Portrait in Black

February 24th, 2009

Portrait in Black

In a wonderfully stylized and overly literal opening credits sequence, the all-star cast is showcased with full-color glossy portraits that flip over to a negative B&W image, each of them eventually becoming a Portrait in Black (1960).

Crotchety, bed-ridden shipping magnate Matthew Cabot (Lloyd Nolan) runs the entirety of his empire from his bedroom overlooking San Francisco Bay. “I don’t like to depend on anything or anybody,” he gripes as he receives his daily injection from Dr. David Rivera (Anthony Quinn). Matthew’s bejeweled wife Sheila (Lana Turner) tries to comfort him, but receives only scorn for her efforts, “Too bad they can’t find something for your condition. A vitamin shot for love deficiency.” It’s clear there’s no passion between the controlling Matthew and his frosty wife when he even denies her the freedom of a driver’s permit.

After the upsetting encounter with her husband, Sheila needs some retail therapy. Swathed in mink and a stylish turban, she has Cobb the chauffer (Ray Walston) take her to I. Magnin’s. Shortly after being dropped off, she catches a cab and races to the apartment of her lover, Dr. David Rivera. “Darling,” he pants, taking Sheila into his arms, “Oh, darling. Darling!”

Dr. David begs her to join him in Zurich, but it’s impossible, she could never leave her husband. Matthew would hunt them down no matter where they went. “If anybody had ever told me that I would be praying for the death of one of my own patients…”

Hmmm. A plot is quickly hatched.

“It’s more deadly than a gun,” he tells Sheila, holding up a syringe, “I use it every day on him. Have you any idea how easy it would be? A simple bubble of air. That’s all it would take.”

While her father’s fate is decided, perky Cathy Cabot (Sandra Dee) pilots a speedboat across the bay to her boyfriend’s tugboat. She delivers the news that he has just been awarded a lucrative Cabot towing contract. Blake (John Saxon) reminds her that their relationship comes with a certain caveat, “It’s a long trip down from a Cabot liner to an Acme tug.”

On a cold and rainy afternoon soon after, Matthew Cabot is laid to rest. Later that night, Sheila hears strange noises coming from her late husbands room. It’s only the family cat. Twitchy, overwrought and panicked, she calls her physician lover, desperate to see him. He reminds her that discretion is now more important than ever. Sheila must deal with Howard Mason (Richard Basehart) on her own. The former business associate who now runs the Cabot Empire makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he intends to be next in line for Sheila’s affections.

Dr. Rivera pays Sheila a quick visit at the house in Pacific Heights. “This was supposed to bring us together,” she muses, “Now it’s only keeping us apart. Ironic isn’t it?” In that days mail, amongst the sympathy letters, is a note, Dear Mrs. Cabot, Congratulations on the success of your murder. The two later meet at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park to plot their next move. Whoever sent the note not only knew of the murder, but likely knows of their affair. The only thing they can do is look for any suspicious signs from the people closest to them. Hopefully, the blackmailer will reveal himself in some way.

When Howard Mason cancels Blake’s towing contract, Matthew’s former secretary (Virginia Grey) arranges a meeting in Chinatown. Hoping to make amends, she hands over documents proving that it was Howard Mason, not Matthew Cabot, who ruined Blake’s father.

Paranoia quickly sets in for David and Sheila. Everyone seems a likely suspect, but Howard Mason is the frontrunner. In an elaborate plot, Sheila lures Mason to the house on business. In her low-cut sequined cocktail dress there’s the promise of a little something extra. As soon as his car pulls away, she gives the signal to David, who lays in wait down the block. When Mason pulls up to a stop light, David shoots at him. Sheila hears the gunshot and believes that the deed is done, but is shocked to find Mason on her doorstep moments later. “Someone took a shot at me. I need a drink.”

He assumes it all has something to do with a dockworker’s strike, but Sheila’s hopeless attempts to conceal the truth soon have him figuring out who really intended to kill him. Mason doesn’t take kindly to betrayal and lets her have it. At the last possible moment, just as Mason picks up a fireplace poker and prepares to strike, a shot rings out. David shoots him dead.

David and Sheila have gotten away with murder… twice. The only problem now is that they have to dispose of Mason’s body. Dr. David will take Mason’s car out along the Coast Highway with Sheila following in her own vehicle. The murderous pair proceeds with their plan despite the fact that Sheila can’t drive. David gives her a twenty second driving lesson and assures her that, “The car practically drives itself.”

As they make the treacherous drive, Sheila nearly runs into a cable car and dramatically struggles to find the windshield wiper switch when a rainstorm suddenly hits. There is also a tense moment when a police cruiser pulls up alongside David at a railroad crossing. They eventually find a deserted stretch of coastal road and, with Mason in the front seat of his car, nudge the vehicle over a cliff. Seeing the car disappear into Half Moon Bay sends Sheila in hysterics. David does what any good doctor would do, her smacks her around, the second time in ten minutes someone has worked Lana over.

When the car and body are found, Blake Richards becomes the prime suspect. Determined to clear her boyfriend’s name, Cathy pieces together all the clues and takes her evidence to Dr. David. “There was no one else that I could turn to. David, I know who killed Howard Mason.” She explains her theory about Sheila’s guilt to the man who was behind the whole plot. David expertly shoots down each of Cathy’s accurate accusations, with the final caveat being that it would be impossible for Sheila to have dumped Mason’s body in the bay because she can’t drive.

Guilt-ridden, David wander the streets of San Francisco with the Hippocratic oath (the doctors pledge to do no harm) ringing in his ears. Just as he decides to high tail it out of town, Sheila receives a another note congratulating them on their “second venture”. When the pair witness Cobb the chauffer trying to sneak away in the night, they guess that he might be the blackmailer. David tries to choke the truth out of the man. Cobb admits that he drove to Carmel, which corresponds with the postmark on the first letter, but Cobb wasn’t alone. He drove Mrs. Cabot to Carmel. It was Sheila who wrote the letters! “I felt I was losing you and I had to find some way to keep you with me.”

Even with the terrible truth in his possession, David can’t leave her. “You’re all I have left. I’ve killed twice, I’d kill again. God help me.” Unfortunately, Cathy overhears the lover’s confession. David tries, in vain, to explain their actions. It’s no use. He chases Cathy upstairs and breaks down the bedroom door. Cathy’s only route of escape is out the window, setting the stage for a rooftop showdown. With the street several stories below, Cathy inches along the narrow window ledge, David close behind. He makes a desperate grab for the girl but loses his balance and tumbles to his death.

The camera zooms in on Sheila, her face a tortured mask of emotion. As she contemplates how it all went wrong, the color fades from the screen, leaving her a Portrait in Black.

Portrait in Black is pure potboiler from start to finish and critics coolly received the picture upon its initial release. Particular attention was paid to the fact that Anthony Quinn was seemingly miscast. Several other actors (Louis Jourdan, Van Johnson, Richard Burton and Peter Finch) were attached to the role of Dr. David Rivera before Quinn was eventually chosen. Quinn wasn’t so much miscast as cast against type. Quinn was best known for playing rough, blue-collar types, certainly not the go-to guy for playing opposite Lana Turner in a lavish melodrama. Still, Quinn seems to be having a ball, especially in his scenes with Turner where the pair seem to be continually trying to out do one another in histrionics.

Nearly every article written about Lana Turner since her death in 1995 makes some mention of her often tumultuous personal life. The dissolution of the studio system in the 1950’s and a very public murder trial (Lana’s daughter Cheryl stabbed Johnny Stompanato, Lana’s mobster boyfriend) would have ruined the career of any actor. Not Lana. She bounced back with one of her biggest hits, Imitation of Life (1959). There were many men in Lana’s life. Some of those relationships (like the one with Stompanato) were abusive. When a scene in one of Lana’s films is back lit, or shot in shadow, it’s often assumed that this was the only way to hide signs of lovers quarrel from the night before. There are several moments in Portrait in Black where Lana is shown only in silhouette or dark shadow. Whether these choices were made for artistic reasons or in an effort to hide Lana’s bruises is anybody’s guess. The movie is, despite all the glitz on display, a neo-noir film. Shadows and murderous schemes (like in Lana’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946) are all part of the Noir genre. Portrait in Black was originally a stage play by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts. Written in 1945 at the height of Noir’s popularity, the property was quickly snatched up by Hollywood. It would take another fifteen years before producer Ross Hunter would finally bring the story (with a script by Goff and Roberts) to the big screen.

Portrait in Black is available on DVD as part of a two-disc double feature, paired with the film many believe contains Lana Turner’s greatest performance, Madame X (1966). Both films are presented in letterbox format (approx. 1.85:1) with their original mono soundtrack. The only extra on each disc is a trailer, but the lack of bonus features is offset by a low retail price that makes this Lana double feature an excellent value.

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