Dragonwyck (1946) review

Connecticut girl Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), daughter of pious farmer Ephraim (Walter Huston) and his spouse Abigail (Anne Revere), accepts an offer from her family's (very) distant cousin Nicholas van Ryn (Vincent Price) to stay at his massive Dragonwyck manor, but once she gets there, she finds Nicholas' wife Johanna (Vivienne Osborne) is ill, his only child Katrine (Connie Marshall) is acting strange and the place is haunted.  Mankiewicz, in his directorial debut (after years of working as a producer and/or writer), adapted Anya Seton's book to the screen, except it feels like a pitiful recycling of Hitchcock's Rebecca, minus the style or drama: teenager Miranda is quite dense, and Van Ryn is a walking red flag who has nothing but negative things to say - and he says them frequently - about everything: he hates his tenants, religion, women and individuals with physical disabilities.  One might think that being a self-confessed opium addict would make Miserable Nick a little more relaxed, but no way: he uses oleander as a poison.  So, in other words ... "old money" capitalists have no morals?  No frickin' way.