Capital Celluloid 2024 — Day 106: Mon Apr 15

Dragonwyck (Mankiewicz, 1946): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 8.40pm

This film (screening from a 4K restoration) is part of the Gene Tierney season at BFI Southbank and also screens on April 18th and March 30th. Full details here.

Time Out review:
Joseph L. Mankiewicz's directing debut is a far cry from the acerbically scripted satires - A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve - for which he is best known; indeed, though it inhabits basically the same Gothic territory as his later The Ghost and Mrs Muir, it lacks that film's charm, easy wit and ambivalent psychological insights. Still, it's an efficient enough drama in the tradition of Rebecca, with innocent young Gene Tierney leaving her rural home to stay with wealthy and sophisticated cousin Vincent Price. Needless to say, she marries him only to discover that he's a cruel, brooding tyrant who maltreats his workers and has a sinister skeleton in his closet. Few surprises, but the performances are vivid and the recreation of the 1840s setting is subtly plausible.
Geoff Andrew

Here (and above) is the trailer.

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