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The Picture of Dorian Gray
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CDN$ 24.95 |
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| Maintains the essence of the story | |
|  | "I sent my soul through the invisible,
Some letter of that after-life to spell;
And by and by my soul returned to me,
And answered, `I myself an Heaven and Hell'"
- "The Rubaiyat" Omar Khayyam
Dorian Gray, with the help of Lord Henry and Basel's painting, realizes that youthful looks are everything and proceeds (in the presence of an ancient Egyptian cat god) to sell his soul in exchange for letting the portrait grow old while he stayed youthful looking.
Although the story was slightly modified for the sake of the media and the long diatribes were cut out, Albert Lewin - Director / Writer (screenplay) left in the most important dialogs directly quoted from the book.
The movie itself is in black and white with some color plates of the portrait included.
One of the biggest surprises is that Angela Lansbury plays Dorian's love, Sibyl Vane; she looks like a little china doll as she sings "Little Yellow Bird". Later Lansbury will repeat this performance in the series "Murder She Wrote".
Even though Hurd Hatfield plays Dorian, George Sanders with his snotty sounding voice steals the show as Lord Henry Wotton, Dorian's amoral sounding friend.
| | | When you think of expressionism in the movies you tend to think of the wierd angles, lighting and cutting of the German directors of the 20's and 30's. But Albert Lewin's marvelous movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel makes the same kind of other-wordly impact with an amazing and unsettling exaggeration of Victorian manners, morals, and architecture. The icy detachment of Gray and his friends from any emotional involvement with their surroundings heightens tremendously the impact on us of the genuinely human gestures and feelings of the other characters. This Faustian parable about a man and his graven image probably reflects Wilde's torment over whether he had sold his own soul to become an international funnyman. The whole cast is a standout but it's Lewin's picture and a total success.
| | | We had to watch this movie in my English class and it totally sucked! The music was corny and i couldn't tell what the hell was going on. It would skip from one scene to another and you couldn't follow the plot. Am I supposed to know who "this" person is just from one scene?! I didn't get it at all. The only good part was the changing of the painting. That part I did get.
| | | Handsome, young and morally corrupt Dorian Gray has his portrait painted. Soon after, under the influence of the incorrigible Lord Henry Wotton, he betrays his fiancee, leading to her suicide. As the years pass Dorian does not age but evidence of his narcissim are apparent in his portrait which grows uglier with each transgression. His mysterious behavior and ageless appearance begin to attract suspicion. This is one of my favorite stories by Oscar Wilde. This movie has everything that a good movie should have.
| | | This movie was simply dreadful. Hurd Hatfield may be the most wooden actor ever to star in a movie. He also was way too old for someone who is supposed to look like he's in his early 20's throughout the movie. I didn't for a second believe that Donna Reed's character would have been pining all those years for a character so charmless and robotic. And the usually wonderful George Sanders played one of his patented quick-talking smarmy characters but without any of the wit, charm or menace he showed in so many of his performances, including All About Eve and Rebecca. Only a young Angela Lansbury shined in a poignant performance. Except for her, the Picture of Dorian Gray was a cold, depressing pretentious bore.
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