The Picture of Dorian Gray
Tags: gothic

Plot synopsis:
The plot of the novel varies between each of the published versions. The summary below deals with the longest version, the 1891 novel. However, certain episodes described—in particular Dorian's encounter with, and murder of, James Vane—do not appear in the version originally submitted by Wilde to Lippincott's.
The Picture of Dorian Gray begins on a beautiful summer day in Victorian era England, where Lord Henry Wotton, an opinionated man, is observing the sensitive artist Basil Hallward painting the portrait of Dorian Gray, a handsome young man who is Basil's ultimate muse. While sitting for the painting, Dorian listens to Lord Henry espousing his hedonistic world view, and begins to think that beauty is the only aspect of life worth pursuing. This prompts Dorian to wish that the painted image of himself would age instead of himself.
Under the hedonist influence of Lord Henry, Dorian fully explores his sensuality. He discovers the actress Sibyl Vane, who performs Shakespeare plays in a dingy, working-class theatre. Dorian approaches and courts her, and soon proposes marriage. The enamoured Sibyl calls him "Prince Charming", and swoons with the happiness of being loved, but her protective brother, James, warns that if "Prince Charming" harms her, he will murder him.
Dorian invites Basil and Lord Henry to see Sibyl perform in Romeo and Juliet. Sibyl, too enamoured with Dorian to act, performs poorly, which makes both Basil and Lord Henry think Dorian has fallen in love with Sibyl because of her beauty instead of her acting talent. Embarrassed, Dorian rejects Sibyl, telling her that acting was her beauty; without that, she no longer interests him. On returning home, Dorian notices that the portrait has changed; his wish has come true, and the man in the portrait bears a subtle sneer of cruelty.
Conscience-stricken and lonely, Dorian decides to reconcile with Sibyl, but he is too late, as Lord Henry informs him that Sibyl has committed suicide by swallowing prussic acid. Dorian then understands that, where his life is headed, lust and good looks shall suffice. Dorian locks the portrait up, and over the following eighteen years, he experiments with every vice, influenced by a morally poisonous French novel that Lord Henry Wotton gave him.
[The narrative does not reveal the title of the French novel, but, at trial, Wilde said that the novel Dorian Gray read was À Rebours ('Against Nature', 1884), by Joris-Karl Huysmans.]
One night, before leaving for Paris, Basil goes to Dorian's house to ask him about rumours of his self-indulgent sensualism. Dorian does not deny his debauchery, and takes Basil to see the portrait. The portrait has become so hideous that Basil is only able to identify it as his work by the signature he affixes to all his portraits. Basil is horrified, and beseeches Dorian to pray for salvation. In anger, Dorian blames his fate on Basil, and stabs him to death. Dorian then calmly blackmails an old friend, the scientist Alan Campbell, into using his knowledge of chemistry to destroy the body of Basil Hallward. Alan later kills himself over the deed.
To escape the guilt of his crime, Dorian goes to an opium den, where James Vane is unknowingly present. James had been seeking vengeance upon Dorian ever since Sibyl killed herself, but had no leads to pursue: the only thing he knew about Dorian was the name Sibyl called him, "Prince Charming". In the opium den however he hears someone refer to Dorian as "Prince Charming", and he accosts Dorian. Dorian deceives James into believing that he is too young to have known Sibyl, who killed herself 18 years earlier, as his face is still that of a young man. James relents and releases Dorian, but is then approached by a woman from the opium den who reproaches James for not killing Dorian. She confirms that the man was Dorian Gray and explains that he has not aged in 18 years. James runs after Dorian, but he has gone.
James then begins to stalk Dorian, causing Dorian to fear for his life. However during a shooting party, a hunter accidentally kills James Vane who was lurking in a thicket. On returning to London, Dorian tells Lord Henry that he will live righteously from then on. His new probity begins with deliberately not breaking the heart of the naïve Hetty Merton, his current romantic interest. Dorian wonders if his new-found goodness has reverted the corruption in the picture, but when he looks he sees only an even uglier image of himself. From that, Dorian understands that his true motives for the self-sacrifice of moral reformation were the vanity and curiosity of his quest for new experiences.
Deciding that only full confession will absolve him of wrongdoing, Dorian decides to destroy the last vestige of his conscience, and the only piece of evidence remaining of his crimes – the picture. In a rage, he takes the knife with which he murdered Basil Hallward, and stabs the picture. The servants of the house awaken on hearing a cry from the locked room; on the street, passers-by who also heard the cry call the police. On entering the locked room, the servants find an unknown old man, stabbed in the heart, his face and figure withered and decrepit. The servants identify the disfigured corpse by the rings on its fingers which belonged to their master; beside him is the picture of Dorian Gray, restored to its original beauty.

Review: This was originally broadcast in the early 1970s, by ABC Circle Films, I think, and it was a great drama for its time and it still holds up well today.
Dan Curtis, who directed this also has a big collection of the Dark Shadows series and he has a good feel for the gothic aspects of the 19th century story.
Altho it follows the old MGM story, this one has a lot sharper edge to it and is more realistic, especially about Dorian's depravity.
Davenport does really carry the show with his all-knowing, cynical observations that lead the way for Dorian's destruction and doom .
I like both this version of DORIAN GRAY and the MGM version.
Both add a little girl early in the story who grows up to have an association with Dorian (this is not in the original book), and that is my only complaint.
I especially like Angela Lansbury as Sybil Vane and George Sanders as Harry in the MGM version, but Shane Briant as Dorian in the TV-version is much better looking (I think) and far more ruthless than Hurd Hatfield in the MGM version:  I think Briant is more true to the novel's Dorian.
In the end, this is a very good adaptation of the novel (it even hints at Dorian's liaison's with men, as does Wylde, which could not be done in the MGM version)..
Young Shane Briant was the prettiest Dorian Gray ever on screen.
In this version of The Picture Of Dorian Gray I got the distinct feeling that this is how Oscar Wilde probably saw his character in real life.
His inspiration probably was some pretty twink he met in passing in the London underground gay scene.Although Briant narrates this story of his life which dates from 1891 to 1911 which was after Wilde himself was gone, the story is seen from two pairs of eyes.
This was Wilde the closeted gay man so hopelessly in love with the pretty Mr. Gray.
Of course Briant is taken with the portrait and wishes a strange wish that the opposite of life comes true, that he remain young and attractive and the portrait age like we humans do.
And his sins which includes the deaths of several people either by accident or very much design.This is a nice television production of the Oscar Wilde classic, Briant is the quintessential Dorian Gray.
It really managed to scare me, partly because it was so late at night, but partly because of that whole feeling from a videotaped suspense story (the same thing that helped Dark Shadows itself).
I hardly know Shane Briant from anything else, so it might not be so right to call HIM "well-cast," but to me, he IS Dorian Gray.
And as far as the other male actors, the one who fit his part so well was Nigel Davenport (who's so good at "larger than life" characters) as Sir Henry.
And John Karlen, a sort of Dan Curtis "repertory player" at the time, because of Dark Shadows.
As one poster points out, this version manages to include the involvements with men, in a fairly subtle way.
The scene where Dorian recites a list of men's names to John Karlen's character, as a way of blackmailing him, and the look on Karlen's face, were very well-done.
(If that scene were done now, it would probably be done in a TOO OBVIOUS way, and be bad by comparison.) I saw it when "Dorian Gray" was barely a name to me, let alone more, so even more than the famous 1945 version (which is rightly famous), this is THE version to me..
ABC Movie Of The Week: THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY {TV} (Glenn Jordan, 1973) ***.
This is the fourth version I have watched of Oscar Wilde's famous supernatural tale, following the definitive 1945, the trashy 1970 and the classy 1976 British TV ones.
Producer Dan Curtis had reverently (and, generally, faithfully) tackled a number of horror classics around this time – R.L. Stevenson's THE STRANGE CASE OF DR.
Indeed, the essence of the piece emerges quite strongly in this case: the Victorian atmosphere (despite the limited resources of TV-based adaptations), the moral issues behind the protagonist's Satanic pact and his subsequent callous/hedonistic behavior, the wit (which was always Wilde's forte) and the opportunities afforded the cast (notably latter-day Hammer regular Shane Briant in the title role, Nigel Davenport, and DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS [1971]'s John Karlen) by way of superbly-delineated charactersthough the all-important role of Sybil Vane is rather inadequately filled by Vanessa Howard.
Needless to say, the gradual degradation of Dorian Gray's portrait features prominently within the narrative, and this obviously emerges a highlight here as well..
Dan Curtis Produces Dorian Gray.
The story is familiar - Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray wishes his painting would grow old whilst he remain young.
This is the version from Dan Curtis Productions, which produced the TV-series "Dark Shadows" from 1966-1971; the television show incorporated a version of "Dorian Gray" into the series' "1897 flashback" (1969).
The next film, the sexually charged "Dorian Gray" (1970), starred Helmut Berger.
But, the most well-known version remains "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945), which starred Hurd Hatfield.This "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1973) was produced for late night TV, and the "videotape" quality shows, sadly.
Few actors could play the part as deliciously as Helmut Berger (who fitted the part like a glove); but, Shane Briant takes a fine turn in the lead role.
Mr. Briant's Dorian is sweeter-looking, but much more evil.
Nigel Davenport, John Karlen, and Fionnula Flanagan head a great group of supporting players.The 1973 TV film, oddly enough, portrays Dorian as more wicked than other versions.
Briant's blackmailing of pal John Karlen (as Alan) by reciting his lovers' names tops other versions; the 1970 movie had Dorian and Alan's wife in some naked photographs.
****** The Picture of Dorian Gray (4/23/73) Glenn Jordan ~ Shane Briant, Nigel Davenport, John Karlen.
This film was produced by Dan Curtis--the same guy who wrote and produced "Dark Shadows".
He also worked on several made for television monster films in the late 60s and 70s--such as a GREAT version of Frankenstein as well as Dracula and Dr. Jekyll.
While I wouldn't exactly say "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is a monster film in the traditional sense, it was pretty monstrous--mostly because unlike the monster films, Dorian is a guy who CHOOSES evil--it was not chosen for him by fate.
I must add that this version might just be better than the classic 1945 film (starring Hurd Hatfield)--and it's well worth your time.The film stars a relatively unknown actor of the time, Shane Briant.
I am sure Briant was chosen because he was amazingly pretty--the sort of guy Gray was supposed to have been.
It's the story about a vain young man who makes a passing wish--that as time passes, he remain young and handsome and his portrait would instead age for him.
All in all, a chilling story made better by excellent acting, nice direction and terrific production values.
Dark Shadows of the 1945 MGM Adaptation.
This TV adaptation of Oscar Wilde's novel, produced by Dan Curtis, the creator of the daytime TV soap opera "Dark Shadows," is a rip-off of the 1945 MGM version of the same book.
Yet, its TV aesthetics contain none of cinematic beauty of that classic film, and what alterations it does make to the adaptation and book are either trivial or for the worse.
The only elements barring this from being entirely unbearable are that there's something left of Wilde's great Victorian Gothic novel: I mean, the portraits look OK, and the acting isn't too bad.
Regardless, for a movie based on Wilde's story, and one that ludicrously quotes his preface, "Those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril," it hardly begins to even scratch the surface of that work.Like the 1945 film, this one includes a niece of Basil, who will later become the second love of Dorian's life.
Perhaps, my biggest qualm with the 1945 version was that it reduced Sybil to a pub singer, whereas Wilde's Sybil acted in Shakespeare, but at least she was still an artistic performer.
Meanwhile, the fornication foil invented by the 1945 film is reused, which replaces how Wilde's Dorian falls out of love with Sybil based on her refusal to perform on stage.Moreover, while this 1973 TV version is in some ways a bit more frank about Dorian's sins than either the 1945 film or the book, the gay subtext is actually lessened.
Sure, there's a glance here or a touch there that may suggest something to someone with the knowledge that its author was gay, but nothing like in the book, or even the 1945 film, really, which still included the suggestion of Basil's inspiration for his portrait of Dorian.
The God-like narration in the 1945 film is also replaced by that of Dorian.
It's especially unfortunate because instead of the painting being the record of Dorian's conscience, as the movie states, we have to endure his actual conscience via the needlessly talkative voiceover.
Also unfortunate is the introduction of gambling debts, which replace Wilde's focus of aestheticism and his collection of beautiful objects.The 1974 Dracula TV movie by Dan Curtis, while not very good, nonetheless was original for introducing the Vlad the Impaler connection and a reincarnation romance to a screen, which Francis Ford Coppola, among others, later stole for their Dracula movies.
Despite its TV look, his Dracula also effectively employed those blasted TV zooms a couple times and in a rather painterly way, including with a painting of the Count and his love.
Yet, with a story that is all about a portrait and about art, that imitates the 1945 film, which complemented this by itself being a gorgeous piece of art, here, we have a TV movie that is dreadfully dull to look at.
Plus, the TV zooms and a score recycled from "Dark Shadows." I burst out laughing when Dorian's servant reports, "Your coffee, sir," in one scene, only for the music to blare, "dun dun dun" as the show, apparently, went to a commercial break.
Seemingly, the ring, the source of his identification in the novel, partly replaces the cat statue from the 1945 film as some sort of mystical explanation (again, not in the book) for the supernatural portrait, but, then, nothing comes of it.
A captivating thriller based on Oscar Wilde's novel..
This is a TV thriller based on Oscar Wilde's novel - a suspenseful plot from beginning to end about young English aristocrat Dorian Gray, whom after meeting the hedonistic Sir Harry Wotton, dives into a life of decadence and self-indulgence.
The story gets even more thrilling when a self portrait of Dorian changes appearances, reflecting his sinful ways.
This one I was planning on watching again after not seeing it in years but I ended up skimming though it because I found it not as good as I was remembering it was.The movie has a the look and feel of an older TV show or older soap opera.
This 1973 version will still be a good childhood memory for me, just not one I would care to watch these days.5/10.
After that, the story veers wildly off course, at least as compared with the 1945 MGM version (which won two Oscars).
Nigel Davenport as Lord Henry is really about the only thing watchable in the whole production.
A lot of the other acting is bad, the music is melodramatic, and look of the film is terrible.
Actually, it's not a film at all--it was obviously shot on video and has that characteristically claustrophobic BBC look about it.
The opening scenes are particularly poorly lit, the women's costumes are terrible (the men look all right), and a lot of the characters--including Dorian--seem to have 1970s rather than Victorian hairstyles.
The movie does well to include a lot of Wilde's dialog, but the voice-over narration in the voice of Dorian contains a lot of rubbish that directly contradicts Wilde's character.
I haven't seen either of the more recent versions, but if one is interested in seeing the story well told, I would have to recommend the 1945 MGM black-and-white over this one..
Having just read the wonderful Oscar Wilde story, I had hoped for at least a little of the magic to translate onto the screen.
This version played like a condensed, dumbed down Reader's Digest movie.
I appreciate the difficulties in trying to bring a novel to the screen, especially on what may very well have been a limited (TV) budget, but there is no excuse for mangling a great story in this way.
"Dark Shadows" Connection Amused (& Distracted) Me. Within the first 5 minutes of watching this version of "The Picture of Dorian Gray," I knew it had to be by the same people who had done "Dark Shadows" (DS)!
Another distraction was the use of several key story changes used in the 1945 MGM version.
Noting these changesalong with the feeling that the bits of dialogue preserved from Wilde's novel (i.e., Lord Henry's clever sayings) were those that were in the MGM version, made me wonder if the writer had read the original work at all or had just worked from the MGM screenplay!
Finally, in the 2 weeks prior to viewing this, I'd watched a 1976 BBC adaption (w/ Sir John Gielgud marvelous as Lord Henry), the MGM film & read the novel for the 1st time.
One thing I'll give this one, I appreciated its versions of the changes in Dorian's eponymous "Picture" the most..
THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY is one of many classic horror stories that producer Dan Curtis adapted for US television back in the early 1970s.
It's a pretty authentic version of the Oscar Wilde novel that feels interesting throughout, despite the dated atmosphere and cheap look.
Running at two hours, this is a fairly slow and ponderous story, bolstered by an excellent performance from underrated Hammer star Shane Briant in the leading role.
He gets under his character's skin and convinces totally, with Nigel Davenport excellent in support as the debauched Sir Harry.
The film has just the right creepy atmosphere and the titular portrait is well used and sufficiently horrible.
He who does not know Oscar Wilde is just uneducated.
He who does not know Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is just half human.
And any film adapted from Oscar Wilde's stories and plays are a must for any man in this world.
The film is discrete about the gay side of things, but a long list of men are said toward the end of the film to refuse to have anything to do any more with Dorian Gray or to step out of a room when Dorian Gray steps in it.
That discretion is not important anyway since what is at stake is a lot more than just gayness.Dorian Gray is young, about 20 at the beginning, and rich, at the beginning again since he will grow poor as years go by.
During those 20 years or so he will do all the villainies and treacheries you can imagine, with women or with men, among other things breaking the hearts of women and leading them to their death or plainly killing men or blackmailing some others like the professor and doctor he uses to get rid of the corpse of his last victim, using the professor's liking men to force him to do something absolutely unethical and make him his accomplice in this crime.But the appealing and disquieting knack of the novel and the film is the fact that the picture that was done by a famous painter when Dorian Gray was 20 leads Dorian to wishing the painting to age while he himself does not.
So at age 41 he is still looking the way he did when 20 and the portrait, hidden away from public view is aging for one and changing in agreement with the horrors Dorian Gray does.At the end what has to happen happens: Dorian Gray wants to destroy the painting and instead it is him who dies and the curse on the painting reverts itself and Dorian Gray when dead looks his age and carries his horrendous soul ugliness on his face.But the film reduced to this story line is in fact rather simple and would at best be a horror short story, and in fact was used several times here and there in horror literature.
This film and the story behind are not horror literature but deep ethical literature.
Oscar Wilde denounces the hypocrisy of English society: "The value of an idea has nothing to do with the sincerity of the man who expresses it." One can utter the most profound moral statements and yet be the most rotten character on earth.
His rotten nature does not in any way degrade the ethical value of the moral statements he proclaims.In simple words "those who go beneath the surface do so at their peril." The real theme of the novel is the fact that the surface of things means nothing and that the true nature of a man is beneath his appearance.
Note the well chosen "beneath." Oscar Wilde is careful not to use "behind" that would not mean a lower level or state.
For Oscar Wilde the social world is a superficial appearance and a lower true reality.
Aristocratic societies are necessarily hypocritical and pushing their roots in some deep mud or filth.Though this is the fundamental idea in the story, Oscar Wilde cannot resist expressing another one he borrowed from Shakespeare.
Time is the all leveller but by bringing everything superior down into the muddy pit of human manure.I will only regret one thing about this film.
The actor who plays Dorian Gray is slightly stiff and not directed into some kind of real attractiveness.