Portrait in Black

“Dear Mrs. Cabot, congratulations on the success of your murder.” One of the noir cycle’s most melodramatic productions, Michael Gordon’s Portrait in Black is a no-holds-barred, over-the-top, romantic suspense drama that’s hugely entertaining in spite of itself. Lana Turner (over)plays Sheila Cabot, who’s having an affair with Dr. David Rivera (Anthony Quinn), the same man who’s treating her ailing husband, shipping tycoon Matthew Cabot (Lloyd Nolan). Unable to divorce Matthew, Sheila raises the subject of murder to Rivera whose medical proximity furnishes the perfect opportunity. One murder, however, is never enough. With its spectacularly vivid sets and achingly maudlin dialogue, Portrait in Black still manages to keep viewers on edge: in fact, note the likeness of the final bathroom break-in scene with Kubrick’s much later The Shining (1980). When the couple begins receiving anonymous notes congratulating them on their crime, the plot becomes not a whodunit, but a who-knows-whodunit: the cast of potentially in-the-know suspects includes Cabot’s heir apparent Howard Mason (Richard Basehart), Cabot’s daughter Cathy (Sandra Dee), her boyfriend Blake (John Saxon), chauffer Cobb (Ray Walston), and housekeeper Tawny (Anna May Wong in her final film appearance). Gordon incorporates occasional strokes of visual genius, including a low-angle shot of headless characters from inside the fireplace and a tense, silhouetted conversation in front of a golden curtain and Buddha statue. The intense crimson of the walls, the thrashing and seething of Sheila’s heartache, and the climactic strings of Skinner’s score blend into a histrionic wallop.