Obvious attempt to follow the very successful footsteps of 1940."Rebecca" and 1943."Jane Eyre" this Twentieth Century-Fox costume extravaganza is another costume drama that throws naive young governess into cobwebs of a impressive manor where she is welcomed by candle waving housekeeper and intimidating landlord. Based on novel by than very popular Anya Seton, it has very small variations on theme (story is set in United States, the girl is not a governess but a "companion" to some spooky child, etc) but by now we more or less know what to expect and even though the script brims with potentially effective sidelines, these were never really explored because focus is on pretty heroine who is mostly twirling around and exclaiming "Golly Moses".
Gene Tierney of course, was one of the Hollywood's most celebrated screen beauties and she was very pretty to look at indeed, but this role didn't exactly give her much else to do besides being gullible country girl who dreams of escaping her parent's Connecticut farm because she "wants to see the world". Once she sees the world, it all comes down to wearing pretty dresses and giving orders to servants, basically she is still locked up inside of the house except that now this is life of luxury so its OK. Her stern parents (excellent Walter Huston and Anne Revere) are far more interesting characters but they are quickly removed from the scene, because they represent everything Tierney wants to run away from, after all they read family Bible, never dance waltzes and cook their meals on a simple open fire, which can't compare with porcelain dinner table in Dragonwyck Manor. Housekeeper is creepy, the wife (Vivienne Osborne) high strung and the child sleepwalks but Tierney can't care less because now she can run up and down the stairs in a new dresses - that snobbish society don't exactly welcome her is just a slight annoyance, she is like some distant relative of Crystal from "Dynasty", kind of out of her depth here in all this wealth but sure she could get used to it and learn which forks to use.
Even with this beautiful woman constantly parading her frocks and locks, our attention inevitably wanders off towards the charismatic owner of Dragonwyck who is no else but very young and surprisingly suave Vincent Price. He is captured here at the very interesting crossroads in his career as from here he could easily go into direction of becoming next matinée idol but there was some darkness suggesting other possibilities and sure, next thing you know, he became horror icon. Once Tierney arrives in Dragonwyck, the script follows predictable routes and we can more or less guess each next step, so there are no big surprises here. Its all done with a obviously huge budget and wrapped in a grand cellophane, but lacks the spark and originality of its predecessors. Besides Price, the main attraction is lovely Jessica Tandy (a lifetime before "Titanic") as Irish servant girl with a heart of gold.
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