Today's story is complicated, but basically, a Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion. What happens next gets interesting real fast...
It stars Vincent (THE MAN!) Price as Nicholas Van Ryn, Gene (THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR) Tierney as Miranda Wells, Glenn (THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE, WOMEN OF THE PREHISTORIC PLANET) Langan as Dr. Jeff Turner, Walter (KONGO) Huston as Ephraim Wells and with a ton of other great actors.
To put things in historical perspective, well, here you go!..
Miranda gets a letter from a her distant relative, her mom reads it aloud to her. Her relative would like for her to come to his mansion to be his daughter's governess!
Her father finally allows her to go and she arrives at the estate. Her relative is Nicholas Van Ryn, a rich landlord. She's greeted by Nicholas and his wife.
We start to get a glimpse into Nicholas, he's a dominating landlord, all the farmers in the area have to answer to him about how much money they receive for their effort and he doesn't give a damn about their problems.
Later, the local doctor comes to the mansion to see what's wrong with the missus, she's suffering from an apparent cold. She dies soon after that. Glenn was very handsome.
Miranda decides to go back home. She says goodbye to Dr. Turner who has come to see her off.
But, Nicholas shows up at Miranda's house and asks her for her hand in marriage. After her father interrogates Nicholas, he gives in, they can marry...
Back at the ranch, Miranda requests a girl with a deformed leg to be her helper, but Nicholas rejects the request. He says that deformities make him uncomfortable... Uh-oh!
Then, Miranda tells Nicholas she's pregnant, he wants a male child more than anything, to carry on his ruling bloodline you know. You need to see this movie to understand all the twisted stuff going on, like, Nicholas doesn't believe in God, he believes in himself, which makes Miranda very upset, and he's naturally cruel.
All the townspeople hate Nicholas and make fun of him at the pub. He comes in unexpectedly and the place goes quiet. He asks Dr. Turner to come to his mansion, Miranda is having the baby and there are some complications.
Of course the doctor goes with Nicholas to the mansion. The baby has health problems and dies, but, not before Miranda had him baptized, which insults Nicholas to the core!
Nicholas, dejected, retreats to a dark room in the house and is now shooting up morphine and drinking heavily...
Classic Vinnie!!.. Dr. Turner comes in and tells Nicholas that he knows that he killed his first wife by putting poisonous flowers in her room... And... Nicholas goes berserk but ends up on the floor after the doc clocks him good!
At this point, Nicholas is hearing things, he leaves the place and goes to his throne chair in the garden. The townspeople show up and he tells them that he's ready to shoot them all!
As he points his gun, ready to shoot, someone in the crowd shoots him first... Nicholas dies and Miranda goes back to her parents. Check out Harry Morgan there on the right. So, tune in again on Wednesday when we continue down the old dusty Dungeon trail...
IIUC, the studio considered Gregory Peck for the role of Nicholas. The fact that they were not planning to use someone like Karloff or Lugosi would seem to indicate that they did not consider it to be a horror movie. And, at the time, Vincent Price was not yet typecast as a horror star. My impression is that it was marketed as a Gothic romance (like Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Rebecca) or historical drama.
ReplyDeleteSo, it is not a horror movie, but it is not exactly not a horror movie. And Vincent's character is kind of a precursor to the parts he later played in AIP's horror films based on Edgar Allan Poe stories.
I've never seen this movie, but I loves me some Gene Tierney, and Vinnie too. C'Mon, Looks like a no-brainer!!
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