Das Bildnis des Dorian Gray

Much like other sexploitation films of this period, looking back on them can be quaint. They have plenty of nudity, but it's not as if they ever get into hardcore sex. This adaptation of Dorian Gray promises tons of sex and depravity, but its fairly chaste when all is said and done. What's most surprising about it is that it's not a half bad adaptation of the Oscar Wilde story from which it's based.

Helmut Berger plays Dorian Gray, an impossibly beautiful young man who falls for an actress named Sybil, but as he starts to make it way up through the London society crowd, he no longer has much use for Sybil and after he discards her, she kills herself. This leads Dorian to harden and only rely on his looks until people begin to get suspicious as to why he never seems to age after many years. Perhaps the secret involves a painting hidden away in his attic.

Despite adding in some sex and nudity to spice things up, this version of Dorian Gray plays out, more or less, like the original story. It might dwell in the sexual depravity a bit more than most adaptations, but at least it works for the story it's telling. It's a bit slow at times, but at least it's trying to tell a somewhat interesting story.

I was certain that no cinematic representation would do justice to the book. However, the clever idea of making a contemporary film made it interesting and original. Even the focus on Helmut Berger looks is not faulty, since this is the spirit of the book. Thankfully, all the girls were also very pretty. Although it's no masterpiece on its own right, Oscar Wilde would have liked it.

One of inspired versions of the novel by Oscar Wilde. For the fair portraits of Dorian, Harry and Basil, Richard Todd offering the perfect tones for his character. For the portrait itself and its last form of degradation. For the revelation of soul to Basil and scene of murder. For the hunting scenes and for the way to reflect his character proposed by Helmut Berger.

Not the last , for the images of sin and the more realistic and profound exploration of the relation with Sybill ( not the last, for wise solution of her last gesture ).

In short, provocative, no doubts, but well integrated in the frame of 1970 sexual revolution One of fundamental good points - the manner to craft his Henry Wotton of brilliant Herbert Lom.

Updated to the Swinging Sixties, produced by infamous exploitation guru Harry Alan Towers and directed by a one-time cameraman from 'spaghetti' Westerns, this is - incredibly enough! - one of the best versions of Oscar Wilde's oft-filmed Decadent classic. At the very least, such a hedonistic decade allows for a frank portrayal of Dorian's bisexuality, promiscuity and drug addiction - hinted at so strongly in the novel, but barely glimpsed in Albert Lewin's 1945 film classic.

Its trump card is the presence of gorgeous Helmut Berger as 'the god named Dorian' (to quote the Italian title). If there was ever a more inspired bit of casting in film history, I can't think of it right now. Best known as the protege of Luchino Visconti, the beauteous Berger here proves himself as an actor in his own right. In or out of his deliciously camp Carnaby Street wardrobe, Berger glows with golden-limbed hedonism and seductive evil!

Backing him up is a splendid supporting cast. Herbert Lom as the sinister gay aesthete Lord Henry Wotton, whose barbed witticisms are lifted directly from Wilde. Margaret Lee and Eleonora Rossi Drago as two Sapphic jet-setters. Isa Miranda as a raunchy and vulgar American millionairess. (Her outfits would make Fellini blush for shame!) Not too sure about Euro-porn starlet Marie Liljedahl and Richard Todd is a bore as the painter Basil Hallward.

But even when the acting falters, the outrageously kitsch costumes and settings make this film a visual delight! Will I ever recover from that first sight of Dorian's zebra-lined 60s shag pad? Somehow I doubt it. This whole film is sleazy, trashy, vulgar, over-the-top...a shameless piece of camp on every level. Poor old Oscar Wilde would have adored every minute of it! And so do I!

This updating of Oscar Wilde's Victorian-age novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray," to the 1970s and translating of the English-language text to Italian is surprisingly faithful--more so in some ways than the classic 1945 MGM version, among others. I generally don't find faithfulness important for an adaptation, but in this case it's usually for the best. And, the ways in which it does diverge from Wilde are interesting, including all of the 1970s style. I also believe that this is the first screen version to be explicit about homosexuality, which, of course, even the book wasn't (although granted, chronologically, this is only the third Dorian Gray film I've found available after the 1945 one and a 1915 silent two-reeler).

Some of the film techniques employed leave much to be desired, including the abruptness of the opening prolepsis, and its point-of-view shots of bloody hands. Some of the sex scenes are too long as well, although they're not very explicit because the bodies are generally obscured by foreground objects. Consequently, some consider this trashy or a sexploitation film, but I don't necessarily agree. At least, it could've been a lot more risqué considering its source. Anyways, it's not the gorgeous piece of art that the MGM film remains. It does, however, have plenty of 1970s fashion and style and a groovy soundtrack. It also benefits from the most-appropriate-looking (as far as being blonde, blue-eyed, young and handsome) and probably best-looking Dorian to ever appear on screen, Helmut Berger. The removal of many of Wilde's epigrams, however, leaves an unusually dull Henry.

Unlike other versions, including the 1945 and 2009 ones, this film doesn't do away almost entirely with the details of Sybil Vance's Shakespearean acting. It keeps the reason that Dorian rejects her because of her poor performance, even though she still has sex with him, as in the other movies and as just about everyone else in this film does. It bothers me that other adaptations miss the self-reflexive implications and theme of artistic illusion of this plot point. Another thing I like here is that it doesn't add a second grand romance, who is either related to Basil or Henry, for Dorian. It's entirely unnecessary. The Gladys here is an actual character from the book who partly fits that bill, instead, as well as the host of other characters from Wilde whom Dorian shags here. One of these liaisons explains his wealth, as 1970s Dorian, apparently, must work unlike his 19th-century counterpart. Another is the source of his blackmail of Alan Campbell, which is unexplained in the novel. The Alan storyline also involves photography, which is better employed here than it was in the 2009 "Dorian Gray."

Most sensationally, however, is the scene where Dorian drops the soap in the shower and Henry picks it up, and there are a few more homosexual hookups besides that. Oddly, the two characters I thought were most coded as gay when reading the novel are straight here: Basil, who gushes over his feelings for Dorian's looks in the book and fears that his portrait will expose those feelings, is merely a painter for hire here; and the usual theory of Alan's blackmail in the book is that Dorian threatened to expose his homosexuality--a crime back then, for which the author Wilde would later be sentenced. Dorian, Henry and Gwendolyn, on other hand, all take part in this iteration. I'm also rather surprised by the lack of drugs for a 1970s low-budget, supposed exploitation film. Even Wilde had Dorian visit an opium den. Regardless, this remains the most daring Dorian Gray screen adaptation to that date, which benefited by its updating to the sexual revolution.