Joseph L. Mankiewicz's

Dragonwyck

Anya Seton published Dragonwyck in 1945. This bestselling novel falls into an important literary tradition where female characters with little wealth or social standing marry into superficially improved situations, but confront many challenges. The archetypal novel of this kind is Jane Eyre by Emily Brontë, and another important precursor is Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. One moral of these stories might be, "be careful what you wish for."

The men who marry our heroines are attractive, romantic, and mysterious, and the mystery which surrounds them possibly conceals evil intentions. Edward Rochester hides the secret of his first wife from Jane Eyre, and Maxim de Winter murdered his faithless first wife Rebecca, a secret he hides from the faithful second Mrs. de Winter, who narrates Rebecca. Rebecca's fatally-loyal housekeeper Mrs. Danvers is far more menacing than Maxim.

Supernatural overtones are completely absent from Jane Eyre, and although there are no explicit supernatural manifestations in Rebecca, the second Mrs. de Winter is clearly "haunted" by the memory and strong personality of Rebecca de Winter. In Dragonwyck, Nicholas van Ryn and his daughter Katrine are haunted by their ancestor, the unloved Anneald. Her ghost occasionally plays the Dragonwyck harpsichord, always an omen of impending disaster, which only Nicholas and Katrine can hear.

In Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1946 film, the picture of the manor shown behind the titles reflects the art on the book jacket, depicting a very large Dutch colonial mansion with the characteristic stepped gables, suggestive of Washington Irving's home Sunnyside. The matte painting presented later is significantly more gothic-revival looking, with the high tower which figures prominently in the plot. The film was Mankiewicz's first as a director. He was brought in initially to work on the script which had already been produced by the first director Ernst Lubitsch, a master of sophisticated comedy. When Mankiewicz replaced Lubitsch as director, Lubitsch had his name taken off the screenplay. Alfred Newman, head of Fox's music department, wrote the score. Arthur C. Miller was director of photography.

Dragonwyck is set during New York State's anti-rent wars of 1839-1846. Dutch land grants established several large patroonships in the colony of New Netherlands, including the Bronx, Staaten Island, and Van Rensselaerswyck, which included the land around Albany, Troy, and Schenectady. Van Rensselaerswyck was the largest and most successful patroonship, and the only one still in existence during the period of the novel. In exchange for settling a certain number of families on their land, patroons received the land and exercised feudal rights over their domains. They retained vast tracts of agricultural lands after British annexation and American independence. Part of the original van Rensselaer grant extended into western Massachusetts, and their agents successfully—and illegally—collected rents there, though not continuously and not too often. New York's anti-Masonic governor John Young proposed and successfully enacted land reforms to put these large estates in the hands of their occupants. The van Rensselaers socialize regularly with the fictional van Ryns. Dragonwyck is situated near Hudson, New York, on the river's east bank.

Van Rensselaerwyck lasted so long as an intact estate because the last patroon was extremely generous in allowing his tenants extensions and reductions in their rents. As a result, he was particularly beloved, but when he died, his will divided the estate among several heirs and directed that all his debts be settled immediately, necessitating an unprecedented rent payment, for which few tenants were prepared. The anti-Masonic party came into being after a disgruntled Masonic official threatened to reveal lodge secrets. When he disappeared and was presumed murdered, John Young was elected governor on a promise to prosecute the murderers, but nothing ever came of this, and Freemasonry was never actually suppressed or persecuted in New York.

The Welleses, Abbigail (Anne Revere) and Ephraim (Walter Huston), are prosperous farmers in Greenwich, Connecticut. Their oldest daughter, Miranda (Gene Tierney), daydreams over romantic fiction and is considered flighty and troublesome by her highly religious and upright father. They receive a letter from a distant cousin, Nicholas van Ryn (Vincent Price), the patroon of Dragonwyck, inviting one of their daughters for an extended visit as a companion and tutor for his child Katrine (Connie Marshall). Miranda overcomes her father's misgivings, and Ephraim accompanies her to New York, where they are met by Nicholas at the Astor House Hotel. Nicholas conducts Miranda up the Hudson by steamboat.

Nicholas's wife Joanna (Vivienne Osborne) is obsessed with food. She was a highly-desired heiress who was somewhat older than Nicholas. After bearing Katrine she cannot have more children, depriving Nicholas of the male heir he feels his station in life requires and entitles him to. In the novel, Joanna is both morbidly obese and intentionally cruel to Miranda—Nicholas's lack of affection for his wife motivates Joanna's cruelty toward Miranda. The novel also makes clear that Joanna is not naturally unfeeling, but responds to Miranda as a rival for Nicholas's affections. Ironically, Nicholas's rather noble sympathy for Miranda, triggered by his wife's shabby treatment of his cousin, becomes the start of more serious feelings on his part.

Joanna becomes ill, and Nicholas uncharacteristically relies on Dr. Jeff Turner (Glenn Langan), leader of the local anti-rent faction, to care for her. She dies under his care. Miranda returns to Greenwich, but Nicholas visits after a period of mourning and proposes to her. She returns to Dragonwyck as his wife. Initially Nicholas and Miranda are truly in love, though she is troubled and offended by his contempt for religion and lack of compassion for her slightly disabled maid Peggy (Jessica Tandy). The Van Ryns argue before Miranda reveals that she is going to have a child. Nicholas is overjoyed to receive a son, but the boy is born with a heart defect and lives only a few weeks. Though there is no reason why Miranda cannot bear more children, Nicholas becomes increasingly distant, and spends most of his time locked in his tower room.

In truncating the novel's action several historical events which Anya Seton worked into the novel are deleted. These include the Astor Place riot, the burning of the Hudson River steamboat Eagle, and a visit to Edgar Allen Poe. The Astor Place riot occurred in 1849 over rival British and American Shakespearean actors performing in competing New York venues. An unruly mob threatened to burn down the building where the British actor was performing. They were dispersed by militia, killing 22-31 demonstrators. In the novel, Nicholas and Miranda attend this play while staying at the Astor House. A young boy from the mob douses Nicholas with water, and Nicholas responds by grabbing a rifle out of a soldier's hands and shooting the boy in the throat. This incident is left out of the film, an omission which makes Nicholas far more sympathetic and Miranda seem far less passive in staying with him—by this time in the novel she wants to leave him but is afraid to do so.

The steamship Henry Clay burned on the Hudson in 1852. She had been racing the Armenia, but the captain of the Armenia had wisely broken off the race after the two ships had a minor collision jockeying for priority in docking at Kingston. The Henry Clay continued downriver at high speed toward New York City and caught fire near Riverdale. Her pilot grounded the ship on the riverbank, enabling passengers on the bow to jump to shore, but passengers trapped on the stern were over 100 feet from shore in deep and fast-running water. Many were rescued by the Armenia, but 80 died, including Nathaniel Hawthorne's sister and a former mayor of New York City. Seton took many of the details of the novel's climactic race from this actual incident. In the novel Nicholas is a part owner of the river boat and encourages the captain to race recklessly. When the Eagle catches fire, Nicholas first rescues Miranda, then some more passengers, and dies attempting further rescues. Allowing a villain such a heroic death was problematic under the production code, so the whole ending was rewritten for the film.

Edgar Allen Poe was born in Baltimore, but spent his last years in Fordam in the Bronx, mysteriously dying in Baltimore in 1849. Nicholas and Miranda visit Poe and his wife Virginia because Nicholas admires his poetry. Virginia Poe died of tuberculosis in 1847. Seton depicts Poe as an alcoholic and opium addict, both possible but unproven. Nicholas concludes that opium is the source of Poe's literary and artistic insight, though he is also quick to condemn the poet as a weakling and disappointment. This episode is simply left out of the film.

Gene Tierney was Fox's principal leading lady of the forties, starring in Otto Preminger's Laura (1944), from the novel by Vera Caspary, the classic film noir Leave Her to Heaven (1945), The Razor's Edge (1946), from the novel by W. Somerset Maugham, and playing Princess Baketamon in The Egyptian (1954), the third film in CinemaScope, from the novel by Mika Waltari. She retired after The Egyptian but returned briefly to star as a Washington hostess in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent (1962), from the novel by Alan Drury.

Walter Huston was John Huston's father, and starred in William Wyler's Dodsworth (1936), from the novel by Sinclair Lewis, and John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948). His last film was Anthony Mann's The Furies (1950) with Barbara Stanwyck. John Huston always wanted to star his father as Captain Ahab in Moby Dick, but he was unable to arrange financing until after his father's death. Gregory Peck played the role instead. Peck was originally planned for the role of Nicholas van Ryn.

Vincent Price made his first big impression on stage as Prince Albert in the Broadway production of Laurence Houseman's Victoria Regina opposite Helen Hayes. He was first signed to Universal, where he played the Duke of Clarence in Tower of London (1939), killed by Basil Rathbone. While still at Universal he also starred in The House of the Seven Gables (1940), a version of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel. He also played the first Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith, in Brigham Young (1940). He enjoyed playing villains for the visibly negative response he could elicit on stage—audiences would actually hiss him, which meant undeniably he was succeeding as an actor. Dragonwyck is not a straight horror film, but years later, after many horror and science fiction film such as House of Wax (1953) for Andre de Toth, and the Edgar Allen Poe films for Roger Corman, Dragonwyck would always be looked on as Price's first memorable role as a horror villain.

Glenn Langan was being groomed as a possible successor to such Fox leading men as Tyrone Power and Dana Andrews. Unfortunately, although he gave a series of strong performances in Fox A pictures throughout the late 1940s, his star never rose. His last and most memorable performance was in Bert I. Gordon's execrable schlockfest The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), where he is sadly quite wasted in an inferior vehicle.

Anne Revere, a descendant of Paul Revere, was one of Hollywood's most recognizable character actors. She was blacklisted as a communist after 1950, a charge she always denied. She plays Gregory Peck's mother in Gentleman's Agreement (1947), Mongomery Clift's mother in George Stevens's A Place in the Sun (1951), and a villainous medium in The Devil Commands (1941) with Boris Karloff.

Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz went on to make The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), A Letter to Three Wives (1949), All About Eve (1950), Julius Caesar (1953), and Cleopatra (1963).