To mark the centenary of the death of Oscar Wilde, the Irish Film Archive presents a rare screening of this underrated version of the author’s Faustian tale about a young Victorian gentleman who sells his soul to retain his youth. With elegant fin de siecle setsand the ironic Wildean wit understated rather than overplayed, The Picture of Dorian Gray is that rare thing: a Hollywood literary adaptation that both stays faithful and does justice to its source. The film also marked the meetingpoint of two of Hollywood’s most intriguing mavericks – director albert Lewin and actor Hurd Hatfield. Lewin devises a uniquely dark world, wholly ill-at-ease with production company MGM’s cosy values. And Hatfield is hauntingly epicene as Dorian.

USA, 1945
Black and white and Colour
110mins.