El Retrato de Dorian Gray (lost Mexican TV drama based on Oscar Wilde novel; 1969)
Possibly the title card of the TV Drama, featuring a picture of the main character.
Status: Lost
On 1890, the irish author Oscar Wilde published an early version of his novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" for the first time on the Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. Later on 1891, the final revised version was published by Ward Lock & Co. The novel itself was object of controversy, because it was " 'mawkish and nauseous, unclean, effeminate and contaminating". Since the novel showed a homoerotic nature and a strong criticism o the society of that times, the controversy around it leaded to a series of trials against Oscar Wilde, finishing on the arrest of Wilde, passing two years of forced jobs on the Newgate Prison, later moved to Pentonville Prison, later to Wandsworth Prison, and finally to Reading Gaol (where Wilde wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol).
The Picture of Dorian Gray, even with all the controversy and the censorship, became a universal classic of literature. This because of the topics that were treated and criticized, like the burguess society and the immorality around it.
The first adaptation of the novel to cinema was on 1945, with the homonim movie "The Picture of Dorian Gray", starring Hurd Hatfield, George Sanders y Angela Lansbury.
A long line of adaptations and based-of works came along the time. With this line of works, soon at 1969 came the mexican TV Drama "El Retrato de Dorian Gray", produced by Enrique Alonso and broadcasted on channel 4 (now channel 2, "Las Estrellas"), by Telesistema Mexicano (known today as Televisa Mexico).
Plot
The plot is presumably the same as the original novel, centering into Dorian Gray, a naive and young gentleman that becomes the favorite model of Basile Hallward, a painter who is fascinated with the youth and beauty of Gray. This soon meets Lord Henry Wooton, a close friend of Basile, who gives some sort of advice to Dorian, about seize his youth and beauty and live his life as he wants. Unfortunately, this advice makes Dorian to wish to never grow old and to not lose his beauty, making unconsciously a pact with the devil to make this come true.
Cast
The cast of the drama was composed of actors of the time, featuring Enrique Alvarez Felix, son of the actress Maria Felix, as Dorian Gray[1]. On the role of Lord Henry Wooton performed Carlos Bracho, Carmen Montejo as Lady Wooton, and Silvia Pasquel as Sybil Vane.
Although this work is referenced on the biografic articles about Enrique Alvarez Felix, there is no register of the drama on the official Televisa website, along as is no mentioned on other official media. However, some fansites has collected information about this show. Unfortunately, there are very little description about it. Only an IMDB page[2] has some information, and only one still of Carlos Bracho on his role of Lord Henry has been found.
On the IMDB website, it is said that the show was recorded on B/W format, although on Wikipedia page it is said that was the first TV Drama broadcasted on color, but mentions too that the recordings were on B/W[3]. It is possibly that it was recolored to it official broadcast, but this information remains unconfirmed. Only three chapters were produced or recorded, but is unknown the plot of each one.
Availabity
There has not been any retransmission of the drama, neither on any streaming pirate site, video sites as YouTube or Dailymotion, even on the Televisa official streaming network Blim. There is neither any DVD or BluRay edition of this classic, and for the silence that Televisa and crew has remained about the TV show, is probably that it would never see the light again.
It is believed that this happens because on the decade of 80s, Televisa announced that they would ban all the actors and actresses who were homosexual. A kind of ironic decision, thinking about they made a drama based on a novel fuelled with homoerotic tendences. Even when at the end after some protests around the topic, the actors were not removed from their labours, but apparently some works that could give hints about homosexuality
Gallery
Promotional still, featuring Enrique Alvarez Felix.
Carlos Bracho, performing Lord Henry Wooton.
References
- ↑ WebArchive page where was listed all the protagonic roles of Alvarez Felix. Retrieved 19 Jan '14
- ↑ IMDb page about the show
- ↑ Wikipedia article about the show in spanish