Portrait in Black (1960)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: San Francisco

Portrait in Black is a 1960 American neo-noir melodrama film directed by Michael Gordon, and starring Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn. Produced by Ross Hunter, the film was adapted from the play of the same title by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, who also wrote the screenplay. The film was distributed by Universal-International. This was the final film appearance by actress Anna May Wong.

Production

Portrait in Black originated from a play that had premiered in London at the Piccadilly Theatre in 1946. It had a short run on Broadway the following year. The playwrights, Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts, had worked on it for 13 months. During its Broadway run, the trade magazine Variety felt the play was "much too conventional, and it's not easy to believe that its mannerly characters have a flair for homicide."

The film rights were sold almost immediately to Universal Pictures for a reported $100,000 against a sliding percentage of the gross to reach a maximum of 15 percent, which totaled $2.5 million. A clause was added that if a film was not released by June 30, 1950, the rights would revert to the authors and they would keep the $100,000. Diana Wynyard appeared in the London production and her husband Carol Reed was going to direct the film version.

Michael Gordon felt the original play was "well-contrived, well-made... I thought it was dramatic literature, but not what I would call a monument in dramatic literature. It was interesting but not something that made my heart leap with joy and ecstasy. I didn't enjoy doing the picture at all." Gordon stated Lana Turner gave a "serviceable performance".

Portrait in Black was filmed on location in San Francisco, including a sequence at the Devil's Slide on the Pacific Coast Highway (State Route 1).

It was the last of three screen collaborations between Sandra Dee and John Saxon.

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