However although the film has some great components, ultimately it is smothered by MGM's 'taste'.
The film also suffers from Hurd Hatfield as Dorian; he certainly looks the part but his glacial, uninvolving performance never suggests anything underneath, good or bad.
The film however looks wonderful with marvellous art direction, atmospheric lighting and Academy Award-winning cinematography by Harry Stradling.
It also gained 20 year-old Angela Lansbury an Academy Award nomination and a Golden Globe Award, in only her third screen role. She is luminous as tragic Sybil Vane, loved and discarded by Dorian.
George Sanders' silky Sir Henry excels while Lowell Gilmore as Basil, Richard Fraser as James Vane and Morton Lowry as a dissolute artist make up for Hatfield's anonymity.
Shelf or charity shop? I can see myself watching this again but it lives in the limbo of my plastic DVD box...
No comments:
Post a Comment