10 Cult Movies Filmed In Black And White

7. The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1945)

Dorian Gray is an exceptionally handsome, wealthy young dandy who is somewhat naive and suggestible. He is sitting for a portrait by his friend Basil when he is introduced to Lord Henry Wotton who tells Dorian that the only life worth living is one devoted to pleasure. Dorian states that he wishes he could never grow old. He falls madly in love with an actress called Sybil Vane and they get engaged. Wotton tells Dorian this is not a cool thing to do, so the ever impressionable Dorian dumps Sybil and she kills herself. At first horrified, Dorian soon adopts Wotton's detached air and goes to the opera without a care. He notices a change in his picture and freaks out but nevertheless, he devotes his life to greed, sin and debauchery - forever preserving his beautiful, youthful visage while the portrait grows more and more ravaged. Basil catches a glimpse of the horrifying, demonic portrait and urges Dorian to change his ways. For this, Dorian kills Basil. This is the beginning of bad things happening to Dorian and he starts to hate himself which ends up with him stabbing the ghoulish portrait and taking on its qualities whilst dead and the portrait reverts to a youthful Dorian. As a piece of black and white cinema, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a masterclass on how to produce a black and white film. Every shot is well thought out and designed to cause maximum impact. It is a slow moving film but the horror within gradually snowballs until we see the final ghastly version of Dorian's portrait in colour - this bit is scary and jarring because of the demonic look of Dorian and the juxtaposition of colour and black and white. Dorian - played by Hurd Hatfield in his most notable film role - is perhaps not as handsome as one would expect of Dorian's beauty as rapturously described in Oscar Wilde's book. He does, however, possess an unemotional, arrogant, and narcissistic demeanour that is perfect for Dorian. After all, no one except Dorian knows that he has sold his soul and his chilly demeanour is a perfect foil to the person he really is inside - a depraved, disgusting reprobate. In many ways, he is the perfect horror villain because he keeps it all inside and festers from his core whilst his appearance is that of an angel. Freddie Kruger he ain't.