| The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) remains one of Hollywood’s most haunting adaptations of Oscar Wilde’s classic Gothic tale. Steve Hayes reviews MGM’s lavish supernatural drama starring Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed, and Peter Lawford.
The Tired Old Queen At The Movies explores director Albert Lewin’s eerie vision of Dorian Gray, a beautiful young man who wishes to remain forever young while his portrait bears the scars of his corruption. The result is a macabre cautionary tale about vanity, temptation, lost innocence, and the dangerous price of getting exactly what you wish for.
Steve discusses Hurd Hatfield’s striking performance in the title role, George Sanders’s urbane wickedness, and Angela Lansbury’s heartbreaking portrayal of cabaret singer Sibyl Vane, which earned the young actress her second Academy Award nomination. He also considers Donna Reed and Peter Lawford, Harry Stradling’s Oscar-winning black-and-white cinematography, the film’s startling color portrait sequences, and MGM’s sumptuous treatment of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated novella.
Why did director Albert Lewin ask Hurd Hatfield to suppress nearly every facial expression? How did the role affect Hatfield’s later career? And what happened when Steve met the unforgettable actor decades later at the Metropolitan Museum of Art?
For fans of classic Hollywood, Oscar Wilde adaptations, Gothic horror movies, supernatural dramas, MGM films, Angela Lansbury, George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, and vintage movie reviews, The Picture of Dorian Gray offers beauty, decadence, terror, and one of cinema’s most unforgettable portraits.
