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The directorial debut of the Joseph L Mankiewicz (All About Eve, Suddenly, Last Summer), Dragonwyck is a glorious melding of Gothic chills and baroque melodrama, and is now making its UK Blu-ray debut on 22 April 2019 from Indicator.
Connecticut farm girl Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney) finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy of madness, murder and intrigue after she agrees to become governess and nurse to the family of her distant cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price).
Echoing Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), and reuniting stars Tierney and Price for the third time in as many years, having previously starred together in Laura (1944), and Leave Her to Heaven (1945), Dragonwyck is a magnificently creepy chiller with a career-defining performance by Price, luminous cinematography by the legendary Arthur C Miller, and a wonderful Alfred Newman score.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
• Alternative feature presentations: the High Definition remaster and the new 4K restoration
• Original mono audio
• Interview with Vincent Price: The actor in conversation at London’s National Film Theatre as part of the John Player Lecture Series (recorded 9 November 1969)
• Audio commentary with film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker Constantine Nasr (this informative commentary about the making of the film is based on the US DVD release produced by Nasr. It’s well-researched – especially on the cast and crew – and Haberman and Nasr make it a pleasure to listen to)
• A House of Secrets – Exploring Dragonwyck (2008, 17min). This archival featurette includes comments from Lucy Chase Williams, Steve Haberman, Jonathan Rigby, Stephen Jones and Tom Mankiewicz (Spoiler alert! Don’t watch this until you have seen the film)
• Lux Radio Theatre – Dragonwyck (1946, 60min): radio dramatisation, starring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney (LISTEN TO IT IN FULL HERE)
• The Screen Guild Theater – Dragonwyck (1947, 30min): radio broadcast, starring Vincent Price and Teresa Wright
• Isolated Music & Effects Track
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery: with loads of on-set and promotional photography that even I haven’t seen before (wonderful)
• New and improved English subtitles
• Collector’s booklet with a new essay by Neil Sinyard, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
READ MORE ABOUT DRAGONWYCK HERE
