Portrait in Black
Portrait in Black is a 1960 American neo-noir melodrama film directed by Michael Gordon, and starring Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn. Produced by Ross Hunter, the film was based on the play of the same name by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was distributed by Universal-International. This was the final film appearance by actress Anna May Wong.
Plot
San Francisco socialite Sheila Cabot becomes increasingly disturbed as she cares for her ailing, disagreeable husband. Along the way, she falls in love with Dr. David Rivera, who is tending her husband. This leads to a series of unfortunate events, resulting in the death of the husband and an ensuing murder investigation that reveals a surprise culprit.Cast
- Lana Turner as Sheila Cabot
- Anthony Quinn as Dr. David Rivera
- Richard Basehart as Howard Mason
- Sandra Dee as Cathy Cabot
- John Saxon as Blake Richards
- Ray Walston as Cobb
- Virginia Grey as Miss Lee
- Anna May Wong as Tawny
- Lloyd Nolan as Matthew S. Cabot
- John Wengraf as Dr. Kessler
- Paul Birch as Detective Lieutenant
- Elizabeth Chan as Chinese Dancer
- Dennis Kohler as Peter Cabot
- John McNamara as Minister
- George Womack as Foreman
The play
The film was based on a play that had premiered in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1946 and had a short run on Broadway the following year. The writers, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, had worked on it for 13 months.Film rights were sold almost immediately, to Universal, for a reported $100,000 against a sliding percentage of the gross to reach a maximum of 15% at $2.5 million. A clause was added that if a film was not released by June 30, 1950, the rights would revert to the authors and they would keep the $100,000. Diana Wynyard appeared in the London production and her husband Carol Reed was going to direct the film version. However, he disagreed with Universal about how best to adapt it. Another director, Michael Gordon, encountered similar difficulties. In 1948, Goff approached Universal to buy the project back but balked at the studio's demand for $316,000. When the June 30, 1950 deadline passed, the project reverted to the authors. They tried finance the film with Michael Gordon and Joan Crawford.
Production notes
Michael Gordon felt the original play was "well-contrived, well-made... I thought it was dramatic literature, but not what I would call a monument in dramatic literature. It was interesting but not something that made my heart leap with joy and ecstasy. I didn't enjoy doing the picture at all."Portrait in Black was filmed in and around San Francisco, including a sequence at Devil's Slide on the Pacific Coast Highway.
It was the last of three screen teamings between Sandra Dee and John Saxon.
Gordon said Lana Turner gave a "serviceable performance" adding "Lana was not a dummy, and she would give me wonderful rationalizations why she should wear pendant earrings. They had nothing to do with the role, but they had to do with her particular self-image. I felt we might have done better to concentrate on areas of her ability. If we had, hers might have been a more gripping kind of performance."