Friday, December 09, 2011

Dorian Gray - 1945 ***



George Sanders stole the show for me in this. If he hadn't been in it I would have been pretty disappointed. Hurd Hatfield was in my opinion pretty dreadful as the main character, only saved by the quick-witted Sanders (quoting like mad from Oscar Wilde) and the beautiful Donna Reed as his love interest. Angela Lansbury is very good as well. In fact most of the characters have some redeeming qualities about them except for Dorian Gray. Everyone knows the story so I won't go into it, but will say that the painting (amazingly shot in colour) is absolutely hideous and gives me the shivers thinking about it. I'm not sure whether the actor chosen to portray Gray was completely dull because all his energy and emotion was supposed to have gone into the painting, or whether he was just genuinely a boring actor. Either way I didn't agree with the choice.

Will watch the new version to see how it compares.

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