103 Dragonwyck

[MichaelB]

DRAGONWYCK
(Joseph L Mankiewicz, 1946)
Release date: 22 April 2019
Limited Blu-ray Edition (UK Blu-ray premiere)

The directorial debut of the great Joseph L Mankiewicz (All About Eve, Suddenly, Last Summer), Dragonwyck is a glorious melding of Gothic chills and baroque melodrama. A beautiful Connecticut farm girl (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 (Vincent Price).

Echoing Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), and reuniting stars Tierney and Price for the third time in as many years (having previously starred together in Otto Preminger’s Laura, 1944, and John M Stahl’s 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.

Pre-order here

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Alternative feature presentations: the legacy High Definition remaster; and the new 4K restoration
• Original mono audio
• Interview with Vincent Price (1969): archival audio recording of the celebrated actor in conversation at London’s National Film Theatre
• Audio commentary with film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker Constantine Nasr
• A House of Secrets – Exploring ‘Dragonwyck’ (2008, 17 mins)
• Lux Radio Theater – ‘Dragonwyck’ (1946, 60 mins): vintage radio dramatisation, starring Vincent Price and Gene Tierney
• The Screen Guild Theater – ‘Dragonwyck’ (1947, 30 mins): vintage radio broadcast, starring Vincent Price and Teresa Wright
• Theatrical trailer
• Extensive image galleries: on-set and promotional photography
• New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Neil Sinyard, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
• UK premiere on Blu-ray
• Limited Edition of 3,000 copies
• All extras subject to change

#PHILTD103
BBFC cert: PG
REGION B
EAN: 5037899071571

[tenia]

Is the choice of the 2 versions due to the controversy regarding the DNRed aspect of the new restoration ?

[nitin]

I saw the new restoration via TT’s disc. I am not sure it has been DNRed in the traditional sense as there is a lot of detail. But grain management has definitely been done in an aggressive fashion as despite the detail, grain is glaringly not present.

[domino harvey]

I hope Indicator continues to give this treatment to all the Mankiewicz films they can

[Finch]

I'd never seen the film before today and it's really quite good: among the reliable cast, I liked Vincent Price and Walter Huston best, and the Alfred Newman's score was very good. I gather Lubitsch was supposed to direct originally but fell ill. To Mankiewicz's credit, the film is so well put together that I'd find it hard to fathom that Lubitsch could/would have done any better.

[DRW.mov]

So excited they’re doing this. Absolutely love the artwork as well. Typographically, this is styled like a period poster but the design as a whole is new. Is this Indicator’s first designed box art? I remember when the initially launched they had announced the newly designed Lady From Shanghai artwork (Rita emerging from black) and then nixed it for the original key art and have stayed consistant since then. I’d love to see them continue this psuedo-classic style in the future for releases with subpar original keyart.

Fingers crossed for more Fox-Lubitsch titles as well, specifically Cluny Brown if they can get it.

[domino harvey]

I gather Lubitsch was supposed to direct originally but fell ill. To Mankiewicz's credit, the film is so well put together that I'd find it hard to fathom that Lubitsch could/would have done any better.

Mankiewicz had been trying to get the okay to be allowed to direct for years and this was absolutely his "Put me in coach, I'm ready" moment. He'd spent years preparing behind the scenes and when he was given the opportunity, he didn't blow it (to put it mildly)

[nitin]

I rewatched this recently and didn’t particularly like it all that much, I also saw The Ghost and Mrs Muir and A Letter To Three Wives recently and much preferred those from Mankiewicz. Mrs Muir also had a similar gothic ambience but Hermann’s score adds so much more to that ambience.

I assume it’s a forum favorite though?

[KJones77]

I rewatched this recently and didn’t particularly like it all that much, I also saw The Ghost and Mrs Muir and A Letter To Three Wives recently and much preferred those from Mankiewicz. Mrs Muir also had a similar gothic ambience but Hermann’s score adds so much more to that ambience.

I assume it’s a forum favorite though?

I like it well enough but was definitely underwhelmed. Compared to the prior Tierney/Price collab, Leave Her to Heaven, and The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, I found Dragonwyck to be the weakest. I really loved the other two so that may have contributed to my underwhelment.

[nitin]

Yes I left out Leave Her to Heaven as it wasn’t Mankiewicz but that’s on a whole different level for me and the best of the lot.

[MichaelB]

Final specs:

[MichaelB]

Beaver.

[MichaelB]

The Digital Bits.

[MichaelB]

CineOutsider.

[MichaelB]

Standard edition confirmed for 25th May - same Blu-ray disc as the limited edition (extras and all), but no booklet or reversible sleeve, and it comes in an Amaray instead of a Scanavo case.

[Orlac]

The Vincent Price interview is a particular delight.

[MichaelB]

Sadly, the rights to this Fox (now Disney) title couldn't be renewed, and so Dragonwyck will be going OOP even in the standard edition on 30 June 2023.

But it's still available as of today - and it's included in Powerhouse's 3 for £20 bundle, along with the other four affected titles (Little Murders, The St Valentine's Day Massacre, The Snake Pit, The Third Secret).

More details here.