This unintentionally hilarious 1965 sudser stars Lana Turner as Kit, a wealthy woman trying to hold onto her purchased husband Pete (Cliff Robertson) when one of her ex-beaus is found dead on the beach, a probable suicide. His girlfriend (Stefanie Powers) arrives to find out what went on, and she and Pete fall for one another, to the dismay of Kit, who spends a lot of time drinking, changing clothes and throwing parties. Watching the situation unfold and hoping to get in once Pete is out is a gigolo (Hugh O'Brian) who is currently romancing a tourist of a certain age (Ruth Roman) while his partner romances her friend (Virginia Grey).
At 45 or thereabouts, Lana Turner is deeply tanned, expensively wardrobed and beautiful, though a bit hard-looking. It's sad to remember her in films like "These Glamor Girls" and "Slightly Dangerous" where she was so fresh, energetic and lovely. It's more than age - it's drink, it's cigarettes, it's bad men and it's the Stompanato scandal.
The story starts out one way - the dead man on the beach and an investigation into his death, and then keeps changing, first to a volatile marriage, then to adultery and finally bullfighting, which is used as an allegory for what goes on between a man and a woman. Another fifteen more minutes of film, who knows where we would have ended up.
However many faces love has, this film doesn't move through them very quickly. It doesn't have the pizazz to be the campy film "Portrait in Black" is. As over the top as the story is, the acting isn't over the top enough. See it once for Lana's wardrobe, how unbelievably young Stefanie Powers is and Hugh O'Brian in swimming trunks, and then forget it. You'll be able to.
At 45 or thereabouts, Lana Turner is deeply tanned, expensively wardrobed and beautiful, though a bit hard-looking. It's sad to remember her in films like "These Glamor Girls" and "Slightly Dangerous" where she was so fresh, energetic and lovely. It's more than age - it's drink, it's cigarettes, it's bad men and it's the Stompanato scandal.
The story starts out one way - the dead man on the beach and an investigation into his death, and then keeps changing, first to a volatile marriage, then to adultery and finally bullfighting, which is used as an allegory for what goes on between a man and a woman. Another fifteen more minutes of film, who knows where we would have ended up.
However many faces love has, this film doesn't move through them very quickly. It doesn't have the pizazz to be the campy film "Portrait in Black" is. As over the top as the story is, the acting isn't over the top enough. See it once for Lana's wardrobe, how unbelievably young Stefanie Powers is and Hugh O'Brian in swimming trunks, and then forget it. You'll be able to.