DRAGONWYCK (1946)

Dragonwyck(1946). Period/drama. Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Producer: Darryl F. Zanuck and Ernst Lubitsch. Based on the novel Dragonwyck by Anya Seton. Music score: Alfred Newman. Cinematography: Arthur C. Miller. Cast: Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price, with Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Harry Morgan and Jessica Tandy.

Dragonwyck, is one of those films that would lose it's moody atmosphere if it were in color. I thought Vincent Price did an outstanding performance in one of his first films. The story starts as the innocent farmers daughter Miranda (Gene Tierney), excited to learn that she is related to the rich Van Ryn. And is being invited to visit their beautiful mansion to take care of his young daughter.. Miranda is instantly attracted to the handsome Nicholas, the owner of "Dragonwyck". Mean while, Nicholas busy fighting off a revolt of his tenant farmers and coming up with a plan to get rid of his wife. (Because she has not given him a son.) Miranda moves back home with her parents after the wife's death. Not long... Nicholas comes for her and they marry and Miranda gives birth to a son, the boy is not healthy and does not live. Nicholas begins to slip into insanity, moving to the attic of his mansion to live in his world of drug addiction..

A broken hearted Miranda looks for help from the the local doctor, Dr. Jeff Turner (Jeff Langan). Dr. Turner falls in love with Miranda, and he eventually learns that Nicholas killed his first wife to be with her, and he fears that Miranda might be next on the list.
Dragonwyck Movie Trailer.

FUN FACTS:


Gregory Peck was the first choice to play Nicholas Van Ryn, but he bowed out when he learned Ernst Lubisch was dropping out as director. When second choice Laird Cregar died, Price was assigned.


Vincent Price lost 30 lbs. for the film.

It is a fictional story of Miranda Wells and her marriage to Nicholas Van Ryn, set against an historical background of the Anti-Rent Wars, the Astor Place Riots, and steamboat racing on the Hudson River.

The book focuses on Miranda Wells: her longing for her rich cousin Nicholas Van Ryn and her marriage to him and her discovery of her husband's dark and twisted life.

The novel was adapted into the film Dragonwyck, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price.