1945 - THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY and 1951 - PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN

Viewed a couple of highbrow flicks this week by the Director/Writer, Albert Lewin. How did this guy ever get work? First up, "The Picture of Dorian Grey" the story of a guy who is not nice and never ages. He has a magic painting hidden in his house which reflects all of the corruption and evilness in his nature. This was actually very entertaining for a pseudo highbrow film. Lewin was clever enough to use a lot of the dialog and situations from Oscar Wilde's book. The production had that top MGM sheen which people like to talk about. The painting on the left used in the movie actually hangs in the Chicago Museum of Art much to my surprise when I went there.



 


 Next up, "Pandora and the Flying Dutchman. Ava Gardner is Pandora Reynolds, a woman so beautiful that a man will kill himself over her (he was drunk after all). Into her life comes the legendary Flying Dutchman, doomed to roam the seven seas in search of true love, etc. Ava just happens to be his reincarnated spouse, although she says that she is just a "singer from Indianapolis". Ava Gardner could never be a "singer from Indianapolis" if her life depended on it and her life does depend on it because if she hooks up with the Dutchman she will die. There is also a jealous bullfighter involved and a race car driver trying to break some sort of beach speed record in some sort of souped up jalopy. The film is narrated by a "Dr Quest" professor type who just assumes that the Flying Dutchman sailing into a party town on the coast of Spain is no big deal. I hope the above description conveys a small taste of the goofiness of this film which I enjoyed a lot.