After repressed wealthy Sheila Cabot and her physician lover Dr. David Rivera murder her cruel invalid husband Matthew, they are targeted by someone who is aware of their crime.After repressed wealthy Sheila Cabot and her physician lover Dr. David Rivera murder her cruel invalid husband Matthew, they are targeted by someone who is aware of their crime.After repressed wealthy Sheila Cabot and her physician lover Dr. David Rivera murder her cruel invalid husband Matthew, they are targeted by someone who is aware of their crime.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLana Turner wears jewelry in this film reportedly worth over $1.1M at the time (nearly $11M in 2022).
- GoofsWhen Miss Lee approaches Cathy and Blake in the restaurant, Blake is holding a cup in his right hand and places it down. In the next shot, he's holding the cup in his left hand and puts it down again.
- Quotes
Sheila Cabot: Oh don't leave me David, please don't go away!
Dr. David Rivera: I've got to go!
Sheila Cabot: But why Darling, why? I don't know what I'll do if you go!
Dr. David Rivera: I'm - I'm afraid of what I'll do if I stay!
- ConnectionsEdited into The Green Fog (2017)
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.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Das Geheimnis der Dame in Schwarz
- Filming locations
- San Francisco, California, USA(sequence at Devil's Slide on the Pacific Coast Highway - State Route 1)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,400,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 52 minutes