A contemporary review of the London performance offers the following synopsis:
'The rich shipowner's widow is a good hater, and Miss Diana Wynyard, a fashionable portrait painter's study in black, presents her various hates with measure and tact, enveloping them all in her own personal stillness and beauty. She has hated her husband, and she and a calmly murderous doctor with Mr. Hugh Williams's charming fireside manner have hastened his end. She hates her former lover, Mr. Ronald Squire imperially disguised and unusually solemn under the compulsion to utter more cautious threats than soft insincerities. She hates her step-daughter, a pleasant girl pleasantly played by Miss Ann Leon. It is a wonder that the step-daughter is alive at the end, for what the widow hates the doctor cold-bloodedly destroys. They are driven by hate and fear to go on destroying until, except for the step-daughter and a few minor characters, they have no one left but themselves to destroy.'
'Piccadilly Theatre. "Portrait in Black",' The Times, 31 May 1946, p.6.
Portrait in Black
( dir. Wilfred Eades
)
United Kingdom (UK)
:
Associated British Corporation
,
1957
6440219
1957
single work
film/TV
crime
thriller
mystery
The first adaptation of Goff and Roberts's play, which was shortly followed by a bigger-budget American adaptation starring Lana Turner and Anthony Quinn.
Portrait in Black
( dir. Michael Gordon
)
United States of America (USA)
:
Ross Hunter Productions
,
1960
6439914
1960
single work
film/TV
crime
thriller
'Mystery melodrama about love between a beautiful young married woman and the doctor of her bedridden husband ending with murder.'
Source: British Film Institute (http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/46813). (Sighted: 16/9/2013)
Affetmeyen Kadin
( dir. Osman F. Seden
)
Turkey
:
Kemal Film
,
1964
6440375
1964
single work
film/TV
crime
thriller
Turkish film adaptation of Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts's play Portrait in Black.
Initially written while Goff and Roberts were still working on propaganda films during World War II, and the film rights were sold (to Jack Skirball and Bruce Manning, allegedly for US$100,000) before the play had been produced (see the New York Times below).
First produced in London, premiering at the Piccadilly Theatre on Thursday 30 May 1946, starring Diana Wynyard, Hugh Williams, Ronald Squire, and Ann Leon.
It ran from 30 May to 10 September 1946 at the Piccadilly.
For details on the London production, see, for example, the Times below.
According to the New York Times, the first staging in the US was at the Cleveland Play House, a repertory theatre, but no details have been traced on this performance.
First produced on Broadway from 14 May 1947, starring Claire Luce, Donald Cook, and Sidney Blackmer.
Other cast members included Dorothea Jackson, Thomas Coley, Mary Michael, Barry Kelley, and David Anderson.
The Broadway production was directed by Reginald Denham, with sets and lighting by Donald Oenslager, and costumes by Helen Pons.
Sources:
'The Theatres. A Week of New Plays', The Times, 27 May 1946, p.8.
Zolotow, Sam. '"Portrait in Black" at Booth Tonight', New York Times, 14 May 1947, p.30.
