Portrait in Black / Madame X (Double Feature)

Lana Turner was one of the biggest screen queens of Hollywood (Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Liz Taylor for sheer beauty, glamour, and lacquer, not to mention overshadowing super stardom are in this group.) I've found that Lana Turner got consistently better as an actress as she matured. Her later stuff, in which she more frequently rose to the occasion, IMHO, pretty much takes the prizes. That's not saying all her later stuff is great - she still made some serious dreck. (Mea culpa - I'm leaving out "The Postman Always Rings Twice" but this is about the 50's and 60's Lana)."Peyton Place" (1957) is a great film, definitely sanitized from the notorious book, and an ensemble picture to boot; Lana is one of a big group of characters, and she's still glammed, but quite good. This is a film from a must-read book and not a Lana-alone vehicle. The earlier "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952) is again an ensemble piece, probably the greatest overall classic/masterpiece film of her career, with the best script, ensemble cast, and direction of her career (again IMHO). "Imitation of Life" (1959) is a BIG Lana film, with the double impact of Douglas Sirk's direction plus Ross Hunter's production - cultural insights, Sirk quirks, and Ross super-glam. Lana really delivers but she has a good cast around her (maybe excepting the often-vacuous John Gavin). These three films are available on Blu-Ray, but "Peyton Place" only comes courtesy from Twilight Time, being very pricey at present. "Imitation" comes from Universal (paired with the Claudette Colbert version from 1934), "Bad/Beautiful" from Warner Archive.This current double-DVD set is definitely worth the low price: two separate DVD's (but no extras), pretty good transfers, generally good to very good source material (but some blips and oddities in the sound). There's not much to say about "Portrait in Black" - definitely Ross Hunter style, not a speck of dirt anywhere on these characters, glam set and costume design, and Hunter's dictum ("The way life looks in my pictures is the way I want life to be. I don't hold a mirror up to life as it is. I just want to show the part that is attractive.") The plot is over the top, and Anthony Quinn seems miscast. Still enjoyable, but if you have only 2 hours to spend on your home viewing, please watch instead what has to be the melodrama of melodramas, "Madame X".Madame X has a never-ending history. Initially a French play from 1908, then many adaptations (and a mind-boggling number of movies); the old gal really has legs, all the way up to 2021! - here's a list, courtesy of Wikipedia.AdaptationsMadame X, 1910 play, translated to English by John RaphaelMadame X: A Story of Mother Love, 1910 novelization by J.W. McConaughyMadame X, 1916 film starring Dorothy DonnellyMadame X, 1920 film starring Pauline FrederickMadame X, 1929 film starring Ruth ChattertonMadame X, 1937 film starring Gladys GeorgeThe Trial of Madame X, 1948 film starring Mara Russell-TavernanMadame X, 1952 Filipino film starring Alicia VergelMadame X, 1954 Greek filmMadame X, 1955 Mexican filmSino Ka, Madame X?, 1966 Filipino film starring Amalia FuentesMadame X, 1966 film starring Lana TurnerMadame X, 1966 novelization by Michael Avallone of the 1966 film’s screenplayMadame X, 1981 film starring Tuesday WeldMadame X, 2019 studio album by MadonnaMadame X, 2020 song by Allie XMadame X, 2021 film starring MadonnaFor me, Lana's "Madame X" is her best-ever role. She is really believable as her character goes through the wringer of degradation. She gives it everything - and impressively, despite this being a Ross Hunter production, there is both DIRT and SQUALOR! Constance Bennett is really nasty as the mother-in-law. The plot really grabs and does not let go until the end title. This is a real winner - as a paradigm of melodrama, and Lana's best.(Both of these films could do with some clean-up and BRD presentation, extras but pretty unlikely - this is a Universal release after all; but for the price, this is a good issue).Enjoy!

Coming to this DVD double feature with a little history will add to your enjoyment of it - so first a DVD extra.There was a time when a STAR on the marquee meant money in the bank for the movie studios. Lana Turner was under contract to M-G-M for nearly twenty years. Her films had been of varying quality. The quality she most often projected was S-E-X.After leaving the studio, Turner still made big films with important co-stars, but most of her publicity centered on her private life. She got a big break when producer Jerry Wald offered her the starring role in his film version of the hot, hot bestseller of the day "Peyton Place" in 1957. Turner ended up with an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her role.On the night of the ceremony, Lana argued with her then boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato - later that evening, he was stabbed and killed in her home. The publicity was tremendous. In "Peyton Place", Lana's character has a long scene on the witness stand talking about her failure as a mother. At the time the scene was playing to packed houses across the United States, Turner was playing the scene in real life in the inquest on Stompanato's demise. Her daughter Cheryl had been arrested for the crime. Turner's inquest testimony is on film and is always used in television biographies on her life.Would her career survive? Enter producer Ross Hunter, then allied with Universal-International Studios. He offered Lana the leading role in his remake of "Imitation of Life." He didn't have money for a large salary and offered her fifty percent of the profits. Lana took it. A supporting player in the film has said that everyone on the set was very aware that this film was make or break for Turner. If the audiences rejected her, it would be over.Bottom line: big hit for Hunter, U-I, and Turner, who made so much money from the film that she was set for life.That was 1959, and Hunter and Turner teamed again the next year for the first of the films included in this DVD double feature: "Portrait in Black." Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts and based on their play, this was a movie about murder and coverup.Lana's stylish Sheila Cabot is married to a bedridden crank played by Lloyd Nolan. On the side, she is in love with Dr. David Rivera (Anthony Quinn.) Within ten minutes of the movie, a murder plot is hatched by the lovers, and the rest of the movie is taken up with red herrings and unlikely cover ups.The young lovers Sandra Dee and John Saxon get caught up in the shenanigans (Dee plays Turner's stepdaughter). Anna May Wong and Ray Walston play servants in the Cabot household, and suspicion of blackmail by one or the other of them is heavy.The costumes and settings are DeLuxe and beautiful. Jewels are by David Webb and costumes by Jean Louis. There is some location filming in San Francisco. The Chrysler cars are sleek with fins defining the Forward Look. That the ending is contrived and unlikely only adds to the berserk joy of "Portrait in Black."Five years later, Turner is five years older, and this brings us to the jewel in this set: "Madame X." By 1965, this property had been filmed at least four times. That producer Hunter and star Turner took it on is a testament to their faith in the story. It was filmed by Ross Hunter Productions and Eltee (as in L.T.) Productions. Money is not quite as in evidence as in their two previous films, but every dollar spent shows on the screen. There are beautiful costumes again by Jean Louis, more jewels by David Webb, and Furs by Ben Kahn.Holly Parker (Turner) marries wealthy Clay Anderson (John Forsythe) and is whisked off the be part of his life in upper crust Connecticut. There she meets his mother Estelle (Constance Bennett). The politically ambitious Clay leaves Holly alone for extended periods of time, and she eventually takes up with Phil Benton (Ricardo Montalban). When the affair is discovered, Benton ends up dead - of course. And Estelle sends Holly on her way to avoid a scandal.That Holly's life eventually turns to alcohol and grief (despite an interlude with a musician played by John Van Dreelan) - is a given. In fact she is eventually tried for the murder (her second, though her first INTENTIONAL one), and is defended by her own son. She has given her name as Madame X, not wishing to cause embarrassment to her family.Turner is great in this role. She looks great, and her moment of realization in the courtroom that the man defending her is HER SON is beautifully played. Careers are made on such moments, unless you are Lana Turner known only as a commodity and not an actress.There are problems of course. Forsythe has that annoying wart on his forehead, Bennett's recent face lift makes her look as if she were wearing a mask, and the hamming of Burgess Meredith is tough to watch. But it's a Turner show, and she is (almost) always worth watching.These films have not always been easy to find, although both were released for a short time years ago on video. They are presented in Widescreen and have the original trailer included. It is a two-disc set and not the expected one-disc two-sided presentation. The color is not much improved over the video and could have been corrected a bit.But, folks, at least we have them. Get some popcorn, invite some friends over, and watch how they used to make movies. It's a lot more fun than reality television. Turner and Hunter create their own reality - and now and then there can be nothing more entertaining.

Excellent!