The Picture Of Dorian Gray [DVD]
(John Fraser, Louis Hayward, George C. Scott, Susan Oliver, Jonathan Frid, Robert Walker, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, et al / DVD / NR / (1961) 2026 / Liberation Hall)
Overview: While everyone around him ages, Dorian Gray maintains the age at which artist Basil Hallwood painted his portrait. Convinced of his immortality, Dorian, under the tutelage of a charismatic and cynical hedonist, Lord Henry (George C. Scott), begins a life of indulgence and moral decay.
Scandalous love affairs, cruelty and finally murder reshape his life. When repentance finally comes, Dorian thinks it’s time for him to confront the long hidden portrait. What he sees is a shocking look into his destiny and soul.
DVD Verdict: Oscar Wilde’s only full-length novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray was published in 1890 almost a decade before Oscar Wilde’s famous fall from grace. The readers in the English-speaking world certainly got a good grasp of Wilde’s character in The Picture Of Dorian Gray long before Wilde filed that ill-fated libel suit.
In a classic case of typecasting, John Fraser starred in the live televised play of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1961, immediately following his role in The Trials of Oscar Wilde. In both, he plays a self-centered, immoral young man without a conscience who’s beautiful on the outside but a monster on the inside. It’s no wonder his career was short-lived after those two movies.
If you like live TV productions, you might consider buying this is MVD/Liberation Hall. It has a short running time and it features a young, pre-famous George C. Scott acting exactly like the Ebenezer Scrooge he would play twenty-five years later.
The costumes are very pretty, the scene transitions (so the actors have time for costume changes) are interesting, and the titular portrait is sufficiently gruesome. There are a few liberties taken with the story, but since there’s a time limitation, I hardly blame the writers.
While it doesn’t compare to a motion picture, some folks find charm in a live production, as you’re treated to a different side to big Hollywood actors. I fall into that category and I truly hope you do also. [H.R.]
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY (Original 1961 Scene)
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The Picture Of Dorian Gray [DVD]