When I saw that Anthony Quinn was in this, I knew it was going to be good, and, while it's not on the level of his epics like "La Strada" or "Barabbas," it's quite entertaining. Quinn's character, Dr. David Rivera, looks to be the height of respectability, having rich clients like shipping magnate Matthew Cabot (Lloyd Nolan) and wearing nice cashmere sweaters, but on the inside he's consumed with lust for Cabot's picture-perfect wife, Sheila (Lana Turner), and obsessed with killing Cabot so that he can have Sheila to himself. When he tells Sheila that in the interests of everyone involved, he's fleeing to a job in Zurich, Switzerland, Sheila's big mistake is that she doesn't say, "Ok, GO!" She can't bear to relinquish her hunky lover, so she goes along with a scheme to dispatch the invalid Cabot with an injection of air.In the tradition of Zola's "Therese Raquin" and other dramas about illicit lovers who think murder will solve their problems, David and Sheila find that happiness eludes them after the killing. When Sheila receives a blackmailer's letter, David latches on to a new obsession -- to kill the person who's figured out the scheme. Meanwhile, Sheila grows crazed from the lack of lovin' she's getting. "Stop pretending we're normal people," David implores. "Do you know what it means to sit and wait for a blackmailer?""I've never known what it's like to awaken from sleep and find you there," Sheila bleats. "--And now I never will!" Oh, boo HOO!Richard Basehart excels as Mason, Cabot's sleazy lawyer, who sets about trying to seduce and marry Sheila before her husband's corpse is cold. This film provides an intriguing twist on the whodunnit: We know who the killers are, so we keep busy trying to guess at who might be trying to profit from their nefarious act. As the plot unfurls, David starts to look like a major loony-tune as it appears he'll stop at nothing to quash potential threats. The movie ends extremely surprisingly, as the last person we'd have suspected to be the letter writer turns out to be the culprit. It doesn't make a great deal of sense, but it is fun to watch.

He's about my favorite actor and he did a fantastic job emoting, with that little grin and sense of quiet power underneath his emotions that always grabs me. This isn't his film, although he's in it a great deal, and the confrontation scene with Turner showed his snapping straight to action that made his Admiral Nelson on his TV show entertaining to watch. His role stood out to me, and so did Walston's job of acting the really conniving, debt-ridden sleazy chauffeur who was lucky to get away with his life.As for Turner and Quinn, they did fine -- I believed the passion and will remember their kissing of each other's hands as a pretty good depiction of devotion and obsession. It saved a lot of footage of them sucking face, anyway! San Francisco and its mansions and glorious bay stood out as scenery. Also nice was a starring role for a pussycat to add to the mystery of the plot, The little boy, Kohler, had to my ears a touch of Noo Yawk in his speech, and sure enough, looking him up proves he was from New Jersey. He did okay as just a regular little kid, no dramatic highjinks or angst that wasn't solved quickly. All in all, I enjoyed this melodrama quite a lot and recommend it.

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.

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.