The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)
Why did women talk about Dorian Gray in Whispers?
(Spoiler: It wasn’t just women…)
Victorian scandals, murder, dwarf prostitutes, and deals with the Devil…this one has it all. Oh yeah…and Angela Lansbury.
Ok, in full disclosure, this movie scared the heck out of me when I was 8 years old. Now…not so much, but it still deserves a place in the Hall of Classic Horror and Suspense.
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a 1945 take on Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name. The broad strokes are pretty straightforward and draw on the old “deal with the devil” theme that’s been around since Faust.
Dorian (Hurd Hatfield - El Cid) is a bored Victoria era playboy who, after taking some really crappy relationship advice from the jaded Lord Henry (George Sanders - Rebecca), promptly loses the love of his life, a super young Angela Lansbury, and becomes immortal because…that seems to be what happens when you make a wish in front of an Egyptian cat statue.
Let’s set aside how Dorian becomes immortal and just say that over the next twenty years or so he becomes increasingly amoral and immoral, seeking ever more decadent ways to amuse himself and - maybe - find some sort of meaning in life.
What does all that have to do with a picture?
We won’t spoil that, but it deals with the consequences of Dorian’s accumulating sins - and his immortality.
We will say that we were pretty surprised that this movie got past the censors of 1945.
Now, the source material is pretty scandalous…and Wilde took a lot of heat when he first released it (and for a long time after) but it would have been especially so to the sensibilities of our grandparents and great grandparents (or maybe not).
What does Dorian do to keep himself entertained?
Well, the director and writer, Albert Lewin, made some pretty racy films for the time (check out The Living Idol in the After Credits) but he is fairly subtle. Still, if you read between some pretty widely spaced lines, Dorian appears to seduce a number of young men, haunt houses of ill repute, murder a person or two, and go up stairs with a middle aged male prostitute (or pimp, it isn’t clear) - who also a dwarf.
So yeah, 1945 racy.
This isn’t Dorian’s only celluloid appearance. Ben Barnes takes on the role in the 2009 Dorian Gray, Josh Duhamel attempts it in 2004’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, and others have tried (the best may be Reed Carney in the late lamented Penny Dreadful), but its solid fun - if only because it makes you work a bit to figure out what nefarious deeds Dorian is up to in his spare time.
You can catch The Picture of Dorian Gray HERE.
Three out of Five Spooky Portraits.
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After Credits Trivia!
Hurd (Dorian) reunited with Angela Lansbury forty years after this movie to play in three episodes of her Murder She Wrote series. He played a different guy each time.
After After Credits Bonus!
Among one of Albert Lewin’s more colorful credits was his work on The Living Idol.
Hot Stuff. 🔥🔥🔥
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