Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray is a 1945 horror film where a handsome young man trades his eternal soul to remain youthful. Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) was an average fellow, a bit more handsome than the rest, but without anything significant about him. That is, until the day he meets Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders) one day as he is at the home of Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore), a friend of Wotton's and the artist who has been painting Dorian's portrait. The men get into a discussion about youth and Basil's lovely little niece Gladys states that she believes Dorian will never change. He will always look just as he does today and indeed, she asks him to wait for her to grow up. Dorian muses that it would be a wonderful thing and makes a wish to remain youthful in front of some Egyptian statue.

He meets an enchanting young singer, Sibyl Vane (Angela Lansbury) at a club and falls in love with her. The two decide to be married, but on the urgings of the sinister Lord Wotton, Dorian plays with her mind, trying to get her to stay the night with him. When she doesn't fall prey to his tricks, he breaks it off with her heartlessly and strangely, the next day she mysteriously dies. By her own hand? Probably. And Dorian's picture grows a little harder around the edges of his eyes. It seems that the picture ages with every evil deed, but Dorian remains the same.

As the years roll by and Dorian grows more cold and evil, he remains just as handsome as ever, but he has had to hide the picture away because it reveals his true nature. As he does more heinous acts, even resulting in the death of close friends by his own hand, the picture grows more sinister. One day, he finds that Gladys (Donna Reed) is all grown up and still in love with him, so he decides to take her as his own. But people whisper about Dorian and why he remains so young, so he must be very careful. When a relative of Sibyl's from all those years ago returns to seek vengeance against the man responsible for her death, Dorian's life gets further complicated. David (Peter Lawford), the young man in love with Gladys, manages to sneak a peek at the mysterious painting and soon, Dorian's mystery comes to light.

This is an old-school horror movie. They didn't use blood and gore, but rather shadows and tricks of light to convey fear. It was all in black and white, except for certain times when they'd show the horrific painting and it would appear in vivid color. It's a very effective medium. This movie reminded me a great deal of another classic horror film, Gaslight, which you should definitely see if you haven't already. Special features include a really odd short about mental illness, but one that was very interesting, and also a Tom and Jerry cartoon from a bygone era. Most importantly, there's a commentary by historian Steve Haberman and the remarkable Angela Lansbury that is sure to please fans.

While this movie certainly isn't for everyone, it has its appeal as an iconic horror film that takes the high road. If you enjoy the classics, I recommend that you at least rent The Picture of Dorian Gray to see how horror was done back in the day.