Dorian Gray (Helmut Berger) is a devilishly good looking young man and is a magnet for the ladies. When his artist friend Basil Hallward (Richard Todd) paints his portrait, as he stares at the finished result and having come under the spell of the decadent Henry Wotton (Herbert Lom), Dorian wishes that the picture would grow old and he would stay forever young, thereby selling his soul.
Oscar Wilde's classic novel from 1890 is updated to modern Swinging London in this Italian-British-West German international co-production. It is quite a dreadful transposition from fin-de-siècle 1890s to Swinging London, although it probably seemed a good idea at the time. Berger (his normally great accent dubbed here) makes for good casting as Dorian Gray though, while Lom seems a little embarrassed at fitting Wilde's most cutting epigrams into the dialogue. Filmed in London and Italy, Sir Henry's house is most definitely a Lazio villa and not in the home counties.
Oscar Wilde's classic novel from 1890 is updated to modern Swinging London in this Italian-British-West German international co-production. It is quite a dreadful transposition from fin-de-siècle 1890s to Swinging London, although it probably seemed a good idea at the time. Berger (his normally great accent dubbed here) makes for good casting as Dorian Gray though, while Lom seems a little embarrassed at fitting Wilde's most cutting epigrams into the dialogue. Filmed in London and Italy, Sir Henry's house is most definitely a Lazio villa and not in the home counties.