The Vincent Price Movie Review

Released in 1945
Directed by John M. Stahl
Based on the novel by Ben Ames Williams

“a woman who sought to possess everything she loved, who loved only for what it could bring her.”

It gets to be a regular theme in 1940’s cinema: Vincent Price plays a character who loves and loses Gene Tierney. I guess it was a proven moneymaker. Why mess with a good thing, eh?

Continuing with the early career of Vincent Price, I decided to choose Leave Her to Heaven as my third review. Even though Price doesn’t receive much screen time (around twenty minutes), he establishes a forceful and effective presence, especially as the intense prosecutor during the climactic trial.

The movie stars Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent. She is a well-to-do young woman from a wealthy family, and is initially engaged to Price’s character, the ambitious lawyer Russell Quinton. We don’t see much of Mr. Quinton until after he is notified by Ellen that their engagement is off. The reason being that Ellen is engaged to a new suitor - the affable and good natured novelist Richard Harland, played by Cornel Wilde. (who looks like Dana Andrews‘ younger brother) For reasons unknown in the film, Harland has been invited by a mutual friend to lodge at his remote desert ranch during the same time the Berent family is there to scatter Mr. Berent’s ashes. There in the pristine wilderness, Richard and Ellen fall in love, and Ellen more or less forces a hasty engagement on him. When Quinton gets wind of this development, he comes straightaway to the ranch and makes his feelings known. Although he seems to be extremely upset, he nonetheless leaves Ellen and Richard alone.

After the marriage, Richard and Ellen arrive at Richard’s secluded cabin in Maine. Richard takes care of his little brother Danny, who is crippled by an unnamed condition. (Danny is played by a young Darryl Hickman, who starred with Price 14 years later in The Tingler, as his research assistant) Danny and Richard are inseparable almost the whole time they are together. Richard also devotes much of his time to working on his next novel. Up to this point in the movie, Ellen seems to be a cheerful and good hearted person. But after she feels she is being neglected we begin to witness a darker side through the cracks of her genial facade.

Misfortune ensues soon afterwards and continues until the end of the film. First, Danny drowns in the lake at the cabin, then Ellen loses her unborn baby son. And the situation continues to get worse until Ellen’s sister is put on trial for murder, with Quinton as the prosecutor.

I’m not exactly sure how they came up with the title. I would have named the movie “Let Her Rot in Hell,” which sums up my feelings for Ellen succinctly. Gene Tierney’s icy performance was commendable. The worse her characters behave, the more I seem to like them, or at least the acting behind them. In one scene where the camera gets a close-up shot of her cold gaze while in a row boat, I half expected the lake to freeze over. I very much prefer her playing emotionally disturbed versus innocent farm girl. And on a completely different subject, why is Gene Tierney always wearing funny hats in all these movies?

Cornel Wilde gives a solid performance as Harland. He plays the good-hearted everyman in a great way, and it’s really easy to sympathize with him as the movie unfolds.

Vincent Price gets little screen time, but he makes the most of what he gets. At the end trial scene, his intense and relentless performance heightens the drama considerably. We can almost picture his character’s vitriol after being passed over for Harland, letting it stew behind the scenes, and then letting it all rip loose in the courtroom. At the end though, I really wondered if maybe things would have turned out much better for everyone had Ellen married Quinton. (or maybe it would have been worse!)

The movie is filmed in Technicolor, and looks very bright and colorful. The desert ranch and the Maine cabin scenes look wonderful. The lipstick of the female characters is redder than red. That’s one thing you don’t really see with movies today - they hardly ever use strong primary colors.

The music is adequate, but then again I’m not big on 1940’s film scores. They often miss the dramatic mark, or seem to exaggerate the scene. There’s one scene in Leave Her to Heaven where Ellen is scattering her father’s ashes and the music is nauseatingly melodramatic. It serves almost to mock the serious scene instead of underscore it. (also it doesn’t help that Tierney appears to be getting the ashes all over herself while riding a fake horse)

The screenplay and plot are hit and miss. There are some issues with the plot, but nothing that ruins the movie overall if you don’t make it a point to notice. One thing I liked was how it initially made Ellen’s reactions seems somewhat reasonable, and makes you shrug off some of her negative behavior. It makes you interested in her. We want to know just what kind of a person she really is. And we do find out.

The main beef I have is with the happy ending, similar to the problem I have with Dragonwyck’s ending. They seem unnatural for the characters involved, forced upon the viewer, and serve to undermine the tragedies that just occured. Sometimes bittersweet is more tasteful.

For the casual Vincent Price fan, I would give this movie a pass until you’ve watched some of his movies where he has more screen time. But if you’re a Gene Tierney fan, definitely watch this!

Released 1946.
Written and Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Based on the novel by Anya Seton

“You can’t marry a dream, Miranda”

I chose Dragonwyck as my second review, because it’s an older movie from the forties that many people haven’t heard of. It is reminiscent of one of the 19th century Victorian tales of romance in aristocratic England, except that it’s set in upstate New York and has some darker gothic influences.

A young Vincent Price (sans mustache) plays Nicholas Van Ryn, a well mannered but hard-hearted aristocrat in 19th century New York. Van Ryn is a wealthy, Dutch patroon, which is similar in respects to a feudal lord. The patroon owns vast tracts of land, which tenant farmers live on, who in turn provide tribute for the privilege of renting the land. The title of patroon is hereditary, and passes from father to son. In this respect, it’s extremely important for a patroon to have a son so that the title can pass on and the lands can stay in the family.

The main character and star of the movie is Miranda Wells, played by Gene Tierney. She plays a beautiful and naive young woman from a family farm in Connecticut who longs for something more than the simple life she has. Fortunately for Miranda, and the plot, a letter comes in the mail from Van Ryn stating that he is distantly related to the Wells family and would like to invite one of their daughters for an extended stay at Dragonwyck. After some persuasion and a little luck, Miranda’s stern, bible-thumping father relents to her going.

Miranda is initially awestruck by the extravagance of the patroon’s lifestyle and his luxuriant, gothic manor. Later she discovers that she doesn’t fit well in New York Dutch aristocratic social life.

Miranda’s main task is to attend to Katrine, who is Van Ryn’s young daughter. Katrine is a sweet girl, but sad, distant, and aloof. At one point, Katrine earnestly asks Miranda what her father is like, since Van Ryn has spent very little time with her. Patroons have little need of female offspring, it seems. And patroons tend to be ruthless with people they have little need of, which is illustrated by Miranda’s conversation with the Dragonwyck maid of many years.

The maid tells of how many years ago, Van Ryn’s grandfather married a woman that conceived a boy child. After the son was born, his grandfather treated his wife harshly and forbade her to see the son. Being terribly depressed, his grandmother killed herself at Dragonwyck. It’s said that whenever tragedy befalls the Van Ryn family, she can still be heard singing and playing the harpsichord.

Eventually, Nicholas finds his way of life crumbling around him. First, the state nullifies the Dutch practice of land rent, which is a serious threat to his wealth. Then his wife dies suddenly. In the wake of these events, Miranda goes back home to Connecticut. Nicholas soon follows, however, and proposes marriage.

They get married, but soon they find themselves at odds with each other. Nicholas is frequently insular and cold. Things seems to brighten for a moment, but in the end the curse of Dragonwyck prevails.

This movie surprised me in that I liked it more than I originally thought I would. Price delivers an incredible performance, and I especially loved how his character unraveled towards the end. (his final line of dialog is absolutely perfect) There’s an inadvertantly funny moment that might make you chuckle if you’ve already seen a few of Price’s films. Keep in mind that this was early in Price’s career when he was not a horror icon yet. Miranda confronts Nicholas in his tower room, wondering what he does up there. Without giving too much away, Nicholas responds by saying something to the effect of “did you expect me to be up here performing heathen sacrifices?” Well, quite frankly, yes I did. The strange thing is, even though at the end when we know the full extent of his character, I found myself sympathizing with him. Therein lies the acting genius of Vincent Price.

Another thing that caught my eye is how tall Vincent Price is in relation to everyone else in the movie. There’s one scene where he’s standing next to his wife, and he looks a good foot taller than her! I hear this hampered his getting roles because it made the leading man look short. (Price was 6′4” according to imdb)

Gene Tierney is beautiful, as always, and gives a good performance. Her simple farm girl theatrics grated on me a little, however. (Golly Moses!) Also, the way her character ends the movie I thought was a bit tacked on to make the audience feel better.  I did like how her character never lost her head in the new lavish surroundings. Miranda never forgot the lessons of humility, compassion, and piety that she learned from her family.

A strongpoint of the movie is the sharp dialog. There are a few gems by Price and a couple by Walter Huston as Miranda’s father. In response to Miranda saying there’s everything here that anyone could possibly want, her father promptly retorts, “Everything is what no man should ever want.”

The music is adequate. It’s a little overdone in my opinion, but I’m not a fan of most of the musical scores from the forties. I must say, however, that towards the end when I heard the harpsichord playing and the woman singing the Creole Lullaby, I got chills down my spine. That was used to great effect. Another one of the songs in the movie is “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls,” which was originally a song in the opera The Bohemian Girl.  It is still a popular song to this day. You can find videos on Youtube with Enya and Celtic Woman singing it. Vincent Price is credited as a performer in this particular song in Dragonwyck, but I’m not exactly sure what he did. He didn’t sing, and I doubt he plays the harpsichord.

There are some plot points that remain unresolved, or at best neglected in the denoument, but they don’t  break the film.  Dragonwyck is still high on the list for the Vincent Price fan.

Also,  if you like Gene and Price together, check out the earlier noir film Laura (1944), where they again play love interests.