Portrait in Black (1960) User Reviews

Lana and Company in Entertaining Melodrama

[dglink · 7/10 · 12 March 2008]

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.

A fun Ross Hunter soap opera from 1960

[mrsastor · 7/10 · 5 January 2007]

Portrait In Black is in many respects typical of the Ross Hunter films that rejuvenated Lana Turner's later career. If you're a fan of the genre, this one is quite entertaining, and in my opinion far superior to the previous year's terrible remake of Imitation of Life.

Portrait In Black brings us a torrid soap opera revolving around the relationship between the wife of a wealthy shipping magnate, Sheila Cabot, and her husband's physician, Dr. David Rivera. Unable to bear having only a few stolen moments for the each other, they conspire to murder Sheila's husband so they can be together. They subsequently find themselves blackmailed and must determine who is the blackmailer and how they will extricate themselves from this web of danger that continues to keep them separated.

As previous reviewers have pointed out, there are some rather silly aspects to the story, but these again are typical of the genre. For beginners, Sheila's husband Matt Cabot is said to have a hopeless terminal illness and to have been ill for many months. Thus, their motivation for murdering him is rather weak; he will soon die without any malicious intent on their part. If they really could not bear the wait, the idea proposed in the script, that they cannot just run away together because Matt Cabot would ruin Dr. Rivera's career and he would "never practice medicine again", is a rather unrealistic threat (although admittedly common in soap opera land). Dr. Rivera's home gives the impression he is already quite wealthy, it is not as though these two would be condemned to a life of poverty and want. These plot holes are exasperated by the poorly directed love scenes between David and Sheila, which consist of much-overplayed melodramatic panting, gasping, crying, and an inordinate and unnatural amount of chewing on one another's hands. Secondly, there are a few script blunders that could have been easily corrected. When Dr. Rivera requires Sheila to drive, he puts her in the car and has to explain what the gas and brake are for, yet in scene one we are told Sheila has been issued a learner's permit by the Department of Motor Vehicles. A learner's permit allows one to drive so long as another licensed driver is present, and one would obviously have to have mastered the basics of what makes the car go in order to be issued such a permit. The plot of device that Sheila "doesn't drive" would have been far more believable without the unnecessary learner's permit in the script. There are a number of similar absent-minded script errors here.

Having said that, one does not watch a period Ross Hunter soaper for realism. One watches it for drama, and the lush and beautiful feel we expect from Mr. Hunter. In this regard, Portrait does not disappoint. Our setting is upper crust Nob Hill in San Francisco. The Cabot home, with the exception of the library being inexplicably painted black, is breathtaking. Lana Turner is stunning, and of course immaculately outfitted in high class fashions, shoes, hats, furs, and jewels at all times, as is Sandra Dee in her second role as Lana Turner's daughter (well, step-daughter in this one). Drama abounds and the at times weak script is handled expertly by the well seasoned cast, including Richard Basehart, Ray Walston, Virginia Grey, Anna Mae Wong, and John Saxon. While Anthony Quinn would have been ideally suited to his role of Dr. David Rivera if the film had been made fifteen years earlier, he is so badly addled by Michael Gordon's incompetent direction in this role it makes him seem a bit past it (with the exception of Pillow Talk, none of Mr. Gordon's films are particularly well directed).

All things considered, this film easily meets its purpose, to entertain and is fun to watch…if you can find it. It is not out on DVD, is no longer available on VHS, and is seldom aired on television. But if you get the chance, it's well worth a watch.

UPDATE: This film was release on DVD in Jan 2008, and it looks great!

unintentionally hilarious

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 31 July 2005]

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.

A picture the likes of which will never be seen again.

[Poseidon-3 · 6 June 2008]

Ms. Turner, enjoying a career renaissance kicked off by the combination of her Oscar-nominated role in "Peyton Place," the Stompanato murder case and the extraordinary success of "Imitation of Life," reteamed with producer Ross Hunter here as another well-to-do beauty suffering great duress. She plays the wife of cantankerous Nolan (who was the noble doctor in "Peyton Place"), a successful shipping magnate confined to a mechanical bed. His inherent bitterness leads him to lash out at Turner, who turns to his handsome doctor Quinn for comfort. When it becomes clear that they can never truly be together as a couple, they decide to relieve Nolan of his pain for good, but soon after they begin to get letters that hint of blackmail. Before long, they are faced with the prospect of committing a second murder in order to protect their secret. Meanwhile, shifty Basehart is running the company and eyeing Turner and Nolan's daughter Dee (who was Turner's daughter in "Imitation of Life") is carrying on with low-rung tugboat owner Saxon. Also, sneaky chauffeur Walston and vaguely threatening housekeeper Wong lurk around every other corner. Turner looks terrific throughout most of the film, being saddled with a couple of ugly hats here and there (and :::gasp::: wearing one outfit twice!), but generally looking fantastic. She was perfect at these types of glossy, over-the-top melodramas and this is among the best. The story (riddled with contrivance and preposterousness) reaches a fever pitch several times and overwrought Lana is right there to help serve it up at its best. Quinn seems a tad out of place, but it's nice to see him in a film from this period that didn't have him playing an Indian, a slave, a fisherman or some other type of earthy character. Basehart is remarkably slimy, Dee a bit more mature than she had been in previous films, yet still unable to shake off her squeaky-clean image and Saxon gritting his teeth in outrage when he isn't trying to canoodle with Dee. Walston gives an appropriately mysterious performance while silent film legend Wong is mostly relegated to stern stares and curt comments. Grey has a supporting role as Nolan's beleaguered secretary, while fairly grating child actor Kohler plays Turner's inquisitive son. Based on a short-running Broadway play from the 40's, but slathered over with the customary Hunter lavishness, this slightly overlong film is a glimmering camp hoot today. As if the overheated acting, silly script and glitzy décor weren't enough, there is a deliriously insane Frank Skinner score punctuating every "nuance" of the plot. At least there is some very creative, for the time, lighting and camera-work in evidence, giving the picture a nourish feel at times (which is quite an accomplishment considering all the gloss in view.) Highlights of the film include: Turner running open-armed to Quinn in his apartment, Turner, decked out in a purposefully drab gown, watching Quinn enter the house to kill Nolan, Turner running around the house and up and down stairs in her snug skirt, turning off lights and panicking and, most especially, Turner confessing that she can't drive and then being forced to operate an unfamiliar car on the Pacific Coast Highway during a hysterical rainstorm! Yes, it's basically her show all the way right up to the closing frames.

Standard melodrama but well done

[ejmartiniak · 6/10 · 29 December 2011]

Portrait in Black is one of those star-studded, glitzy color productions of the early 1960s, and quite often, those movies fell flat on their faces. This one, though, despite being filled with clichés, works. There is the cliché of the lovely but sexually-frustrated Sheila (Lana Turner), wife of a much older, possessive, and abusive husband, Matthew Cabot, played by Lloyd Nolan, who just happens to be loaded (he is the head of a San Francisco-based shipping line). Perky Sandra Dee plays Turner's step-daughter, who predictably does not care for her father's second wife. She in turn, is romantically involved with the rugged John Saxon, the ruggedly handsome but poor head of a small tugboat firm--a match her imperious father would never countenance. Enter Anthony Quinn as the handsome doctor, daily stopping by the mansion to minister to the terminally ill Mr. Cabot. Soon, he finds that fringe benefits come with his visits, as Mrs. Cabot eagerly falls into the strong embraces of the good doctor--she certainly didn't fall for his intellect. One thing leads to another; the cantankerous Matthew conveniently dies, and the rest of the film deals with who knew what and when, how the protagonists deal with blackmail, and how the death pulls them apart instead of vice versa. Supporting roles are noteworthy--Virginia Grey and Anna May Wong--former 1930s glamor queens play the loyal secretary and housekeeper, respectively. But the best supporting performance kudos go to Richard Basehart as Howard Mason, Cabot's scheming business associate. Mr. Basehart embraces the role of the suave, cutthroat businessman who is clearly out for his own advancement. He has proved he will not hesitate to hurt anyone in his grasp for power and wealth. He has an eye for his employer's wife and a mocking, jealous disdain for the supposedly loyal ministrations of Quinn's Dr. Rivera. Mr. Basehart plays Howard with a delightful smarminess that makes him the funnest character of the entire film. Yet, you get the feeling that deep down, Howard can be a decent person--though he has been in love with Sheila for years, he never made a move on her while her husband was alive--perhaps out of loyalty? Subtle facial expressions in his scenes and tones of voice from Mr. Basehart make Howard more than a one-dimensional slimeball. The stunning wardrobe changes Lana Turner parades through the film, the San Francisco location shots, the set design of the mansion, and the tight direction of Ross Hunter make the film a must see.

Portrait in paranoia

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 16 August 2017]

Ross Hunter veers into suspense and melodrama. For the only time in one of his large scale soap operas there's no happy ending for the leads. Considering what they did, there should not have been.

Portrait In Black has Lana Turner married to a crippled and dying Lloyd Nolan who is the head of a shipping line operating out of San Francisco. Lana was his second trophy wife and they've got a son young Dennis Kohler. There's also Sandra Dee Nolan's daughter by a first marriage.

The picture we get of Nolan is that he was one tough and ruthless businessman and a mean man to cross. Such things impotency were not dealt with in films much, in fact only three years earlier it got dealt with at all The Sun Also Rises. No doubt Nolan can't deliver the goods any more, so Turner has been seeing Nolan's physician Anthony Quinn and the doctor has the prescription.

But impatience to get their hands on the fortune and she just can't stand living with him any more Quinn kills him.

These two are having a lot of guilt and Turner wants to keep a hold on him. That is a key to a lot of the bizarre events that follow when someone else dies, someone else is nearly strangled and in the end our protagonists pay dearly.

Quinn especially is a study in paranoia triggered by the guilt. Turner is now more frightened of the Frankenstein monster she's created in Quinn. Mind you this is a promising doctor with what was a bright future ahead of him.

Some other notable roles are Anna May Wong in a farewell performance as the housekeeper in the Nolan/Turner house and Ray Walston who is the chauffeur and a bit of sleazeball, but nothing like what Quinn and Turner have become, and John Saxon who is the son of a business rival of Nolan's who the cops have a their primary suspect.

For a darker, almost Hitchcockian Ross Hunter tune into Portrait In Black.

It's horrifyingly foolhardy to trust "the son . . . "

[tadpole-596-918256 · 7/10 · 19 January 2018]

" . . . of a Napa Valley fruit picker" to be your U.S. Congressman, immigrant ban appellate judge, or personal doctor armed with an air bubble injecting hypodermic needle killing machine, Universal Pictures anticipates Leader Trump's warning against allowing murderers and rapists from the South to infiltrate our once-great American Homeland. Universal taps Anthony Quinn to portray one of these Southern Threats for its PORTRAIT IN BLACK feature. At 1:34:05 Universal even has a narrator intone the Hippocratic Oath to illustrate for viewers how enabling hot-blooded outliers to practice medicine here makes a mockery of our most sacred profession. Should one of these medical miscreants get within a needle's length of Leader Trump's arteries, Universal warns, Wall Street will be forever blowing bubbles. PORTRAIT IN BLACK also cautions this nation's Trump disciples against the danger posed by young, exotic "trophy wives," such as Lana Turner's character "Sheila." Chicks such as Sheila might be pretty as a rose to look at, but many harbor deadly bee stings inside. Leader Trump would have been just slightly older than Black Widow Sheila's young son "Peter" when PORTRAIT IN BLACK was hung out to dry. Let's hope he was paying attention to its lessons.

Explitives in a 1960's film?

[shedaymuch · 7/10 · 6 April 2020]

It's a good movie full of melodrama, I love Quinn and Turner is one of my favs too; I'm a 'Thin Man' junkie and was happy to see Virginia Grey in this film! My favorite part is when Quinn says #&#@ ! You have to watch the film to catch the part when he says it.

Classic Melodrama

[JLRMovieReviews · 9/10 · 26 March 2009]

Lana Turner, who's married to invalid Lloyd Nolan, has fallen for his doctor Anthony Quinn in one of Lana's most underrated films. This has to be one of the best examples of the melodrama genre, with Lana looking great as usual. I love it when movies know how to fill the cast with recognizable names, giving each role a chance to stand out: Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Lloyd Nolan, Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Ray Walston, silent-screen star Anna May Wong, and Virginia Grey, who was an almost constant presence in Lana's later films. How you can go wrong? Granted, it may be campy or cheesy in some places, with loopholes to boot. But it wouldn't be melodrama without them. And, watching Anthony be driven out of his mind, is priceless. Only a great actor as him could overact so well. And, Sandra Dee comes off surprisingly well in her role, as the stepdaughter skeptic of her stepmother, who goes shopping, but comes back with no packages. If you're yearning for a good old-fashioned movie, the kind they just don't make anymore, this is for you. It's out on DVD, with Madame X. (That's another review.) Knock yourself out! Also, with Lana and John Saxon together in San Francisco, it feels like early Falcon Crest all over again. You gotta love it.

An Excellent Cast Make This Mediocre Neo-Noir Fun

[jayraskin1 · 7/10 · 19 September 2010]

The material was apparently written as a film noir vehicle for Joan Crawford in the mid 1940's. It has some nice surprises and plot twists, but there are points where the lead characters do such obviously absurd and witless things that you have to laugh. For example, one wonders why a wife would kill off a dying husband and risk going to jail instead of waiting a few months for him to kick the bucket naturally. The plot of spousal murder was done to death in hundreds of episodes of the Alfred Hitchcock television series. The level of writing and production is really equal to a good episode of that television series.

What does make it a bit more fun is the acting. Lloyd Nolan, Anthony Quinn, Richard Basehart, Ray Walston, Lana Turner, Anna May Wong (in her last performance), and Sandra Dee were all really likable actors. They bring a lot of charm to their parts, whether they are supposed to be likable or not. I thought Ray Walston in a small part as a shity, debt-ridden chauffeur was especially effective. This was between his role of the devil in "Damn Yankees" and Martin the Martian on the television series, "My Favorite Martian" and it reminds us how great an actor he was. Also, it is interesting that Quinn and Basehart had been together in Fellini's masterpiece "La Strada" just four years before. As in that film, they do not get along here either.

If the film had been made in the 1940's, at a decent studio, it might have been a classic, but for some reason, we are less forgiving of plot holes and unmotivated character behavior in color films. The actors manage to battle the clichéd script and characters to a draw, which makes it worth watching.

This was on a two-film DVD along with Lana Turner's "Madame X". Someone wrote that watching "Portrait in Black" made television soap operas look like Shakespeare. Compared to "Madame X," "Portrait in Black" looks like Shakespeare.

Silly but fun

[preppy-3 · 5/10 · 28 December 2017]

Lana Turner plays Sheila Cabot. She's unhappily married to a mean, old and rich man who treats her like that. She's having a secret affair with his doctor (Anthony Quinn). They plan and inject a lethal air bubble into her husband killing him. She gets all his money. They think they've gotten away with it till Turner receives a note in the mail saying, "Congratulations on the success of your murder". Who knows it and what do they want. A young Sandra Dee and John Saxon are mixed up in this.

The plot is OK, it LOOKS great and Turner is always dressed to the 9s but this fails utterly. It has terrible dialogue--truly laughable. The acting doesn't help, Turner--a wonderful actress--gives a lousy performance. Quinn is seriously miscast and out of his depth. Saxon and Dee are good but are hardly in it. There's also a totally ridiculous but fun plot twist at the end. This was (understandably) a box office failure but is now considered a camp classic. Proceed at your own risk.

Loved Lana and Sandra Dee together, good movie for a rainy Sunday

[Bacall-3 · 10/10 · 7 December 1998]

This movie does not have a convoluted plot, no outrageous secrets that the viewer is unaware of, just plain good murderous suspense. Lana Turner is beautiful, and gives a flawlessly terse performance as the wealthy heiress to be.

Sandra Dee is very believable as her step-daughter, and nemesis. It was wonderful to see so many famous faces in this movie, which just happened to air on a movie channel on a Sunday afternoon. This is exactly what rainy-day entertainment should be, entertaining and pleasant to view. Lana and Sandra play wealthy women, and their costumes and home are a treat for the eyes. Watch this, you will be entertained, although the plot is not knee-deep.

Colorful Melodrama

[ags123 · 7/10 · 25 October 2018]

Unlike Lana Turner's previous Ross Hunter extravaganza, "Imitation of Life," which had a serious side to it, "Portrait In Black" is pure fun. Once again she plays a glamour puss, decked out in Jean Louis gowns and David Webb jewels just to sit around the house. When she goes shopping at I. Magnin she positively drips in fur. The plot is a quasi-remake of Lana's Hollywood high point, "The Postman Always Rings Twice," in which she conspires with her lover to kill her much-older husband. Unfortunately, Anthony Quinn as her lover is completely miscast. Richard Basehart is much better as her slimy scorned suitor. Sandra Dee shows up again, this time as Lana's stepdaughter with whom she has an icy relationship. Once the murder takes place, Lana receives threatening notes and suspicion is cast on every character, including the maid and chauffeur. Hilarity ensues when, in a throwback to her scene in "The Bad and the Beautiful," she becomes hysterical while driving a car. Enjoy this film on many levels, as a mystery, a feast for the eyes, or an exercise in campy entertainment.

Ugly murder drama which tries to force you to care about the leading characters.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 12 March 2013]

Trash comes in many appearances, and no matter how you disguise it, it still remains trash. In the case of this Ross Hunter soap opera, over-produced after the success of "Magnificent Obsession" and "Imitation of Life", the result is a re-tread of what star Lana Turner had done (much better) in the original "The Postman Always Rings Twice". Here, she is again married to a much older man, the possessive Lloyd Nolan, a bed ridden tyrant intent on making her life miserable. He has her followed everywhere and violently objects when she wants to learn how to drive so she doesn't need to utilize their chauffeur (a wasted Ray Walston). What comes very apparent is that the bored Turner is having an affair, with Nolan's own doctor (Anthony Quinn), whose obsession with Turner borders on insanity. A syringe filled with air quickly dispatches Nolan, and Turner and Quinn spend the rest of the film trying to keep their affair secret while dealing with an apparent blackmailer.

Who could the blackmailer be? Dour housekeeper Anna May Wong (who suffers racial indignities at the hands of Walston, the most obvious suspect), Nolan's attorney Richard Basehart, the young son of a former business rival (John Saxon) or his daughter from his first marriage (Sandra Dee) are the apparent suspects as the party sending the hand-written letter. While it is all attractive looking and Turner is still lovely, Quinn is totally off-putting in this role, constantly reminding himself of his Hippocratic oath and citing moral laws he's already broken. The screenplay is too self-conscious of its own moral flaws and keeps trying to manipulate you into empathizing with the lovers because of the horrid husband Turner had to suffer with.

Usually, I like these types of films in a guilty pleasure sort of way; The trashier, the better. However, in the case of this film, it somehow feels artificial, like someone took a pulp novel, transported it into a screenplay as originally written, found a bunch of available major stars and threw it together without regards to adding in any quality. The acting is badly melodramatic, the characters feel one dimensional, and the whole feeling is of a soufflé that is about to be touched and collapsed without being serveable.

A terrific Douglas Sirk kind of film with touches of a Hitchcock plot...great!

[secondtake · 14 August 2011]

Portrait in Black (1960)

In a beautifully drippy, bleeding, sticky Douglas Sirk mode, and one year after leading lady Lana Turner appeared in Sirk's "Imitation of Life," this highly slick and artificial (and yet moving) melodrama is one of the high points in a low period of Hollywood. The other main character is Anthony Quinn, who is remarkable, too, one of those underrated leading men, I'm not sure why. The two of them are supported by Richard Basehart as a fascinating and chilling underling with a peculiar mysterious cheerfulness, and Sandra Dee, who plays the spoiled daughter all too well (as you can imagine).

Unlike Sirk's dramas, this one, directed by is not just about normal human dramas (soap opera stuff), but adds a criminal and suspense element that kicks in after half an hour. The throbbing music takes on a different meaning here, and the sobbing and regrets make for an intense ride.

The deeper you get into this movie, the deeper the plot gets, with intrigue and worry and more murder mounting. And it's all filmed with fluid, rich, widescreen color photography, with intensely rendered music (that holds nothing back), and with a subtle kind of attention to nuance that oddly adds to the excesses of the plot.

And it's the plot, the story, that is so finely tuned it sustains all this cinematic swaying. It's not like some movies where the music or the photography drives the plot--here they are woven together really well, artfully and emphatically. Quinn and Turner are both extraordinary, lifting what could have been a soap opera to something completely fuller.

Russell Metty, behind the camera, was at the peak of his career, having shot not only "Imitation of Life" the year before but Sirk's early "Written on the Wind" (and moving on quickly to several masterpieces like "Spartacus" and "The Misfits"). And in fact the composer, veteran Frank Skinner, wrote the music for those two classic Sirk films, as well. It's worth stressing all this because Sirk has a huge (and deserved) following, and I have a feeling this one is just under the radar of Sirk fans. If a great Sirk film seems to almost reference itself the way it becomes so perfectly "arch" in its stereotypes, "Portrait in Black" does maintain a sense of being still a film wanting to move a plot idea along (these are subtle differences about style becoming affectation on purpose). But even so, the parallels are extraordinary, and this is a remarkable movie on those terms.

It's worth wondering what else, beyond Sirk, was going on around this time, and in fact, with the murder and suspense here it helps to look at Hitchcock's films "North by Northwest" (1959) and "Vertigo" (1958). Both are clearly influences in filming style, lacking only that higher level of stylized artfulness (and storytelling) that Hitch was by then such a master of. Or then, you might say, there was perhaps the influence of Sirk on Hitchcock, at least in the visual richness and fluidity (something Hitch abandoned immediately, almost making a point, this very year with "Psycho").

Anyway, if you don't mind an over the top melodrama done to perfection, here you go. And for movie fans, check out Anna May Wong's last film appearance (not a great performance, but she's her own legend). See it on the biggest screen you can, too--this doesn't translate well at all to a laptop experience.

Very melodramatic!

[RodrigAndrisan · 6/10 · 10 November 2018]

Not one of Anthony Quinn's best movies. The great actor did everything he could best with his role. Lana Turner is not really convincing, her acting, for me, is not credible. Much better are Sandra Dee and Anna May Wong. Richard Basehart and John Saxon too, are not convincing, much better are Ray Walston and Lloyd Nolan. Typical melodramatic music, doing a dysfunction, would have been better without.

Lana can't drive .

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 27 July 2020]

Suspenseful ,tense melodrama with old film noir touches ,"portrait in black" has enough sudden new developments to satisfy the thriller buff; the doomed lovers played by the mighty Quinn and Lana Turner (who,along with Sandra Dee ,seems to be taken from Douglas Sirk' s brilliant "imitation of life" (1959),but we are far from the compassionate mom here) suspect everyone in the house from the mischievous chauffeur to the sinister-looking Asiatic housekeeper,after committing a murder (where is the Hippocratic oath ,doctor Quinn?); the identity of the blackmailer is somewhat far-fetched and it provides the low point of an otherwise gripping screenplay .Even the secondary plot ,which concerns Dee and Saxon, though their affair is rather bland, is important for the action .

Of course there are implausibilities : Miss turner had never driven a car in her whole life , but the first time she had been at the wheel, she almost effortlessly did it ,and in the pouring (and I mean pouring) rain to boot!But it is the rule of the game of the thriller cum melodrama .

Good for some laughs.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 19 May 2019]

Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts scripted this soap opera-type thriller, based on their play, and it's a hoot. It's a far from airtight script, but holding it all together is a superior cast of familiar faces. Granted, some of them - especially Anthony Quinn - are required to give hilariously melodramatic performances that don't exactly evoke a lot of sympathy. The viewer is more inclined to think that the character is just getting what they deserve.

Lana Turner, in full glamour mode and decked out in Jean Louis gowns, is unhappily married to shipping magnate Lloyd Nolan, a tough and crusty old type. When the sickly Nolan passes away, it seems that Turner is free to continue her relationship with her doctor lover Quinn, but *somebody* knows every move that Quinn and Turner make, even as he resorts to murder.

The cast is further stacked with players like Sandra Dee (as Nolan's daughter from his first marriage), John Saxon (as a tugboat operator who's dating Dee), Ray Walston (as the affable chauffeur who has little to no luck betting on horse races), Anna May Wong (as the housemaid - this was her final film role before passing away), Virginia Grey (as Nolan's secretary), Dennis Kohler (as the son whom Turner and Nolan had together), and Richard Basehart (as Nolan's fairly slimy business associate). They're all entertaining to watch, which helps "Portrait in Black" over its rough spots and over the top moments. Ex.: heavy storms which occur during key dramatic sequences.

"Portrait in Black" is hardly great cinema, but as a filmic portrait of Glamour (with a capital G) - costumes, jewels, sets, the whole shebang - it's certainly amusing enough, leading to a finale where the bedevilled Quinn is just emoting for everything that he's worth.

Six out of 10.

Solid Suspense Film

[ThomasColquith · 7/10 · 28 May 2022]

"Portrait in Black" is a film that I was unaware of but I watched because I saw that Anthony Quinn was in it and I've liked a lot of his films, so I watched. And I was pleased with it, it was a decent suspenseful thriller that was competently told and well executed. Of course this plot is somewhat dark, having a "Crime and Punishment" like tone, but worth a watch in my opinion, though not sure if I would watch it again. 7/10.

An ultra-glam Lana in a soap opera/mystery

[sabby · 8/10 · 17 February 1999]

Immediately following the success of 1959's "Imitation of Life", a pure masterpiece, producer Ross Hunter called on "Imitation" star Lana Turner to glam-it-up once again in "Portrait in Black", a top-notch blackmail mystery. Teamed up with "Imitation" daughter, Sandra Dee, Turner plays the wife of a San Francisco shipping magnet who's having an affair with her hubby's doctor.

The San Francisco scenes are great, the music by Frank Skinner is lavish, and Lana looks extraordinary. A great production.

murder melodrama

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 27 May 2022]

Sheila Cabot (Lana Turner) is married to an elderly, cold-hearted, bedridden shipping magnate. She's having an affair with his physician Dr. David Rivera (Anthony Quinn). She convinces him to kill her husband. Sheila's other suitor Howard Mason (Richard Basehart) has his suspicions. Her stepdaughter Cathy Cabot (Sandra Dee) has boyfriend Blake Richards (John Saxon) who is trying to rebuild his family's failed shipping business. Cobb (Ray Walston) is the devious family driver and degenerate gambler. Tawny (Anna May Wong) is the ever-present housemaid.

This is an old fashion melodrama. It's pulpy. There is some over-acting especially in the old style romancing. There is so much plot that it's enough for a good quarter season of a night-time soap opera. I'm more interested in seeing some of these actors including the final film performance of Anna May Wong. I'm hard-pressed to declare this a good film but there is some fun in its melodrama.

Extremely disappointing

[HotToastyRag · 3/10 · 25 May 2018]

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.

The minute I saw Basehart was in it, I sat down to watch.

[pronker · 8/10 · 28 December 2017]

He's about my favorite actor and he did a fantastic job emoting, with that little grin and sense of quiet power underneath his emotions that always grabs me. This isn't his film, although he's in it a great deal, and the confrontation scene with Turner showed his snapping straight to action that made his Admiral Nelson on his TV show entertaining to watch. His role stood out to me, and so did Walston's job of acting the really conniving, debt-ridden sleazy chauffeur who was lucky to get away with his life.

As for Turner and Quinn, they did fine -- I believed the passion and will remember their kissing of each other's hands as a pretty good depiction of devotion and obsession. It saved a lot of footage of them sucking face, anyway! San Francisco and its mansions and glorious bay stood out as scenery. Also nice was a starring role for a pussycat to add to the mystery of the plot, The little boy, Kohler, had to my ears a touch of Noo Yawk in his speech, and sure enough, looking him up proves he was from New Jersey. He did okay as just a regular little kid, no dramatic highjinks or angst that wasn't solved quickly. All in all, I enjoyed this melodrama quite a lot and recommend it.

Synthetic melodrama is lots of eye candy for Lana's fans...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 4 January 2007]

The plot outline of PORTRAIT OF BLACK makes it sound like it would have been a great '40s melodrama for someone like Barbara Stanwyck, who might have given it the grittier touch it needs to succeed as a suspenseful piece about blackmail and murder. But Ross Hunter has given it a luxurious look, filling it with lavish sets and some stunning costumes for LANA TURNER to wear as she and ANTHONY QUINN conspire to kill her obnoxious husband LLOYD NOLAN.

The cast too is full of glamorous Hollywood names--SANDRA DEE, JOHN SAXON, RICHARD BASEHART, VIRGINIA GREY, RAY WALSTON and ANNA MAY WONG. No expense has been spared to give the story whatever production values Hunter could throw at it, including a score by Frank Skinner (who did the music for Turner's MADAME X).

But nothing hides the fact that it's just a routine tale of a plan to commit the perfect murder that backfires in time for the sort of ending Hollywood demanded for its killers, even if they were stars of Turner's caliber.

Lana did better work earlier in her career than she does here, but she looks gorgeous and SANDRA DEE (as her step-daughter) gets to wear some nifty outfits too. It's eye candy for Turner fans, but if it's solid entertainment you're looking for, this is only passable. Even ANTHONY QUINN looks a bit uncomfortable in his underwritten role.

Suffering in Pacific Heights....

[psthad · 16 August 1999]

Poor Lana Turner is forced to wear Jean Louis gown after Jean Louis gown in this picture, a veritable sea of sequins. To add insult to injury, she is kept like a bird in a gilded cage in her magnificent Pacific Heights mansion. Her lover (Anthony Quinn) lives only a couple of blocks away, but in order to tryst with him, she must first go down to Union Square and pretend to shop at the old I. Magnin store (now Macy's), then take a cab back out to Divisadero - very inconvenient. An uncommonly silly movie, but great set decoration and use of locations. If you ever come to visit San Francisco, you can see the house that Lana, Sandra and Lloyd lived in; it's at the corner of Broadway and Baker, just about the ritziest neighborhood in town, natch....enjoy!