Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 0 DVD:it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ),WIDESCREEN, SYNOPSIS: In 1844, farmer's daughter Miranda Wells is invited by Nicholas Van Ryn, distant relation, to live in his mansion as companion to his daughter. Arriving in high hopes, Miranda finds the Van Ryns a bit strange. The parents barely know daughter Katrine; Nicholas faces a revolt of his tenant farmers; the servants hint darkly of curses and visitations. And what does Nicholas really do up in his tower room?-Years before he became the leading star in horror movies, Vincent Price starred in this gothic thriller based on the best-selling novel by Anya Seton. Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price) is a wealthy Dutch immigrant living in New York's Hudson Valley in the 1840s. Nicholas has come to hate his wife because she has been unable to give him a son; their only child is a daughter he doesn't care for. Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), a distant relative of the Van Ryns, comes to live at their estate and work as an au pair girl; Nicholas becomes infatuated with her and eventually poisons his wife so they can marry. However, while Miranda gives birth to a son, the boy is sickly and does not live to adulthood. Nicholas begins to slip into insanity, moving to the attic of his mansion and drowning his sorrows in drugs. A distraught Miranda seeks the counsel of the local doctor, Dr. Jeff Turner (Jeff Langan); Dr. Turner falls in love with Miranda, and he eventually discovers that Nicholas killed his first wife to be with her, and that Miranda might be next on the madman's list. Dragonwyck was the directorial debut of screenwriter and producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #137236 in DVD
• Formats: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 103 minutes

Features

• THIS DVD WILL NOT WORK ON STANDARD US DVD PLAYER

Customer Reviews

Release This In America Now!!!
This smoldering, sensual Gothic combines a haunting score, moody atmosphere, and an almost hypnotic early performance by a young, good-looking Vincent Price.

Innocent country girl Miranda (Gene Tierney) is astonished to find she is kin to the rich Van Ryn clan. Invited to visit their splendid mansion, Miranda is immediately entranced by the dark-eyed, seductive Nicholas, the master of the house called "Dragonwyck."

Small touches make the film work -- Price's voice is satin smooth, but his possessive looks and attentive manners also spell out the fact that his interest in his "little country cousin" is much more than innocent.

With her sensual face and luminous gaze, Tierney is ideal at showing a girl's transition from wide-eyed innocent to adoring wife, and her agony at discovering Nicholas' true nature is mesmerizing and heart breaking. The gothic horrors of the story are a convincing metaphor for one young girl's sensual awakening.

Release this film at once! American Gothic fans are tired of just leafing through the original "DRAGONWYCK" novel, written by Anya Seton in 1944.

ends in tears
Better than average Vincent Price fare.
Characterization well developed.
Excellent gothic effects.
A sad ending (as usual) for Vincent Price's character, Nicholas Van Ryn (ruin).

JOSEPH L. MANKIEWICZ, OPUS 1
**** 1946. Written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, this film is an adaptation of Anya Seton's Dragonwyck. New-York state, 1844. The last descendant of an old Dutch family marries a farmer girl with the hope that she will give him a son. A gothic drama that already contains some of Mankiewicz's favorite themes. If you own a DVD player that can read zone 2 DVD's, go to Amazon.fr and choose the Mankiewicz box set released by Carlotta films. Apart of DRAGONWYCK, this set also contains 5 Fingers and A Letter to Three Wives. The quality of these DVD's is excellent and the featurettes highly informative. The box set also contains a long interview with Joseph L. Mankiewicz who talks about his impressive career in Hollywood.