(Oddly, another film about Wilde, a Technicolor production with a much larger budget, was released in the same month! I haven’t seen it.) I’ve always enjoyed Robert Morley, but always in supporting roles. This is all portrayed superbly in this black and white film. He went to France and died soon after, aged forty-four. At the last one he wrote his last important work, “The Balled of Reading Gaol.” He was released after the full two years, a broken man. He was bounced around between several prisons. The judge: “This is the worst case I have ever tried.” Two years was “totally inadequate for a case such as this.” Wilde was shipped off for hard labor, which soon destroyed his health. Poor Bosie urged Wilde to sue for libel (or at least that’s how it is portrayed in the movie), a disastrous mistake, because he was eviscerated in court, lost the case, and had to pay #9’s legal expenses, which left him bankrupt.Įven worse, the verdict left him open to a charge of public indecency, which was brought, and of which he was found guilty. ![]() #9 couldn’t stand the scandal of his son and Wilde cavorting around (foolishly) in public, and accused Wilde of being a sodomite. He got involved with a childish and dissolute young fop of the nobility, Lord Alfred Douglas (known as Bosie), the son of the son of a bitch John Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. I’ve seen three or four films of it, and it always delights me.īut homosexuality was a crime in England. He wrote five plays, including one of the funniest comedies ever, The Importance of Being Earnest. He wrote short fiction, the best known being The Picture of Dorian Gray. He was the greatest wit of the times, endlessly quotable today. He was homosexual (a word never actually uttered in this film, though we hear of “The love that dare not speak its name”) though able to function as a straight man, fathering two sons. Horror bad guy no more, now Gray is just a gentleman.The story of Oscar Wilde is one of the great tragedies of the Victorian age. Edward Hyde) and, yes, old Dorian Gray himself. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemenįinally! Some respect for old Dorian Gray (who, yes, might not be a great guy, but certainly deserves more respect than being cast as a commonplace horror film villain)! The 2003 film from Stephen Norrington has double literary roots-it’s based on Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill comic books, which were in turn inspired by some of the great ( fine, extraordinary) characters of classic storytelling. At least there are some highly dated cell phones to enjoy? 9. Set in the world of high fashion, the film might boast a well-known actor like Malcolm McDowell, and it might also aim to put a bawdy spin on things, but shoddy special effects and horrific acting make Pact With the Devil one of the worst products of Wilde wannabes imaginable. Back in 2004, someone else had the idea to cast the character as a horrifying baddie. The shoddy horror film treatment of Dorian Gray doesn’t stop with Three Shadows. While it’s not nearly as funny as other Wilde works, Golden’s take on the play works strangely well in its current-day setting, proving that Wilde’s canny ability to explore people and emotions doesn’t know any bounds when it comes to time period. Yet another spin on Lady Windermere’s Fan, Karl Golden’s 2009 Belonging to Laura modernizes the classic tale and sticks it into 21st century Dublin. Belonging to Lauraīelonging to Laura - Trailer from Darran Tiernan on Vimeo. Lovecraft tale) in three related stories. ![]() One such example of that bizarre twisting of Wilde’s work is Ansel Faraj’s 2010 film Three Shadows, which stars Kevin Shayer as Gray, Nosferatu, and Abner Whateley (as inspired by an H.P. Wilde’s sole novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, has spawned plenty of big screen takes, with most of them focusing on the more terrifying elements of the eponymous man who never ages, while a portrait of him in his original youth continues to suffer disfigurements and ailments. ![]() ![]() The play and documentary eventually spawned a feature film based on Wilde’s original work, featuring a long buzzed-about performance by Jessica Chastain. Not content to just star in a theatrical production of the play, Pacino did a deep dive into the life and world of Wilde, resulting in a doc that enchanted both old and new fans of the playwright and was a big win at the Venice International Film Festival for Pacino. Al Pacino’s very amusing 2011 documentary about the making of his take on Wilde’s play Salome is sprightly, smart, and more than a bit insane.
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