Main Cast: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford
Release Year: 1945
Country: US
Run Time: 110 minutes
Plot
The Picture of Dorian Gray was writer/director Albert E. Lewin's fascinating follow-up to his expressive-esoterica masterpiece The Moon and Sixpence. Hurd Hatfield essays the title character, a London aristocrat who would sell his soul to remain handsome and young--and, in a manner of speaking, he does just that. Under the influence of his decadent (albeit witty) friend Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders), Dorian Gray becomes the embodiment of virtually every sin known to man. The greatest of his sins is vanity: Gray commissions artist Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore) to paint his portrait. Admiring his own painted countenance, Gray silently makes a demonic pact. The years pass: everyone grows older but Gray, who seemingly gets younger and more good-looking every day. Hallward eventually stumbles upon the secret of Dorian's eternal youth: he finds his painting hidden in the attic, the portrait's face grown grotesquely aged and disfigured. Gray kills Hallward so that his secret will remain safe. Later on, Gray falls in love with Hallward's niece Gladys (Donna Reed). Certain that Gray is responsible for Hallward's death, Gladys' ex-boyfriend David Stone (Peter Lawford) sets out to prove it. He is joined in this mission by the brother of dance hall performer Sybil Vane (Angela Lansbury), who killed herself after Gray betrayed her. Essentially a black and white film, Picture of Dorian Gray bursts into Technicolor whenever the picture is shown in close-up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The 1945 production of The Picture of Dorian Gray was something of an anomaly, coming several years after the end of the "classic" horror cycle which had included Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and the like. Dorian is an excellent production, the best of the many cinematic adaptations of this popular tale, and in some ways an improvement on the Oscar Wilde story upon which it is based. It is not flawless, however; Hurd Hatfield is a bit colorless in the title role, and while director Albert Lewin was undoubtedly trying to use his blandness to make points about the nature and deceptiveness of evil, Hatfield's hollow performance dampens the dramatic punch of the film in a few key places. This is certainly not the case with George Sanders, playing one of those droll cynics for which he was born and getting to spout some of Wilde's most delightful epigrams (such as "I like persons better than principles, and person with no principles better than anything in the world"). Young Angela Lansbury is also used to excellent effect in a change-of-pace "good girl" part, proving that Hollywood rarely appreciated the extent of her talent. The real stars of Dorian, however, are director Lewin and cinematographer Harry Stradling, who work together seamlessly to create wonderful chilling sequences and moments of sheer beauty. Of particular note is the murder sequence, which employs a swinging light to create a stunning play of light-and-dark that emphasizes the manner in which Dorian's soul has been separated from his very being. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield), wishing to remain young and handsome for eternity, essentially sells his soul so that a portrait can age instead of him. The wish, made in the presence of an ancient Egyptian statuette of the goddess Bast inside the painter Basil Hallward's house, comes true. Over the course of the next eighteen years, Dorian commits every sort of sin, heavily influenced by witty, hedonistic friend Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders (actor)). His sins include deliberately ruining his romance with vaudeville singer Sibyl Vane (Angela Lansbury, nominated for an Academy Award for the second time in two years, following her performance in 1944's Gaslight). Later, he is guilty of stabbing Basil Hallward after he sees the horrific state of his portrait, and then blackmailing an old friend to dispose of Basil's corpse; frequenting opium dens; and defiling Basil's young niece Gladys. All the while, he keeps his picture locked in a high room in his London house, often firing and hiring servants, becoming increasingly neurotic and cold towards those who call him friend.
But as his life goes on, he slowly realizes the emptiness and evil which he has succumbed to. Before he ruins his romance with Gladys, he returns to his house in London, confronts the horrific painting, and makes to slash the painting to shreds. Dorian stabs his degenerated likeness in the heart with the very same knife he used to kill Basil. But he immediately feels a knife pierce his own heart, and he dies on the floor, his face and body quickly transforming to show the hideous sins he committed, but his painting returns to the pristine state of eighteen years ago.
Albright's painting of Dorian Gray, from the 1945 film
The painting entitled Picture of Dorian Gray[1] used in the film was painted on commission during the making of the film in 1943-1944 by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright, an American artist who was well-known as a painter of the macabre. Created specifically for use in the film, it is now part of the art collection of The Art Institute of Chicago. Albright had to paint the picture while the movie was being made in order to show Dorian Gray's physical transformation as his evil actions changed him into a horrid image in the painting while his actual physical appearance remained that of a young man. At the film's climax, Gray "killed" the painting by piercing it through its heart with a knife, thus killing himself when his physical appearance changed to that of the painting.
