Lana Turner certainly had a career resurgence in the late '50s with the success of PEYTON PLACE and then IMITATION OF LIFE after her sensational court case in '58 - then in 1960 Ross Hunter cast her in his glossy thriller PORTRAIT IN BLACK which was also quite a hit - but maybe for all the wrong reasons! Like his MIDNIGHT LACE with Doris Day the same year PORTRAIT is a daft thriller, more comic than thrilling in fact. Lana - again gowned and furred by Jean Louis - is the rich unsatisfied wife of wealthy cripple Lloyd Nolan who can give her everything but sex. They live in luxury in San Francisco. We are told right away that Lana and Lloyd's doctor Anthony Quinn are having a clandestine affair but the only way they can be together if is the doctor gives the husband a lethal injection ...
THE FEMALE ANIMAL – From the lush Ross Hunter productions to bargain basement schlockmeiser supreme Albert Zugsmith for Hedy Lamarr's last film in 1957, this is another delirious melodrama which would in fact make a great double feature with Joan Crawford's FEMALE ON THE BEACH, with which it has certain similiarities - the beefcake there is Jeff Chandler. Here Hedy is the ageing movie goddess who picks up studio bit player George Nader, very wooden, and she installs him in her beach house, but George also meets her daughter Jane Powell – rather old for the part, but everyone’s career is in decline here – who drinks a lot. Add in Jan Sterling, as a rival actress and has-been cougar in a ratty wig and mink coat, always with a young gigolo in tow, who has some amusing lines and would like to get George for herself. Its mercifully quite short at 80 minutes but each one packs a punch. I am saving a second look at it for a nice rainy day. Director is one Harry Keller.
GENGHIS KHAN arrived at the end of the great epic era in 1965, and seemed rather tatty by comparison, but I like it a lot now. Here we find Stephen Boyd as the villain Jamuga to Omar Sharif’s mongol chief. One thing about Boyd, when playing evil he attacks it head-on with relish! Omar seems a bit too drippy to be a Mongol warlord. Francoise Dorleac is the very 60s love interest and hilarity is provided by James Mason and Robert Morley as Chinese warlords! Its certainly an epic to savour for all the wrong reasons, as the likes of Yvonne Mitchell, Telly Savalas and Eli Wallach pop up now and then and its fun to see Michael Hordern mugging as usual. Young actors of the time like Don Borisenko and Kenneth Cope are also present and Henry Levin keeps it moving. It is any better than John Wayne's THE CONQUEROR? probably not, but certainly as much fun.
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