I caught this on TCM last night and am bewildered that no previous comments mentioned some obvious weirdness about this movie. It's as if at the moment the first wife dies, a new writer took over who hadn't read (or liked) the first half of the movie.
For one thing, the very next scene begins with Nicholas in Miranda's bedroom, she's in bed, and they're talking as if this were an every day occurrence. This is very odd for mid-19th century, and even odder considering his wife had died just hours before. I know he's on the make for Miranda, but her character is not at all likely to allow this without being very nervous about it.
And what happened to the servant Magda and the daughter Katrine? These two creepy characters were among the more interesting members of the household in the first half of the movie, yet they're never seen again after the wife dies. "Writer #2" must have decided that a slightly sassy, partially crippled female servant with a thick Irish brogue would work better than a slightly nutty and more elderly Magda - and just substituted one for the other when he felt like it! A single, more well-developed character would have worked much better.
And although a lot of time is spent showing the growing relationship between Miranda and Katrine in the first half of the movie, i can barely remember Katrine even being mentioned after the wife dies. It's especially weird at the end, both parents are now dead, Miranda has now been Katrine's stepmother for some time (and we can assume the only person with whom Katrine is close), yet at the end Miranda leaves without so much as mentioning Katrine as she rides off alone back to the farm. I guess Katrine has to stay alone in the creepy Dragonwyck so that the ghost of her great-grandmother will have a family member to torture with those doom-predicting dirges she plays! They should make a sequel about Katrine set 30 years later, she would probably make daddy's problems pale by comparison.
Overall i liked this movie, good setting and acting, but with a little tightening of the script, it could have been great instead of just slightly better than average.
For one thing, the very next scene begins with Nicholas in Miranda's bedroom, she's in bed, and they're talking as if this were an every day occurrence. This is very odd for mid-19th century, and even odder considering his wife had died just hours before. I know he's on the make for Miranda, but her character is not at all likely to allow this without being very nervous about it.
And what happened to the servant Magda and the daughter Katrine? These two creepy characters were among the more interesting members of the household in the first half of the movie, yet they're never seen again after the wife dies. "Writer #2" must have decided that a slightly sassy, partially crippled female servant with a thick Irish brogue would work better than a slightly nutty and more elderly Magda - and just substituted one for the other when he felt like it! A single, more well-developed character would have worked much better.
And although a lot of time is spent showing the growing relationship between Miranda and Katrine in the first half of the movie, i can barely remember Katrine even being mentioned after the wife dies. It's especially weird at the end, both parents are now dead, Miranda has now been Katrine's stepmother for some time (and we can assume the only person with whom Katrine is close), yet at the end Miranda leaves without so much as mentioning Katrine as she rides off alone back to the farm. I guess Katrine has to stay alone in the creepy Dragonwyck so that the ghost of her great-grandmother will have a family member to torture with those doom-predicting dirges she plays! They should make a sequel about Katrine set 30 years later, she would probably make daddy's problems pale by comparison.
Overall i liked this movie, good setting and acting, but with a little tightening of the script, it could have been great instead of just slightly better than average.