Movie Talk

The Picture of Dorian Gray is an American horror-drama film based on Oscar Wilde's 1891 novel of the same name. Released in March 1945 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film is directed by Albert Lewin and stars George Sanders as Lord Henry Wotton and Hurd Hatfield as Dorian Gray.

I saw it not long ago. I was shocked. And that is why... The fact is that I have met with Hurd Hatfield, the actor who played a part of Dorian Gray in this film. My meeting with him was in Melikhovo (the museum of Anton Chekhov) in 1997. He came to the Chekhov festival in Melikhovo. He was the last student of Michel Chekhov, and Michel Chekhov was a nephew of a great Russian writer Anton Chekhov.

Hurd Hatfield was 80. He was an old handsome man. He very loved the works of Anton Chekhov and very respected him as a great man and a writer. Hurd Hatfield wanted to keep the memory of himself and asked permission to paint the front porch of Chekhov's home. He got it. And now there is the front steps in the Chekhov's museum which were painted by the American actor Hurd Hatfield.

I painted a portrait of Hurd Hatfield in 1997. I think I have made a good work. And when I had saw the film "The Picture of Dorian Gray" I understood that my portrait was a real portrait of Dorian Gray. It's fantastic!