Too much of everything

Fantastic!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I like a good story and this is a good story. It has mystery, drama and the supernatural making the viewer bound to the screen to see how it all comes about and what comes next. That's called entertainment. George Sanders does an excellent job as do all supporting players. This is the type of movie that if one spent time and money on the story and directing it would give a good return no problem. The dialog is very sophisticated making one have to pay attention. Back then, a man could devote himself to being what they called a being a gentleman even as a career. Here we see several men doing just that. The point is what do gentleman do? Devote themselves to the arts? Attend dinner parties? Practice high-sounding words to support their chosen field of endeavor? All that is here for you to see it for what it is. It even exists to this day. Rich, famous and powerful people still put on more than one face not having found the one assigned to them. There is a scene where the scripture "what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his soul" and this is submitted to the viewer to ponder but without the religious under and over tones. Ask yourself the purpose of having excess of everything but enjoying nothing and the folly of it and see if it doesn't speak to you and to people you know. Whoever you are and whatever you do, enjoy it and make sense out of it for you will not be back this way again. That means there is something to this journey that needs to be discovered. This picture might add to that mystery. I ate breakfast while watching. A bowl of fresh Farina with nuts, blueberries, chia seeds and cinnamon which satisfied and filled me up. Vitamins to follow. Enjoy this well-done classic. I did

I always hear complaints amongst people of my generation that "old" movies are so boring, which I have to disagree with since a good deal of the greatest films ever made were in the "black and white" era. There are even terrific comedies among these movies including Arsenic and Old Lace and The Apartment. However, there do exist some very boring older movies, and this is one of them.The premise of this movie is great, and I feel the filmmakers could have made something very special with this premise. This Dorian Gray receives a portrait at the beginning of the story, and he makes an observation that he will age while the portrait will conserve his youth, but he makes a "wish" in a sense that the reverse could happen, and what do you know, it does.In a way this story is like the opposite of the popular story Beauty and the Beast: Dorian's corrupt nature is hidden inside his youthful appearance for decades. It is hard to tell when time passes in the film since Dorian never ages while new characters/actors are introduced throughout the film. I did not realize for a while that Donna Reed's character was an older version of a kid at the beginning of the film. The only clear indication that time had passed for me was when somebody states "Dorian Gray has looked 22 for the past twenty years" (not sure if twenty is the correct number).The most interesting segments of this film are the moments when Dorian revisits his portrait to find the picture magically altered to show a hideous beast instead of his youthful self - it illustrates his corrupt soul which nobody can see with the naked eye.Unfortunately, the film feels very long with little excitement happening to entertain the audience. Not every movie needs to be entertaining, and I like "high culture" films, but the thematic content simply did not make up for the slow pace of the film in my opinion.2.5/4.0

Fantasy-horror film cited by many as being the last hurrah of Hollywood's Golden Age of horror films. It's an atmospheric picture with all of the polish one expects from an MGM production. It's adapted from the Oscar Wilde story about a young man named Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) who wishes that he could stay young forever and a portrait of him painted by a friend would age instead. He gets his wish but something changes about him. Dorian becomes morally corrupt and finds that, while he stays young and handsome, his portrait ages and becomes more ugly with each evil deed he commits.Hurd Hatfield is excellent. This is his only big role. I'm not sure why exactly but I read somewhere Hatfield said he was typecast after this part and no one could see him in other types of roles. Strange. He certainly gives an enigmatic and distinct performance here. Also good is the legendary George Sanders as the wicked Lord Henry Wotton, who is essentially Oscar Wilde in everything but name. A large part of his dialogue consists of pithy Oscar Wilde quotes. A character like this, cynical in the extreme, could easily grate on the nerves were it not for Sanders' charming presence. The leading ladies in this film couldn't be any lovelier -- a cherubic Angela Lansbury and the always stunning Donna Reed. Both play virtuous innocents in danger of being corrupted by Gray and both are perfectly cast.Some complain that there is more tell than show in this film, specifically with regard to Dorian Gray's evil deeds. This was never something that stood out to me, as the picture kept me interested and I accepted through Hatfield's performance that Dorian was, in fact, evil. I didn't need to see him committing acts of depravity to get the point across. But I suppose people sometimes bring expectations with them to adapted works. So just know going in that this is a classy old MGM pic. Use your intelligence and imagination where need be and keep expectations reasonable for the period the movie was made.

Based on the novel by Oscar Wilde, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" tells the story of a handsome young man corrupted by the opinions of an eloquent elderly gentleman (brilliantly played by George Sanders), who induces the former into seeking only pleasure in life. To achieve this purpose, the young man sells his soul through some sort of black magic, in order to remain youthful his whole life. Contrarily to his face as seen by the aging people around him, Dorian's hidden painted picture instead becomes rotten, dreadful and horrid, changing every time his soul descends more and more into darkness. The source of his misery is never revealed, but some crimes on the way are. Eventually, Dorian becomes sick of his world of lies and deceit, and stabs his portrait, actually stabbing his own chest, later being found dead and disfigured by the evilness of his deeds.Classic books are extremely hard to adapt into movies or television series. Filmmakers must thus avoid many common mistakes. One of the major mistakes is reducing the complexity of the plot. That is not the case of this film, whose screenplay could wittily uphold the lyricism of the book. There are some wonderful dialogs, where the style of Oscar Wilde was preserved, showing the audience how literature and movies share similar possibilities of artistic expressions.Oscar Wilde is one of the few writers who enjoy a well-deserved reputation for mastering the art of putting into words the misery of the soul. Deprived from the personal freedom required to develop even the most recondite corner of his spirit, the Englishwriter suffered from the moralism that pervaded in Britain during the Victorian era. Of course, a modern reader should not replicate at that time the contemporary way of approaching morals. The evolution of social values and behavioral patterns is a complex and long-lasting process. Sexual tolerance, for instance, could only be achieved in the Western world after a pile of many other prejudices was demolished, and occasionally demanded bloodshed of those who later became martyrs of the cause.Literature, however, does not consist of simply writing about themes the author cherishes himself. It also comprises the technique, that is, the method of exposing a particular point of view. Wilde had definitely a sensitive soul, which he managed to translate into beautifully accomplished passages of the book. The story of Dorian Gray–obviously one of Wilde's alter egos–has a relatively linear plot. In spite of that, literary historians still dispute, amid bafflement, over the reasons underlying the enormous success of the book when it was first published.According to the most supported stance, in addition to the controversy over the background theme of the book, Wilde's masterpiece reached stardom for its prose displays an incredible lyricism–a trait more usually found in poetry. Since it was written in form of prose, this lyricism emerges most sharply from the metaphors chosen to express the dramatic situation of Mr. Gray and the symbolism of objects surrounding the characters: the picture itself, obscure poems, and the sculpture of a cat, along with other artistic pieces–the latter were imported from the overseas colonies as elements of orientalism, some sort of philosophy that became a trend during the age of imperial England.Although it was to the knowledge of everybody, the theme of homosexuality remains implied both in the book and in the film. On the one hand, the audience is offered just hints of what secrets Dorian Gray might have with other characters–clearly lovers in disguise. On the other hand, since the subject is not overtly discussed, readers and viewers may find Dorian's reaction to the moralism of his society dubious. Thus, the story sends us mixed messages about his thesis: either homosexuality, as correctly condemned by society and religion, is something spurious and shameful, no wonder why it is the doorway that leads our character into committing atrocities–such as homicide and blackmail; or moral judgment of society is solely responsible for the isolation and transformation of Dorian(and his picture) into a monster, and not his feelings and inclinations.