Dragonwyck (1946)
Posted: October 26th, 2009, 2:28 pm
Dragonwyck (1946), directed by Joseph Mankiewicz is one of those Gene Tierney movies I've watched, but always wonder why afterwards. I love Walter Huston and Anne Revere in anything, think that Tierney could be very good when a performance could be coaxed from her, and have always enjoyed Vincent Price, though I never believed anything he did on screen was realistic. It's interesting to see Mankiewicz learning his trade as a director (hope he wrote cinematographer Arthur Miller a nice thank you note for his beautiful visual work in this film, not to mention Lyle Wheeler and company in the art dept. at Fox). The plot is most interesting when it dwells on Tierney's innocent but irrepressible desire to explore the world, even when her education includes regret and physical danger when she lands in a world far more narrow than the one she left behind on her Connecticut farm.
Do you think that the artist assigned to this poster had ever seen Gene Tierney? I don't think this looks anything like her, do you?
The whole idea of a form of feudalism under a patroon surviving in the Hudson Valley now seems so alien, but in the film that skein of the story was far more intriguing to me than Price's possible madness and the bland suitor (Glenn Langan, a new candidate for "the dullest man in shoe leather" award), who loves Tierney from afar.
A beautifully photographed scene in the home of Tierney's family, emphasizing the coziness and some sense of oppression thanks to that looming ceiling bearing down on Walter Huston, Anne Revere, Gene Tierney and Vincent Price.
Almost all of Joe Mankiewicz's movies have women trying to shape their own lives against the odds, but this one just didn't entirely convince me of the leading character's ability to achieve this goal. Yet, I kept longing for the sharp writing and wit so typical of Mank and his brother, Herman's screenplays, which never seems to emerge here. Everyone seems weighed down by the gothic elements of the story...or is it just me?
Thanks in advance for any comments you might add here about this movie. Below is the first part of Dragonwyck, (the whole movie can be seen on youtube and will probably pop up again on TCM and FMC). I really like these first scenes, which begin the movie so well...but, of course Huston and Revere figure prominently in this sequence, so naturally I thought the initial beginning was great, (don't miss the very funny fusspot Grady Sutton in an uncredited bit as the clerk at the hotel). Just wish the movie as a whold paid off a bit better
[youtube][/youtube]
Do you think that the artist assigned to this poster had ever seen Gene Tierney? I don't think this looks anything like her, do you?
The whole idea of a form of feudalism under a patroon surviving in the Hudson Valley now seems so alien, but in the film that skein of the story was far more intriguing to me than Price's possible madness and the bland suitor (Glenn Langan, a new candidate for "the dullest man in shoe leather" award), who loves Tierney from afar.
A beautifully photographed scene in the home of Tierney's family, emphasizing the coziness and some sense of oppression thanks to that looming ceiling bearing down on Walter Huston, Anne Revere, Gene Tierney and Vincent Price.
Almost all of Joe Mankiewicz's movies have women trying to shape their own lives against the odds, but this one just didn't entirely convince me of the leading character's ability to achieve this goal. Yet, I kept longing for the sharp writing and wit so typical of Mank and his brother, Herman's screenplays, which never seems to emerge here. Everyone seems weighed down by the gothic elements of the story...or is it just me?
Thanks in advance for any comments you might add here about this movie. Below is the first part of Dragonwyck, (the whole movie can be seen on youtube and will probably pop up again on TCM and FMC). I really like these first scenes, which begin the movie so well...but, of course Huston and Revere figure prominently in this sequence, so naturally I thought the initial beginning was great, (don't miss the very funny fusspot Grady Sutton in an uncredited bit as the clerk at the hotel). Just wish the movie as a whold paid off a bit better
[youtube][/youtube]