Brilliant and touching

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

" . . . 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.

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.

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.

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.