Too much of everything

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

In 1844, the Wells family lives in a small farm of their own in Greenwich, Connecticut and the sons and daughters have a rigid discipline and religious education from the patriarch Ephraim Wells (Walter Huston). When his wife Abigail Wells (Anne Revere) receives a letter from her wealthy distant cousin Nicholas "Nick" Van Ryn (Vincent Price) inviting one of her daughters to live with his wife Johanna Van Ryn (Vivienne Osborne) and him nursing their daughter Katrine Van Ryn (Connie Marshall), the naive Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney) gets excited with the perspective of traveling. Her mother convinces Ephraim to let her go and Miranda travels with her father to New York. They meet Nick and they learn that he is a patroon of farmers at the Hudson Valley. Then Miranda travels to the Dragonwyck mansion where she is introduced to the voracious Johanna and the sweet Katrine and to the housekeeper Magda (Spring Byington). Miranda also meets Dr. Jeff Turner (Glenn Langan), who is a sort of leader of the farmers that work for Nicholas, in a party and befriends him. Soon she notes that Katrine is neglected by her parents. When Johanna gets mysteriously ill and dies, Miranda returns home. But the atheistic Nick visits her family to propose to marry her. Now Miranda's dream comes true and she gets married with him and moves to Dragonwyck. Will they live happily ever after?"Dragonwyck" is the debut of Joseph L. Mankiewicz as director. The screenplay also by Mankiewicz is based on a successful novel by Anya Seton with modification in the ending. The cinematography By Arthur C. Miller and the music score by Alfred Newman call the attention of the viewer since the very beginning. The Gothic romance with supernatural touches shows the confrontation between an atheistic arrogant man and his naive religious wife. The performance of Vincent Price is top-notch and the gorgeous Gene Tierney performs a naive character but with strong principles. Walter Huston, despite a secondary role, is also amazing. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Solar de Dragonwyck" ("The Manor of Dragonwyck")

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.

Set in the year 1844, Dragonwyck, from my point of view, was nothing but a silly piece of overwrought, melodramatic fluff.Regardless of it having an expensively polished look to it, Dragonwyck (from 1946) was worthless trash that was obviously being backed by big, Hollywood bucks. Pairing the frigid beauty, Gene Tierney, with the effeminate, Vincent Price, as a pair of hot, on-screen lovers, was a gross miscalculation that clearly reduced Dragonwyck's romantic angle to the level of being downright laughable and ludicrous.These two marginally talented actors couldn't have been more mismatched and unconvincing as a couple of passion-starved sweethearts had they both deliberately gone out of their way to persuade me that they secretly loathed each other with the burning fire of vehemence.Dragonwyck's disappointingly trite and predictable, little story tells the tale of the common, pretty, god-fearing, farm girl, Miranda Wells from Greenwich, Connecticut, who, one day (right out of the blue) is suddenly invited to come to the luxuriously vast estate of her distant cousin, the rich, pompous and pretentious dandy, Nicholas Van Ryn, in order to be a companion to his somewhat strange and melancholy, 8 year-old daughter, Katrine, whom he and his sickly, ever-complaining wife, Johanna, have absolutely no time, nor any love, for.Once Miranda arrives at Van Ryn's vast and ominous mansion known as "Dragonwyck" (this name is never explained), in order to fulfill her duties, that's when this film (regardless of its visual sumptuousness) quickly loses large quantities of steam and fails to even come close to living up to its intended potential and its dramatic clout. Filmed in b&w, Dragonwyck's 100-minute running time seemed more to me like 100 hours.This film did not contain one, single, likable character. And Gene Tierney, though pretty, was clearly too old to be passed off as being a believable 18 year-old.

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.