Dragonwyck. Lovely B&W film, great atmospheric ghost story, starring the incomparable Vincent Price. Price is often thought to be a British horror star like Peter Cushing or Boris Karloff-nope, he was born and raised in St Louis, MO. Apparently his distinctive accent was the common upper class accent of that time and place. Anyhow, this film was the last attempt of his studio to make the young, handsome Price a matinee idol/sex symbol a la Clark Gable-it’s a transitional role and film, combining the supernatural and romance. It deals with an unusual historical fact : There really was an attempt on the part of the Dutch aristocracy to preserve something very like serfdom or at least sharecropperdom in post revolutionary war upstate New York. And it’s even an early look at drug addiction (opium) ! The film didn’t do too well , and that ended the studio’s attempt to make Price a conventional leading man-from this film he went into the horror genre and pretty much stayed there. But the film is very worth watching, especially for the eerie harpsicord scenes.
My Aunt and Uncle knew him fairly well. When my Aunt joined her husband and Price for dinner, she chatted and was distracted. Eventually she smiled her delightful smile and asked “Well, Mr Price what do you do for work.” Price was gracious and depreciating and after about ten minutes it came to Auntie that this was Vincent Price. She blushed and stammered sweetly and it was all fine.