UnowPriceless hyped garbage

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

mark.waltz 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.

TheLastDriveIn Directed by Michael Gordon, Produced by Ross Martin, based on a play and adapted to the screen by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, this crime melodrama is filled with all the right tawdry drama and campy dialog that makes watching films from the fabulous 60′s so much fun!Starring Lana Turner as Sheila Cabot a woman who is married to a dying shipping magnate Matthew Cabot ( Lloyd Nolan). Anthony Quinn portrays Dr. David Rivera, Matthew Cabot's attending physician. The wealthy couple live in a sumptuous home in San Francisco.Sheila and the good Doctor, begin having an affair, and soon after their sparks fly , the lovers decide to murder Sheila's nasty yet, terminally ill husband. But as often the way these juicy tales of murder and passion go, someone knows the lovers have killed off the rich old Cabot, and begins blackmailing them.Sandra Dee plays Cathy, Cabot's daughter from his first marriage. Richard Basehart is Howard Mason, Cabot's greedy business partner. John Saxon plays Blake Richards, the chauffeur, who is pursuing Cathy, and Ray Walston, Virgina Grey and Anna May Wong fill out the cast of dubious characters, all of whom might be the 'one' who knows about their crime!Oh the flashy melodramatics, Oh Turner's wardrobe!

terryhatcher1978 "Portrait in Black" is another of Ross Hunter's late '50s-early '60s productions for Universal-International. Like his others, this is a beautifully realized film with an excellent budget and meticulous attention paid to every detail, ensuring the cast looked their best and the story was brought about with taste and credibility.I've always liked this glossy, good-looking movie. However I must say I personally don't think Anthony Quinn was right for the role of the doctor. Gregory Peck, with his noble features and polished manner, would have brought an interesting dimension to that part.Beautiful sets, hair styles, clothes, cars, manners and language. A delight to behold. Enjoy.

Edgar Soberon Torchia "Portrait in Black" is one of the worst and most laughable melodramas that I have seen in years. One should not expect too much from a motion picture in which the name of gown designer Jean Louis appears bigger than cinematographer Russell Metty's. But that's the way it is, and to make sure there is absolutely no doubt about it in a production from Ross Hunter (the man behind "Imitation of Life", "All That Heaven Allows", and "Pillow Talk"), when Lana Turner has to go out incognito to get rid of a dead body, she chooses a sequined coat that matches the glittering black dress that Jean Louis designed for the occasion. Based on a stage play by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts that combines James M. Cain's material with Alfred Hitchcock's strategies, I would not know how to classify this melodrama without seeming rude, but this "portrait in black" is more a "Portrait in Heat", because there is not much beyond sexual obsession. A married woman (Turner) and the family doctor (Anthony Quinn) who want to have sex and little else, have never managed to be intimate as old as they are (thanks to the Hays code and prudish dramaturgy). The only way out they imagine is to kill her husband, so they can fulfill their most basic objective. As Turner and Quinn look the age they had when making the film (40 and 45), and there is not a trace of love but plain fixation, the whole mess becomes extremely ridicule, getting no help from Richard Basehart, Sandra Dee, John Saxon, Lloyd Nolan or Ray Walston. Only Anna May Wong and Virginia Grey bring a bit of distinction and dignity, "in the Hunter style".