I wonder what the author would make of this? It's crass and vulgar, which might have tickled him, but is also entirely unsophisticated - and I doubt that would have amused him quite so much. It's got a very early seventies look right from the outset with Helmut Berger in the title role - blonde, good looking, living a debauched lifestyle. When he is painted by "Basil" (Richard Todd) - a painting with nothing at all faulty about it; he is so struck by it that he offers to trade his soul for these looks to last eternally. What ensues is a tale of man gorgeous on the outside, but increasingly hideous underneath - and he can plainly see that as his lifestyle and character become less savoury and, frankly, depraved, so his image on the now hidden canvas becomes more ugly and distorted. His friends are powerless to stop this decline, even the ones that want to - and that doesn't include the decadent homosexual "Lord Wotton" (Herbert Lom) nor some of his less attractive lady friends - Isa Miranda ("Mrs. Ruxton") and Margaret Lee ("Gwendolyn") who successfully add oil to his fire. Berger is well cast from an aesthetic perspective, but his acting is as wooden as the frame on his portrait; Todd is just dull - a skill he frequently mastered during his long career, but Lom rescues it occasionally as the superbly sleazy queer peer and the whole Chelsea chic look to it adds well to the overall trashiness of the thing. On the whole, it's pretty cringemaking, but these stories have to reinvent themselves from time to time, and this contemporary (for 1970) version, though poor, keeps the spirit of Wilde's story alive just about.
Fast Eddie Felson is a small-time pool hustler with a lot of talent but a self-destructive attitude. His bravado causes him to challenge the legendary Minnesota Fats to a high-stakes match.
Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.
David Sumner, a mild-mannered academic from the United States, marries Amy, an Englishwoman. In order to escape a hectic stateside lifestyle, David and his wife relocate to the small town in rural Cornwall where Amy was raised. There, David is ostracized by the brutish men of the village, including Amy's old flame, Charlie. Eventually the taunts escalate, and two of the locals rape Amy. This sexual assault awakes a shockingly violent side of David.
In Los Angeles, a wealthy man, known as Mr. Fuller, discovers a shocking secret about the world he lives in. Fearing for his life, he leaves a desperate message for a friend of his in the most unexpected place.
In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Soon unfrozen, the form-changing creature wreaks havoc, creates terror... and becomes one of them.
In 1920s Ireland young doctor Damien O'Donovan prepares to depart for a new job in a London hospital. As he says his goodbyes at a friend's farm, British Black and Tans arrive, and a young man is killed. Damien joins his brother Teddy in the Irish Republican Army, but political events are soon set in motion that tear the brothers apart.
Tom Ripley is a calculating young man who believes it's better to be a fake somebody than a real nobody. Opportunity knocks in the form of a wealthy U.S. shipbuilder who hires Tom to travel to Italy to bring back his playboy son, Dickie. Ripley worms his way into the idyllic lives of Dickie and his girlfriend, plunging into a daring scheme of duplicity, lies and murder.
A rule-bound head butler's world of manners and decorum in the household he maintains is tested by the arrival of a housekeeper who falls in love with him in post-WWI Britain. The possibility of romance and his master's cultivation of ties with the Nazi cause challenge his carefully maintained veneer of servitude.
In order to save his dying father, young stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze sells his soul to Mephistopheles and sadly parts from the pure-hearted Roxanne Simpson, the love of his life. Years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Roxanne, now a go-getting reporter, and also with Mephistopheles, who offers to release Johnny's soul if Johnny becomes the fabled, fiery 'Ghost Rider'.
A veteran high school teacher befriends a younger art teacher, who is having an affair with one of her 15-year-old students. However, her intentions with this new "friend" also go well beyond platonic friendship.
A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies.