The Picture of Dorian Gray
A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.
- Director: Albert Lewin
- Genre:Drama / Fantasy / Horror / Romance
- Runtime:106 minutes
Cast
George Sanders : Lord Henry Wotton
Hurd Hatfield : Dorian Gray
Donna Reed : Gladys Hallward
Angela Lansbury : Sibyl Vane
Peter Lawford : David Stone
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). 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. Read more
