Portrait in Black - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Portrait in Black is a 1960 American neo-noir crime drama/thriller 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 by 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 veteran actress Anna May Wong.

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Plot

Sheila Cabot (Lana Turner) becomes increasingly disturbed as she cares for her ailing, disagreeable husband (Lloyd Nolan). Along the way, she falls in love with Dr. David Rivera (Anthony Quinn), 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.

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

Dennis Kohler as Peter Cabot

Lloyd Nolan as Matthew S. Cabot

Elizabeth Chan as Chinese dancer

John Wengraf as Dr. Kessler

John McNamara as Minister

George Womack as Foreman

Paul Birch as Detective lieutenant

Home video release

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Portrait in Black was released on DVD in Region 1 as a Lana Turner double feature with Madame X by Universal Studios Home Entertainment on February 5, 2008.

The play

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The film was based on a play which premiered in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1946 was at Penge Empire w/c 23 September 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.

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Film rights were sold almost immediately 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 30 June 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 - they said it would cost $316,00, which Goff said was too much. When the 30 June 1950 deadline passed, the project reverted to the authors. They tried to get the film financed with Michael Gordon and Joan Crawford.