A simple Connecticut farm girl is recruited by a distant relative, an aristocratic patroon, to be governess to his young daughter in his Hudson Valley mansion.
Acting
Price's aristocratic menace; Tierney's wide-eyed cunning.
Cinematography
Shadow-drenched Hudson Valley Gothic, all staircases and secrets.
Costume
Tierney's transformation from calico to crinoline as trap.
Director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Gene Tierney
Miranda Wells
Walter Huston
Ephraim Wells
Vincent Price
Nicholas Van Ryn
Glenn Langan
Dr. Jeff Turner
Anne Revere
Abigail Wells
Spring Byington
Magda
Connie Marshall
Katrine Van Ryn
Harry Morgan
Klaas Bleecker
Vivienne Osborne
Johanna Van Ryn
Jessica Tandy
Peggy O'Malley
Trudy Marshall
Elizabeth Van Borden
Gertrude Astor
Nurse (uncredited)
Robert Baldwin
Farmer (uncredited)
Ruth Cherrington
Dowager (uncredited)
Scott Elliott
Tommy Wells (uncredited)
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This was Vincent Price's first major dramatic role; he was previously typed in comedies.
The patroon system was real—Dutch landowners held feudal-like power over Hudson Valley tenants until the 1840s.
US
