The Movie

The film stars Gene Tierney, Walter Huston and Vincent Price, with Glenn Langan, Anne Revere, Spring Byington, Harry Morgan and Jessica Tandy.

Farmer's daughter Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney) is brought up in Connecticut by her strait-laced low church parents, Ephraim (Walter Huston) and Abigail (Anne Revere), dreaming of her rich distant cousin, Nicholas Van Ryn (Vincent Price) and his immense gothic house, Dragonwyck Manor. In 1844, she is invited by her dark, autocratic and charming atheistic cousin, to live in his New York mansion as a companion to his daughter.

Arriving with high hopes, Miranda finds the Van Ryns a bit strange. The parents barely know daughter Katrine; Nicholas faces a revolt of his tenant farmers; the servants hint darkly of curses and visitations. As she watches the dark secrets of the house unfold, she becomes more aware of selfishness and insanity while becoming more involved with Nicholas. The closer Miranda grows to the community and the Van Ryns, the more she wishes she had never come to Dragonwyck. How or why does Nicholas's wife, Johanna die? Can Dr. Jeff Turner help Miranda? And what does Nicholas really do up in his tower room?