# Dragonwyck (film)

Dragonwyck is a 1946 American period drama film made by Twentieth Century-Fox. It was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Ernst Lubitsch (uncredited), from a screenplay by Mankiewicz, based on the novel Dragonwyck by Anya Seton. The music score was by Alfred Newman, and the cinematography by Arthur C. Miller. The film stars Gene Tierney, Walter Huston, and Vincent Price.

## Plot

In 1844 Greenwich, Connecticut, Miranda Wells, a farm girl raised by strait-laced low church parents, often daydreams of a romantic and luxurious life. Miranda's mother receives a letter from their distant cousin Nicholas Van Ryn, a wealthy patroon in Hudson, New York. Miranda persuades her parents to allow her travel to Nicholas' manor, Dragonwyck, to be a companion to his eight-year-old daughter, Katrine. Miranda gradually learns that Nicholas and his wife Johanna are estranged from each other and from their daughter. Servants claim the Van Ryn bloodline is cursed as only they can hear a harpsichord played by an ancestral ghost whenever misfortune befalls the family.
While secretly attending the tenant farmers' Kermesse with Katrine, Miranda meets Anti-Rent supporter, Dr. Jeff Turner. Miranda also witnesses Nicholas evicting farmer Klaas Bleecker for refusing to participate in the annual rent-paying ceremony. A few days later, Klaas is accused of murder. Nicholas grudgingly agrees to Turner's request that the farmer be given a fair trial, in return for which he insists the doctor attend to his ailing wife, Johanna. Although Johanna is diagnosed with a simple cold, she dies unexpectedly of acute gastritis after eating cake.
Nicholas tells Miranda he was unhappy that Johanna was unable to bear him a son after Katrine's birth left her unable to have more children. He also admits having romantic feelings for Miranda. She reciprocates his feelings, but returns to Greenwich. Two months later, Nicholas arrives and proposes marriage. Miranda's parents, Ephraim and Abigail, reluctantly consent. Nicholas is thrilled when Miranda becomes pregnant soon after the wedding, but they quarrel over her simple faith in a God as the semi-feudal system of patroon land ownership and tenancy crumbles around him. When their infant son dies immediately after being baptized, a heartbroken and embittered Nicholas isolates himself in the attic and becomes a drug addict. Peg O'Malley, Miranda's loyal maid, fears for Miranda's life and calls upon Dr. Turner for help.
Turner arrives as Nicholas is suffering a psychotic episode characterized by auditory hallucinations. He realizes Nicholas fatally poisoned Johanna. Nicholas implies he is plotting Miranda's murder. He lunges at Turner, and the two brawl with the younger Turner ultimately knocking Nicholas out. Peggy spirits Miranda away for safety.
An increasingly volatile and dangerous Nicholas grabs a pistol and goes to the Kermesse grounds in an attempt to revive patroonal authority by restoring old rituals of tenancy. Turner arrives with the tenant farmers, the mayor, and the sheriff, to arrest Nicholas for his first wife's murder. When Nicholas reaches for his gun, he is fatally shot.
Turner escorts Miranda to her family's Greenwich farm. As they part, Turner, who previously attempted to court Miranda, asks to see her again. She agrees that he may.

## Cast

* Gene Tierney as Miranda Wells
* Vincent Price as Nicholas van Ryn
* Walter Huston as Ephraim Wells
* Glenn Langan as Dr. Jeff Turner
* Anne Revere as Abigail Wells
* Spring Byington as Magda
* Connie Marshall as Katrine Van Ryn
* Harry Morgan as Bleecker (credited as Henry Morgan)
* Jessica Tandy as Peggy
* Vivienne Osborne as Johanna Van Ryn
* Trudy Marshall as Elizabeth Van Borden
* Larry Steers as Servant (uncredited)
* Grady Sutton as Hotel Clerk (uncredited)

## Production notes

Gregory Peck was the first choice for Nicholas Van Ryn. Ernst Lubitsch was to direct, but became ill, pre-production was delayed, and Peck dropped out.

## Reception

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times said: "... Twentieth Century-Fox has fashioned a grand and gloomy mansion as the scene, and has inhabited it with a haughty master of aristocratic Dutch descent. ... Vincent Price gives a picturesque performance as the regal and godless patroon, using his face and his carriage to demonstrate insolence, that's all. Clean shaven and elegantly tailored, he still makes a formidable Bluebeard, and his moments of suave diabolism are about the best in the film. Gene Tierney is fairly ornamental in the role of the tortured child bride, but she plainly creates no more character than the meager script provides. Of the several lesser characters, Walter Huston is most credible as the forthright, God-fearing father of the cardboard heroine."
The film premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City on April 10, 1946, and grossed $109,000 in its first week. The following week it became the number one film in the United States after opening in Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St Louis and Seattle with a total of $277,000 for the week in the markets covered by Variety.
It was the 37th top grosser in the United States and Canada for the year with theatrical rentals of $3 million.

## Adaptations to other media

Dragonwyck was adapted as an hour-long radio play on the October 7, 1946 broadcast of Lux Radio Theater, starring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney. It was dramatized as a half-hour radio play on the January 20, 1947, broadcast of The Screen Guild Theater, starring Vincent Price and Teresa Wright.