VHS Videos: The Picture of Dorian Gray Video

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Rating: - Masterful and modern retelling of the Faustian legend
Wonderfully suspenseful and eerily beautiful film based on Oscar Wilde's novel of the same name (well almost, instead of "picture" it's "portrait"). A (then) modern retelling of the Faust legend about an individual who barters his soul in his wish to never grow old. Hurd hatfield is obviously based on the Faust character and is appropriately cool and detached in his performance, ideally cast in the title role as the beautiful young man who makes a supernatural deal with the dark gods to always retain his physical beauty and youth while only the magnificent portrait of himself registers his aging and depravities. Solid performances also by George Sanders as the Mephistopheles character, playing (as his usual best) a jaded, amoral man of the world who leads Dorian astray with his immoral yet compelling, and seemingly reasonable philosophies on life; and Angela Lansbury is particularly touching in her subtle portrayal in the Gretchen counterpart of Sibyl Vane, the dreamy and virtuous vaudeville performer destroyed by Dorian. Peter Lawford and Donna Reed are pretty window dressing here, with their usual passive, bland acting (Reed's Alma in "From Here To Eternity" later on was a pleasant exception). Flowing direction, lovely B&W cinematography, and the beautifully dark and turbulent "Prelude" tune by Chopin make this a must-see horror/fantasy classic that's a solid film version of Wilde's literary masterpiece. This film is also a deeply disturbing and haunting cautionary parable about man's pursuit of earthly pleasures and decadence and how in the end it is no substitute for spiritual nourishment when it comes at the expense of an individual's morality and humanity--for at the end even Dorian tires of his decadence and dies reciting a prayer on his lips