“Forgotten Hollywood”- Disturbing Dorian…
Manny P. here…
“`Wondered what became of the Dorian Gray portrait featured in the 1940s motion picture, it can currently be found on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. It attracts lots of attention, often disturbing museum patrons not expecting to come across such a monstrosity.
“`Ivan Albright designed this lurid portrait for the Oscar-winning MGM movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde’s macabre tale, Dorian Gray decides to commission a portrait of himself as an attractive young man and later trades his soul for an ever-youthful appearance. As the still-handsome Gray travels an increasingly troubled and evil path; his painted representation rots and decays, revealing the extent of a moral corruption of his own making.
“`Albright’s renown for visualized offerings of terror made him the ideal choice of Albert Lewin, the director of the movie, to paint the horrific image of Gray. Although the movie was filmed in black and white, Lewin shot the painting in color to represent Gray’s shocking transformation. Actor Hurd Hatfield (above) portrays the tragic figure who bargains with the devil.
“`That painting, along with dozens of others, is on view at the museum as part of an Albright retrospective.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 30th, 2019 at 10:57 am and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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