



Tierney is breathtaking as always. One of the biggest non musical stars at 20th Century-Fox during the mid 40’s, her cool glamour is apparent as it is in so many roles she played during the period. She had just reached a career high the previous year with her Oscar nomination for her starring role in Leave Her to Heaven, and the plum dramatic roles on the Fox lot were being offered to her. Co-star Vincent Price, though not billed above the title, garnered one of his rare starring parts during his tenure at Fox, though the role of Nicholas Van Ryn was first slated for newcomer Gregory Peck, but Peck bowed out and eventually, Price was cast. His creepy, eerily manipulative Van Ryn is a foreshadowing of the definitive characters for which he would become famous in later life.

One important note about the movie is that it marks the directorial debut of intelligent screenwriter Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who would go on to win Oscars for A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve , both also at 20th Century-Fox. Already writing the script for Dragonwyck, he was called on to direct when scheduled director Ernst Lubitsch became ill. Atmospheric and rich in historic texture, it is a respectable first effort and a memorable film. Excellent support comes in the form of Glenn Langan, as a handsome doctor who falls in love with Gene, Walter Huston and Anne Revere as Tierney’s God-fearing parents, Spring Byington as the wise but giddy housekeeper of Dragonwyck and in a small and early role, Jessica Tandy as an Irish maid.

17 comments:

  1. I've never seen this - but you make it sound so exciting - I hope Turner shows it soon!

    Thanks for the heads up - I'll keep a watch out for it.

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  2. Mankiewicz would go on to direct Tierney again the following year in one of my all time favorite films "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir."

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  3. One of my favorite early Vincent Price movies. It seems like a viewer was never able to fully trust him after this movie...even in films where he was a good guy, you couldn't help but think "something's afoot."

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  4. I loved Vincent Price's performance in this film. I guess I underappreciated him before that. But he is tremendous in Dragonwyck, and when he is not on the screen you sorta wait for him to appear.

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  5. I saw this two months ago on TCM. Vincent Price was wonderful in this movie.

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  6. Can't figure out how it is that I've never seen this movie! I read the book years ago, so the gothic suspense plot is right up my alley. And I love to watch Gene Tierney and Vincent Price ;)

    Thank you for posting this!

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  7. Sheesh, who didn't sleep with JFK! Too bad she suffered over him. Dragonwyck is one of my fave Gene Tierney films - I loved the book when I was young.

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  8. I just gave you a blog award. Hop onover to Silver Screen Dream to see it!

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  9. Thanks Maggie! You're a peach, I'll be posting it soon. Thanks fellow classic movie lover.

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  10. "His creepy, eerily manipulative Van Ryn is a foreshadowing of the definitive characters for which he would become famous in later life."

    It was in late 1941 that he'd had a huge, surprise hit on Broadway in "Angel Street"-- twice filmed as "Gaslight"--playing the creepy, eerily manipulative husband of Miss Lonelyhearts herself, Judith Evelyn.

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  11. Terrific post. I recorded this film today since (1) I've never seen it and (b) it's one of my Fifty Years/Fifty Films over in my little corner of blogger. I will be sure to link to your excellent observations, as well.

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  12. Wonderful post. I just watched the movie yesterday after taping it on my DVR. I had read the book in high school but never seen the movie. Vincent Price was magnificent and Gene Tierney was excellent as well. I also thought the sets and costumes were beautiful and period appropriate.

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  13. I actually purchased this video when I bought, "Laura," because you suggested it at the bottom of your blog about "Laura." I watched it yesterday, and it was amazing! It has that, "Fall of the House of Usher" feel to it. I love the history, the mystery, the deception and the diabolical intrigue. I never once suspected Price's character of being a drug addict! When he sarcastically said to Miranda that she probably thought the tower room was where he performed his satanic rituals, I was actually expecting to find something just that creepy. Thank you so much for the suggestion!

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  14. Separately Price and Tierney are creepy enough; I don't know if the hairs on the back of my neck could take a film with both of them in it.

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  15. Thanks for introducing this genre movie. I will watch it as soon. Thanks again.

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  16. I adore Vincent Price.

    ALWAYS looked as though he was having the time of his life.

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    1. I think he was too. I remember him on Carson, and he love to cook, paint and write poetry. Was a happy man:)

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