{"id":34478,"date":"2015-06-08T09:08:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T16:08:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34478"},"modified":"2023-04-07T22:21:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T05:21:07","slug":"picture-of-dorian-gray-the-1945","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34478","title":{"rendered":"Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;There can be something fatal about a portrait.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Poster-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-34479\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Poster-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Poster-90x128.jpg 90w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Poster.jpg 580w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nGoaded by a corrupt lord (George Sanders), a handsome young aristocrat (Hurd Hatfield) offers his soul to the devil if he can appear as young as he looks in a portrait painted by his friend (Lowell Gilmore). He soon finds that his misdeeds &#8212; including his cruel mistreatment of a lovely young singer (Angela Lansbury) &#8212; show up on the painting while he himself remains ageless; but he must eventually make some challenging decisions when the suitor (Peter Lawford) of Gilmore&#8217;s niece (Donna Reed) is determined to find out why Hatfield keeps one room in his house permanently locked.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Angela Lansbury Films<\/li>\n<li>Donna Reed Films<\/li>\n<li>George Sanders Films<\/li>\n<li>Historical Drama<\/li>\n<li>Hurd Hatfield Films<\/li>\n<li>Pact With the Devil<\/li>\n<li>Peter Lawford Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary writes that this &#8220;handsomely produced&#8221; MGM adaptation of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray\">Oscar Wilde&#8217;s late-19th century story<\/a> is &#8220;strikingly photographed by Harry Stradling (who won an Oscar), and literately scripted by director Albert Lewin&#8221; but is ultimately &#8220;too tasteful for a film about a sinner&#8221;. He accurately points out that &#8220;miscast Hatfield&#8217;s scoundrel, who is repeatedly shown standing stiff and emotionless like a mannequin, is not active or imaginative enough to be feared&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62328\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Hatfield-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, Hatfield&#8217;s frustratingly flat performance &#8212; presumably (mis)guided by Lewin &#8212; brings the entire movie to a halt; with his character acting more like a &#8220;model&#8221; in a Robert Bresson film than a blue-blooded sociopath (and nearly all of his &#8220;wicked acts&#8230; kept off screen&#8221;), we&#8217;re hard-pressed to feel engaged in the scenario one way or another. Are we meant to feel sorry for Gray, who appears to have been naively corrupted by the (perfectly typecast) epigraph-spouting Sanders? And why doesn&#8217;t Sanders&#8217; character &#8212; who &#8220;gets a charge out of Gray&#8217;s insensitivity&#8221; &#8212; show up more often in the second half of the film?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Sanders-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, the film&#8217;s biggest &#8220;reveal&#8221; is, naturally, the hideous state of the continuously morphing titular painting. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early-300x225.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Painting-Early-360x270.png 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;re given plenty of teasers &#8212; with shot after shot of a character looking in horror at the portrait we can&#8217;t see &#8212; before a flash of Technicolor finally reveals what the painting has turned into, at which point we can&#8217;t help guffawing. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62324\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Technicolor-405x270.png 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While mid-20th-century audiences may have been aghast at the purulent evidence of Gray&#8217;s &#8220;moral leprosy&#8221;, the painting today comes across like an escaped artifact from <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3108\"><em>A Bucket of Blood<\/em> (1959)<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34009\"><em>Color Me Blood Red<\/em> (1965)<\/a>. Thankfully, the rest of the film is aesthetically pleasing, with scrupulously staged scenes of hollow interactions occurring in cavernous halls, effectively photographed in atmospheric black-and-white:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-62325\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Halls-405x270.png 405w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The mid-film murder scene is particularly memorable. But on the whole, this adaptation doesn&#8217;t live up to its potential.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Fine production values<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Production.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Production.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34482\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Production.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Production-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Production-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Harry Stradling&#8217;s Oscar-winning cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Cinematography2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Cinematography2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Cinematography2.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Cinematography2-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Cinematography2-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>An effectively staged murder sequence<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Murder.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Murder.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-34485\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Murder.png 720w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Murder-128x85.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Picture-of-Dorian-Gray-Murder-300x200.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; this one isn&#8217;t must-see.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0037988\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1945\/03\/02\/archives\/the-screen-the-picture-of-dorian-gray-film-version-of-wilde-novel.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/moria.co.nz\/horror\/picture-of-dorian-gray-1945.htm\">Moria Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/2821\/the-picture-of-dorian-gray#articles-reviews?articleId=508\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/the-picture-of-dorian-gray\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;There can be something fatal about a portrait.&#8221; Synopsis: Goaded by a corrupt lord (George Sanders), a handsome young aristocrat (Hurd Hatfield) offers his soul to the devil if he can appear as young as he looks in a portrait painted by his friend (Lowell Gilmore). He soon finds that his misdeeds &#8212; including his cruel mistreatment of a lovely young singer (Angela Lansbury) &#8212; show up on the painting while he himself remains ageless; but he must eventually make&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=34478\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34478"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90876,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34478\/revisions\/90876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}