The Wind in the Hollows
Dragonwyck (1946)
directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Maybe it’s the witchcraft in the comic books I’m reading, or shades of Vincent Price rounding up devil-worshipers much later in his life. Maybe it’s the Hudson River Valley, ripe for stories of ghosts who meander like fog in deep woods. What is superficially a Victorian-era Gothic tale of madness transplanted to the settlements of wealthy Dutch landowners in New York retains just enough wildness to imply another, more frightening film entirely. Gene Tierney is far less convincing as an ingénue than a sexually rapacious opium addict, but the physical presence of her youthful beauty is enough to contrast the dim interiors and ill temper of a haunted mansion and its heir.
But that throne in the woods, where indentured farmers gather to pay fealty to Price, suggests a more barbaric ritual - something brought over from the Old World to the new, preserved in ancient incantations, and performed to ensure the longevity of a dark and cruel line of powerful men. Instead of a twisted but still Romantic ode to democracy, hard work, and the common man, Mankiewicz’s directorial debut could have been an early Night of the Demon, or something stranger. It is difficult, in thinking on that region’s history, not to be reminded of all the blood spilled there in the earlier years of our country. There are stories yet to tell and spirits to call back into being.
directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Maybe it’s the witchcraft in the comic books I’m reading, or shades of Vincent Price rounding up devil-worshipers much later in his life. Maybe it’s the Hudson River Valley, ripe for stories of ghosts who meander like fog in deep woods. What is superficially a Victorian-era Gothic tale of madness transplanted to the settlements of wealthy Dutch landowners in New York retains just enough wildness to imply another, more frightening film entirely. Gene Tierney is far less convincing as an ingénue than a sexually rapacious opium addict, but the physical presence of her youthful beauty is enough to contrast the dim interiors and ill temper of a haunted mansion and its heir.
But that throne in the woods, where indentured farmers gather to pay fealty to Price, suggests a more barbaric ritual - something brought over from the Old World to the new, preserved in ancient incantations, and performed to ensure the longevity of a dark and cruel line of powerful men. Instead of a twisted but still Romantic ode to democracy, hard work, and the common man, Mankiewicz’s directorial debut could have been an early Night of the Demon, or something stranger. It is difficult, in thinking on that region’s history, not to be reminded of all the blood spilled there in the earlier years of our country. There are stories yet to tell and spirits to call back into being.
posted by NPK at 6:45 AM
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