Independent Star-News from Pasadena, California • Page 39

The Screen Scene: PORTRAIT IN BLACK Lana Turner Suspense Film Strains Credibility I By Ray Duncan HE AGONY of Lana Turner, as she wrlllies In the lap ol luxury, Is the subject of a movie in color now playing In. Pasadena. The agony of the movie Industry, as It writhes under the hccl.ot television, Is also Involved In movies like this one called "Portrait In Black." Hollywood still attempts to do very badly what television can do, even worse. This movie is likely to make money, hut that Is not the final argument. Lana Turner is a siren great drawing power.

Her charm nas often seduced the Industry Irfto making pictures.that win particular box office Battle, tut also help lo lose the war. The formula for a Lana Turner movie, which this one docs nothing lo.violate, Is to make the lady suffer In a scries 'of expensive gowns. "Portrait In Black" is a suspense melodrama built arountl family problems, including murder. The question Is not who killed the victims, out who Is writing those- mysterious anonymous letters that indicate an Inside knowledge of each 'crime. The climaxing moment, therefore, Is the revelation of the Identity of this let.

lor writer. This reviewer simply did not believe the disclosure when It came, and lie still thinks (hat It must have been somebody else who wrote those letters. PICTURES of this kind must always move down the narrow alley that Includes both what Is surprising and what is believable. Otherwise they go astray. It Is easy lo surprise, it you sacrifice belief, as 'Tor- trait In Black" amply proves.

secret of pushing Improbabilities past an audience Is freshness--the pleasant sensation that something original and captivating Is about to happen. In exchange for this sensation an audience will eagerly banish disbelief. But the standard surprise and the tired plot iwist are subjected to closer scrutiny. In tragedy the Inevitable must always 'happen. In suspense the Inevl- table Is unforgivable.

BUT NOW consider "Portrait in Black." This movie Is expensively a Intelligently photographed, professionally turned A a I o-u wardrobe, more than a million dollars worth of jewelry a new "frosted blonde coiffure" help Lana Turner's performance in "Portrait in Black." out. It Is defective only In originality, humor' and taste. Out of the infinite yardage of suspense story this ready-to-wear Is cut from soilccl-ln handling a seconds, and discontinued designs. Here are some sample swatches: --An invalid husband, glumly played by Lloyd Nolan, has just been murdered. But In the night, alter his luneral, the push-button-operated liospital cot In his bedroom slowly rises to sitting position.

His wife watches in horror behind it. was only the family Siamese cat that pushed the button by accident. Suspense tricks of this type may cause the throat lo gasp; but meanwhile the mind coldly turns away. --Another Oriental family cat, played by' Anna May Wong, is a servant who prowls through the house looking mysterious and suspicious. This is her only function in the film.

--Lana Turner does not know how to drive. But after 2588 E. COLORADO BLVD. Marlm Dally I.O. Open Student Cardi Accepted iiw'r.

n.lu far P.m.. I HIGH ADVENTURE ON THE MI6HTV MISSISSIPPI! Mark Twain's romantic rogues come lo I thrilling fife on Hie big Cinemascope scteen! TONY RANDALL MOORE NEDDIE A WONDERFUL WORLD EXOTEMENT! Plui Cartoon and Walt Diwiey'j "Nalure't Slranoeit Citatum" a few moments of breathless verbal Instruction ('This Is the brake pedal here. It stops the she drives; away (lirough the city and'soon nego tiates a narrow mountain, road, without once killing the 'engine. THE ENGINE Is one of the few things not killed in the course of this movie. Although there la here assembled a costly cast, tile plot requires their systematic murder.

This worthwhile work Is interrupted, however, by the untimely arrival of hero John Saxon--just as Anthony Qulnn Is about to eliminate an objectionable teenager played by Sandra Dee. This is'Qulnn's only sympathetic moment In the movie. He can be a powerful and subtle actor, as he demonstrated In "La Strada," but here he has been tamed down to the general level of the production. A word OL sympathy for Sandra In several recent movies she has played a series of insufferable, pouting, put- upon teen-agers. She is often the righteous little 'prig who straightens out erring adults.

No girl in-, movies has ever been more' unfortunate In her fictional step-parents. With scripts that provide her a little better home environment, she 'may someday become a likeable young actress. Lana Turner suffers prettily through It all, like a fashion model with a tight-fitting shoe. In luxurious gowns und hairdos and settings, many of them deficient in taste, she moves anxiously from to murder. She and her doctor- lover kill only because' they love each other so much.

Insofar as this film deals with a daughter at odds with mama, and with violent death inside the may be an attempt to exploit. Miss Tur- Tier's private life. Insofar as it deals with the relationship between medical practice, wealth, adultery, and suspicion of murder, it may be an attempt to exploit the prosecution's of the Finch murder case. IT- IS difficult to evaluate the w.ork oC actors who perform among the weary shocks and lame surprises of standard suspense melodrama. The scale of endeavor here Is only about 21 inches square.

The tricks of the close-up television myslery'are in evidence everywhere- There Is no attempt to- take advantage of the theater screen's possibility, of deeper vision, wider horizon, defter characterization, smoother movement, greater development, or generally more accurate aim. This is the hind of film that fosters the unfortunate Impression that movies are no better, than television, and a lot less convenient. Of the entire cast in "Portrait in Black," only San Francisco comes out with credit. The scenes of the, city, often in muted colors at night, arc pleasant and believable, even though San Francisco in real life is an improbable place. In one scene, on a steep city street, a cable ear turns a corner behind Lana Turner and ducks down the hill but of sight toward the bay.

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