Le Dépravé

In the late 60's in London, the model Dorian Gray (Helmut Berger) meets the aspirant actress Sybil Vane (Marie Liljedahl) and they fall in love for each other. Meanwhile, his friend Basil Hallward (Richard Todd) concludes his painting, and Dorian Gray, fascinated with the picture, proposes the devil to exchange his soul per a permanent youth and beauty. From this moment on, the character and behavior of the former sweet Dorian changes and he becomes a corrupt and amoral man, sex driven and capable of destroying many lives inclusive Sibyl's. While his friends grow older, Dorian remains young never aging, but his painting discloses his innermost ugliness, fruit of his despicable social conduct.

"Dorian Gray" is a good contemporary adaptation of the famous Oscar Wilde's classic novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray", which I believe is one of the books most read, or at least known, worldwide. Everybody is familiarized with this dramatic and evil story. The handsome Helmut Berger fits perfectly to the role and I really liked this underrated movie. Massimo Dallamano's version is original, attractive and has a good international cast. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Retrato de Dorian Gray" ("The Picture of Dorian Gray")

Note: On 14 July 2022, I saw this film again.

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.

Massimo Dallamano's film of Oscar Wilde's work places the story to the London of the 1960s. Even though many reviews obviously didn't like this and wrote rather negative about the film, I think the story works surprisingly well.

Helmut Berger is excellent and undeniably gorgeous as the (in the end tragic) title character, but also the other actors deliver their best. Especially Herbert Lom as Henry Wotton acts absolutely great, and most of the women are not only very pretty, but also deliver convincing performances.

All in all, "Dorian Gray" surely is the most unusual film version of the writing, it is rather drama than horror, but that's what Oscar Wilde's work is too, isn't it? I guess that Oscar Wilde would have liked this.

Once you see DORIAN GRAY you can't forget it. It's an updated version of the famous story, updated for the swinging 60s/70s which today is now outdated, which only adds to its many memorable aspects.

There's no point of giving a brief synopsis of the story as we all know it's about a man who remains perpetually young while a painting of himself ages in the attic. But what's really "new" or different here is the tone. It's trashy or should I say Eurotrashy. Helmut Berger plays Dorian Gray as a bisexual jet-setter who likes to mingle with beautiful young women but also with men on the side. The moral of the story is that Dorian has no morals and Helmut is perfectly cast as Dorian.

The one big problem with this version is that it was made a bit too early in the 70s. Had this been made in the mid to late 70s, there would have been a bit more sex or violence. It was sorta ahead of its times with the lurid update of the Dorian Gray story but it could have used a bit more explicitness to make it more true to its intentions. As it is, it hints at things it almost never shows and it's just a big tease of sorts. With a bit more sex it could have enjoyed a wider success like the Emmanuelle films.

But the main reason to watch DORIAN GRAY is for Helmut. It's one of his few starring roles and he shines here as the decadent title character.

Trashy fun!

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!