Who should have played Dorian Gray?

It's playing on TCM now, and face it, Hurt Hatfield is as lifeless as an actor can be. Beautiful, but he's so stiff you could use him as a surfboard.

But who else was there? Dorian Gray needs to be beautiful, really stunningly attractive, the kind of man who draws your eyes from across the street even if he's not your type... and in the mid-forties Hollywood was short on beautiful men. Heck, WWII was still on and Hollywood was short of men, period, most of the big stars of the era had enlisted and were off fighting the Nazis, most leading men of that time period were older or boy-next-door types like Van Johnson. Things were worse in Britain, where the film industry had basically shut down except for making the odd propaganda film like Olivier's "Henry V".

Gregory Peck was about the only really good-looking man working that year, and he seemed to be incapable of playing scoundrels.