Image via Wikipedia (Colin Firth at the IIFA awards in 2007 where he was an MD for Oxfam)

Ben Chaplin’s Basil Hallward is the man charged with capturing Dorian’s good looks in a portrait which will be the central piece of artistic work at the young man’s expansive London home. This is where things become more intriguing. It soon becomes apparent that the painting is much more than just a pictorial representations of our ‘hero’ and, when Dorian abandons his good morals in favour of a more decadent existence, it appears on the face of it (his face anyway) that he has found the key to unlocking the fountain of youth and agelessness. Dorian, operating as Lord Henry’s existential protégé, proceeds to take advantage of his own explosive sex appeal, leaving a trail of destruction and broken hearts in his wake. His actions bring to mind the words of another legendary writer (Michael Jackson): “People always told me, be careful what you do, don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts” (from Billie Jean). A morality tale which lacks real spark but is occasionally enjoyable. The acting is passable.

Image via Wikipedia (The Picture of Dorian Gray by Ivan Albright, 1943)

4/10 

Run the clock forward eleven years.

Attics do not have an endless capacity for storage or perhaps the family had decided to move to a new home.

For whatever reason a “sort- out” was needed.

If your imagination is the director of this story then now is the time to pick your lighting and camera angle.

Because one can only imagine the horror on the face of the person, or the hairs sticking up on the back of the neck when they picked up that doll to find this:

The doll had aged and now had the face of a very old person. The skin was drawn back to an almost zombie like, or even mummified appearance. What makes it more unnerving to look at are the human qualities of it, particularly those eyes which appear to be staring straight at you.

What had caused this? Had, as the Express suggested “demonic forces set to work”?

Or was it like Dorian Gray’s portrait, and had withered and aged?

For whatever reason it had happened, the family were not keeping it and gave it away.

Jim Eaton, expert of the paranormal and author of Ghosts caught on film II, said “This is a picture of what the doll looked like before it was given away. We can only wonder at what condition it is in now.”

Apparently, after the family had given it away, the doll was later sold on for a considerable amount of money.

As Jim Eaton said, what it looks like now we can only guess at.

What caused it, we can only speculate on.

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