Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		2.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.0

Portrait in Black Blu-ray Movie Review

A dark and brooding thriller with a dose of mystery

Portrait in Black is a dramatic-thriller with some interesting and effective twists and turns up its sleeve. Based upon a original play written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (who also penned the screenplay adaptation), the film has a dark noir sensibility which gives the entire production an exciting style infused with a sharp dramatic edge. Produced by Ross Hunter (Pillow Talk, Midnight Lace), this is certainly an excellent film which is worth one's time for its creative filmmaking and a strong lead performance by the great Lana Turner.

Sheila Cabot (Lana Turner) and David Rivera (Anthony Quinn) are having an illicit and lustful affair of the senses which carries them to unknown territories of uncharted darkness. The diabolical pair fuel one another with their passionate embrace. Romantically involved despite having other relationships, both Sheila and David turn to a grand evil scheme. Determined to be together, the two decide they should murder Sheila's wealthy and controlling husband Matthew (Lloyd Nolan).

Carrying out the murder with a sense of vengeance the pair complete the task and feel fit to move along to “better” things in their lives. Yet they receive a letter in the mail with “congratulations”... on their successful murder, no less. Thrown into a frenzy of wondering who sent them the letter (was it their cab driver or a work acquaintance?), the pair become psychologically unstable as they attempt to get through their days without the cookie crumbling beneath their feet.

A journey into the darkness of night

Featuring an exciting original score composed by Frank Skinner (The House of the Seven Gables, Arabian Nights), Portrait in Black is a pitch-black thriller with a great music backdrop which is evocative of the iconic scores to Hitchcock's films (the music feels heavily inspired by the music composed by Bernard Herrmann). The score is adrenaline-packed and levies a massive punch in the dramatic final act of the film.

The cinematography by Russell Metty (The Omega Man, Bringing Up Baby) is equally dark (and purposefully has darker lighting of the characters as well) to create the moody atmosphere of the filmmaking. The costumes by Jean Louis (From Here to Eternity, Picnic) are elegant while still representing the filmmaking with a cohesive vision.

Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (who also wrote the script for White Heat together) contributed more than most by having written both the film's screenplay and the source material from which it was based on. Adapting one's own work is certainly not the status quo of the industry (though it has happened from time to time). The writers of the film carved out a dark storyline which is compelling from beginning to end.

Michael Gordon (An Act of Murder, Woman in Hiding) capably directs the film with a number of interesting filmmaking techniques that capitalize on swift editing. The film's dark sensibilities are appropriately moody and atmospheric. The film veers into thriller territory as the storyline progresses to the shocking conclusion. While Portrait in Black is never in the same league of a Hollywood classic, the film is entertaining and well-made. Fans of the exceptional actress Lana Turner will particularly appreciate seeing her turn in this underrated production.

Portrait in Black Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Portrait in Black is presented with a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition presentation. The release has a strong bit-rate of 26.81 mbps for the encode. While the encoding itself is reasonably decent on the release, that's the best that can be said about this transfer of the film. Unfortunately, Portrait in Black has received an astonishingly poor presentation which was distracting and highly frustrating to watch.

Image stability is the biggest issue on this transfer of the film as the video seems incapable of keeping stable color reproduction for long. Especially during the first 30 minutes of the film (which looks the most garish), scenes seem to fluctuate between different color tones on the image. This was highly noticeable and distracting drawback to the release. Skin tones look downright abysmal and pasty and are not as well reproduced as is ideal. The film does retain film grain and does not appear scrubbed. Yet ultimately the transfer falls far short from reasonable expectations given weak color reproduction and image stability issues.

Portrait in Black Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio on this release is presented in Mono DTS-HD Master Audio. The Dual Mono audio retains the original sound design of the film. The audio fares much better than the video quality. In terms of overall audio fidelity, the sound isn't exactly stellar but it sounds reasonably crisp with dialogue reproduction which is excellent throughout. The lossless audio does give the presentation a decent boost in quality. Dialogue is easy to understand and the score music also sounds quite good and helps the experience feel more enveloping.

Portrait in Black Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Audio Commentary by film historians Lee Gambin and Emma Westwood

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 1 min. 8 sec.)

Trailers are also provided for other Kino Lorber releases: Madame X, Foxfire, Female on the Beach, and The Destructors.

Portrait in Black Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Portrait in Black is a highly entertaining thriller that is worth checking out for its creatively unique approach. The filmmaking is universally strong and the lead performance by Lana Turner is quite impressive. The Blu-ray release is unfortunately another matter altogether and misses the mark. The picture-quality is downright awful at times and the audio is merely average. This is a Blu-ray release which is only worth getting if a heavy discount is involved in the equation.