HotToastyRag
I never give spoilers, but Portrait in Black is one movie I'd love to spoil. I won't though, but I'll warn you in the best way I can. Everything in Portrait in Black promises to take the story in a certain direction, and had it gone in that direction, it would have been very good. I would have raved about the glamorous love story, the great suspense and melodramatic acting that puts you in the mood for another Peyton Place or Madame X. Instead, the gigantic build-up doesn't follow through, and it turns into a movie with a lousy love story, no suspense, and ridiculously melodramatic acting that makes you groan and roll your eyes.Lana Turner is married to Lloyd Nolan, and while he's deathly ill, she for some reason has no patience. The man is dying and in an enormous amount of pain, but she continues to be mean to him-and she's having a hot and heavy affair with his doctor, Anthony Quinn. I know Tony's gorgeous, but couldn't she wait a few months? Apparently not. Lana and Tony come up with a plan to kill Lloyd, but once he's dead, their amour isn't smooth sailing. Servants Ray Walston and Anna May Wong, daughter Sandra Dee, and business partner Richard Basehart are all suspicious of Lloyd's death-and who's hiding information from whom?I know, it sounds fantastic, but trust me on this one, it's incredibly disappointing. It's even more disappointing because you've been led on for two hours, investing your time and hopes in what you thought was going to be an epic classic. If you don't believe me, I guess you can rent it, but you won't be happy about it. Your only consolation will be getting to drool over Anthony Quinn.
TheLastDriveIn
Directed by Michael Gordon, Produced by Ross Martin, based on a play and adapted to the screen by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, this crime melodrama is filled with all the right tawdry drama and campy dialog that makes watching films from the fabulous 60′s so much fun!Starring Lana Turner as Sheila Cabot a woman who is married to a dying shipping magnate Matthew Cabot ( Lloyd Nolan). Anthony Quinn portrays Dr. David Rivera, Matthew Cabot's attending physician. The wealthy couple live in a sumptuous home in San Francisco.Sheila and the good Doctor, begin having an affair, and soon after their sparks fly , the lovers decide to murder Sheila's nasty yet, terminally ill husband. But as often the way these juicy tales of murder and passion go, someone knows the lovers have killed off the rich old Cabot, and begins blackmailing them.Sandra Dee plays Cathy, Cabot's daughter from his first marriage. Richard Basehart is Howard Mason, Cabot's greedy business partner. John Saxon plays Blake Richards, the chauffeur, who is pursuing Cathy, and Ray Walston, Virgina Grey and Anna May Wong fill out the cast of dubious characters, all of whom might be the 'one' who knows about their crime!Oh the flashy melodramatics, Oh Turner's wardrobe!
dglink
Adultery, murder, blackmail, and Lana Turner, what more could one ask of a Ross Hunter production? Perhaps a good script, but that would spoil the fun. "Portrait in Black" will have lovers of camp in stitches at dialog that makes daytime soaps seem Shakespearean. The overwrought emoting and melodramatic scenes are often unintentionally funny, and the plot requires Olympian leaps to cross the credibility gaps.Lana is having an affair with Anthony Quinn, the doctor who is attending her terminally ill husband, Lloyd Nolan, a shipping magnate. Nolan's company, Cabot Lines, is evidently quite successful, because Lana's daily expenditures on wardrobe, coiffures, and makeup would likely sink a ship. The couple's palatial San Francisco home is a Ross Hunter fantasy whose upkeep could sink yet another Cabot Line vessel. Nolan's daughter from a first marriage, Sandra Dee, evidently has her stepmother's taste in clothes and manicure, while the son from his marriage to Lana has to make do with a toy airplane. Throw in a greedy business associate played by Richard Basehart; Dee's suitor, John Saxon; a chauffeur, Ray Walston; and a housekeeper, Anna May Wong; and you have a delicious cast of potential suspects to populate an Agatha Christie mystery. However, "Portrait in Black" is not a whodunit, but rather a "who knows they dun it." Lana is the ultimate drama queen, and she is in peak form. She suffers, she screams, she cries; she is the empress of high camp. Anthony Quinn, who should have read the script before he signed the contract, plays down to his part and seems to know he has had and will have better parts. Sandra Dee appears to be studying for future Lana Turner roles, while Walston and Wong play their parts with the necessary ambiguity to keep viewers guessing their secrets.However, despite the overacting, bad writing, and soap opera direction, "Portrait in Black" is great fun for those who love their melodramas with big budgets and great style. Even the obligatory mirror smashing has been incorporated. The movie is enormously entertaining for its sometimes howlingly funny situations, absurd lines, and the sheer pleasure of watching Lana looking and emoting at her best.
blanche-2
This is another one of my favorite camp movies, though I'm sure Ross Hunter didn't intend that. It's an opulent, big budget soaper with Lana Turner rich and glamorous in the lead, which guarantees us some nice clothes anyway. Her husband is the sickly Lloyd Nolan, and his doctor is Lana's boyfriend, played by Anthony Quinn. Quinn is just aching to put an air bubble in that hypodermic and knock off Nolan. The next thing you know, we're at Lloyd's funeral.Of course, as soon as she's a widow, Lana has another gentleman caller, played by Richard Basehart, and she starts getting blackmail notes. Someone knows that Lloyd had some help going into the great beyond. Soon it's time for another murder...Portrait in Black has some really funny scenes and situations in it. My favorite is when Lana's character, who never got her driver's license, has to drive 25 miles on the Pacific Coast Highway in the rain. It's a riot! John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Ray Walston, Anna Mae Wong, and Virginia Gregg are along for support. Dee plays Turner's daughter, which is good casting. If you like this kind of big-budget potboiler, don't miss Portrait in Black.
AD
