The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

This was an interesting and somewhat distrubing film. Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) is a young man who is having his picutre painted by Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore). One day while the painting is taking place Basil confides to his friend Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders) that he feels that the painting has an almost supernatural quality. While posing Dorian remarks in front of an ancien Eqyptian statue that he wishes he could stay young forever while the portrait grows old. Amazingly enough the impossible happens and DOrian does not age at all. It is ten years in the future and he looks exactly the same. However, the portrait soon turns ugly. He meets a young woman named Sibyl Vane(Angela Lansbury) who sings in a local club. They soon fall in love and are engaged. However, Lord Henry gives Dorian the idea to test Sibyl's innocence and she fails. He breaks up with her very cruely and the portrait begins to show signs of distress. As the years wear on the portrait continues to deteriorate with all of DOrian's sins while he stays the same. Now he needs to figure out what he is going to do about his immortality before he loses his soul.

I really enjoyed this movie. I love how they filmed the entire thing in black and white except for when they showed Dorian's portrait. Sanders was a bit of comedic relief in this serious film. Lansbury was wonderfuly innocent and so young and Hatfield wlaked the line of sanity and madness very well. There have been several versions of this film made but I think this one is worth checking out.