DARK-GALLERIES

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THE DARK GALLERIES

A MUSEUM GUIDE TO PAINTED PORTRAITS IN FILM NOIR, GOTHIC MELODRAMAS, AND GHOST STORIES OF THE 1940S AND 1950S STEVEN JACOBS & LISA COLPAERT



THE DARK GALLERIES


Painting the Woman in Guest in the House (John Brahm, 1944)


THE DARK

GALLERIES A MUSEUM GUIDE TO PAINTED PORTRAITS IN FILM NOIR, GOTHIC MELODRAMAS, AND GHOST STORIES OF THE 1940S AND 1950S STEVEN JACOBS & LISA COLPAERT

ARAMER


Entering dark art galleries in The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946)


10 Preface 13

Part One

INTRODUCTION: ART AND ARTISTS IN THE AMERICAN CINEMA OF THE 1940S AND 1950S

15 The Power of Portraits 19 Noir and Gothic Portraits 27 Death, Poe, and Wilde 30 Photographs 32 Artists and Models 37 Bad Art, Modernism, and Anti-Modernism 40 Crimes and Clues 47 Mad Artists 52 Van Gogh and Abstract Expressionism 54 Artists and Actors at Work 57 Artists behind the Screen 64 Publicity Materials

69 Part Two

AN ILLUSTRATED SURVEY OF NOIR AND GOTHIC ART, ARTISTS, MUSEUMS, AND COLLECTORS

70 Artists 78 Museums and Art Galleries 82 Collectors, Critics, and Connoisseurs 86 Paintings Concealing Safes 89 Modern Art in the Homes of Criminals

93 Part Three

MUSEUM CATALOGUE OF PAINTED PORTRAITS

I 95 Gallery [i.1] [i.2] [i.3] [i.4] [i.5] [i.6] [i.∑] [i.8]

95 97 97 98 99 99 100 100

of Dying Portraits

Portrait of Dorian Gray (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Albert Lewin, 1945) First Self-Portrait of Mr. Slade (The Lodger, John Brahm, 1944) Second Self-Portrait of Mr. Slade (The Lodger, John Brahm, 1944) Portrait of Johnny McQueen (Odd Man Out, Carol Reed, 1947) Portrait of Anthony John (A Double Life, George Cukor, 1947) Portrait of Fanny Skeffing­ton (Mr. Skeffington, Vincent Sherman, 1944) Portrait of Norma Desmond (Sunset Boule­vard, Billy Wilder, 1950) Portrait of Jeffrey Ashton (The Lost Moment, Martin Gabel, 1947)


II 101 Gallery [ii.1] [ii.2] [ii.3] [ii.4] [ii.5] [ii.6] [ii.∑] [ii.8] [ii.9] [ii.10] [ii.11] [ii.12] [ii.13] [ii.14] [ii.15] [ii.16] [ii.1∑]

102 103 104 104 104 105 105 106 106 107 107 108 108 108 109 109

110 110 [ii.19] 110 [ii.18]

Portrait of Gino Monetti (House of Strangers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1949) Portrait Amos Kyne (While the City Sleeps, Fritz Lang, 1956) Portrait of Gail Wynand (The Fountainhead, King Vidor, 1949) Portrait of General McLaidlaw (Suspicion, Alfred Hitchcock, 1941) Portrait of Ballin Mundson (Gilda, Charles Vidor, 1946) Portrait of Michael O’Callaghan (I See a Dark Stranger, Frank Launder, 1946) Portrait of Mr. Anthony as Saint Francis (Strangers on a Train, Alfred Hitchcock, 1951) Portrait of Detective Sergeant Homer Higgins (Scarlet Street, Fritz Lang, 1945) Portrait of Mr. Warren (The Spiral Staircase, Robert Siodmak, 1945) Portrait of Mr. Paradine (The Paradine Case, Alfred Hitchcock, 1947) Portrait of Mr. Chase (Mr. Ace, Edwin L. Marin, 1946) Portrait of Lord Rohan (The Man in Grey, Leslie Arliss, 1943) Portrait of Jonathan Wooley (I Married a Witch, René Clair, 1942) Portrait of Samuel Wooley (I Married a Witch, René Clair, 1942) Portrait of Adam Fury (Blanche Fury, Marc Allégret, 1948) Portrait of Sir Hugo Baskerville (The Hound of the Baskervilles, Terence Fisher, 1959) Portrait of Sir Robin Beladon (Three Strangers, Jean Negulesco, 1946) Portrait of John R. Buckley (The Verdict, Don Siegel, 1946) Caricature of John R. Buckley (The Verdict, Don Siegel, 1946)

III 111 Gallery [iii.1]

of Patriarchs

of Matriarchs and Female Ancestors

112 Portrait of Mrs. Henry Vale (Now, Voyager, Irving Rapper, 1942) [iii.2] 112 Portrait of Mrs. Castle­man and Her Son (The Damned Don’t Cry, Vincent Sherman, 1950) [iii.3] 113 Portrait of Mrs. Lagana (The Big Heat, Fritz Lang, 1953) [iii.4] 113 Portrait of Mrs. Timber­lake (In This Our Life, John Huston, 1942) [iii.5] 114 Portrait of Mrs. Sloper (The Heiress, William Wyler, 1949) [iii.6] 114 Portrait of Christine Calvin (Dark Waters, André De Toth, 1944) [iii.∑] 114 Portrait of Sophie Albertson (The House on Telegraph Hill, Robert Wise, 1951) [iii.8] 115 Portrait of Alice Alquist as Theodora (Gaslight, George Cukor, 1944) [iii.9] 116 Portrait of Lady Caroline de Winter (Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock, 1940) [iii.10] 117 Portrait of Azeald Van Ryn (Dragonwyck, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946) [iii.11] 118 Portrait of Lady Clarissa Rohan and Child (The Man in Grey, Leslie Arliss, 1943) [iii.12] 118 Portrait of Mrs. Cunningham (The Seventh Veil, Compton Bennett, 1945) [iii.13] 118 Portrait of Saint Cecilia (The Burglar, Paul Wendkos, 1957) [iii.14] 119 Portrait of Mrs. Courtland (Dishonored Lady, Robert Stevenson, 1947) [iii.15] 119 Portrait of Mrs. Lowry (Footsteps in the Fog, Arthur Lubin, 1955)


IV 120 Gallery

of Ghosts

[iv.1]

120 Portrait of Mary Meredith (The Uninvited, Lewis Allen, 1948) 121 Portrait of Jennie Appleton (Portrait of Jennie, William Dieterle, 1949) [iv.3] 122 Portrait of Pandora Reynolds (Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Albert Lewin, 1951) [iv.4] 123 Miniature Portrait of a Young Woman (Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, Albert Lewin, 1951) [iv.5] 123 Portrait of Carlotta Valdes (Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) [iv.6] 126 Self-Portrait of Midge Wood as Carlotta Valdes (Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock, 1958) [iv.∑] 127 Portrait of a Lady (Corridor of Mirrors, Terence Young, 1948) [iv.8] 127 Portrait of Captain Daniel Gregg (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947) [iv.9] 128 Portrait of Paul Faber (The Amazing Mr. X, Bernard Vorhaus, 1948) [iv.10] 128 Portrait of Mrs. Kessler (Invisible Ghost, Joseph H. Lewis, 1941) [iv.2]

v 130 Gallery of Fatal Portraits [v.1] [v.2] [v.3] [v.4] [v.5] [v.6] [v.∑] [v.8]

131 132 132 133 133 134 134

[v.9]

134 135

[v.10]

135

[v.11]

135 136 136 136 138 140 141 141 142 144 144 145

[v.12] [v.13] [v.14] [v.15] [v.16] [v.1∑] [v.18] [v.19] [v.20] [v.21] [v.22]

Portrait of Dolores Ybarra (The Falcon in Mexico, William Berke, 1944) Portrait of Theresa Randolph (Whirlpool, Otto Preminger, 1949) Miniature Portrait of Ann Lawrence (Man in the Attic, Hugo Fregonese, 1953) Portrait of Ann Lawrence (Man in the Attic, Hugo Fregonese, 1953) Portrait of Marcella Henderson (Phantom Lady, Robert Siodmak, 1944) Portrait of Sugar Torch (The Crimson Kimono, Samuel Fuller, 1959) Portrait of Madeleine Renard, aka The Madonna’s Secret (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Madeleine Renard (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Madeleine Renard with Flowers (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of a Woman, aka The Night Is Long (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Helen North (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Ella Randolph (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Linda North (The Madonna’s Secret, William Thiele, 1946) Portrait of Laura Hunt (Laura, Otto Preminger, 1944) Portrait of Matilda Frazier (The Unsuspected, Michael Curtiz, 1947) Portrait of Katherine Bosworth (A Stolen Life, Curtis Bernhardt, 1946) Portrait of Rosemary Blake (Strangers in the Night, Anthony Mann, 1944) Portrait of an Unknown Woman (The Dark Corner, Henry Hathaway, 1946) Portrait of Alice Reed (The Woman in the Window, Fritz Lang, 1944) Portrait of Francesca Cunningham (The Seventh Veil, Compton Bennett, 1945) Portrait of Allida Bederaux (Experiment Perilous, Jacques Tourneur, 1944) Portrait of Phyllis Brunner (Murder by Proxy, aka Blackout, Terence Fisher, 1954)


[v.23]

146 146 [v.25] 146 [v.26] 147 [v.2∑] 147

Portrait of Mrs. Paradine (The Paradine Case, Alfred Hitchcock, 1947) Portrait of Vivien Warren (Dear Murderer, Arthur Crabtree, 1947) Portrait of Laurie Durant (Whiplash, Lewis Seiler, 1948) Portrait of Jenny Marsh (Shockproof, Douglas Sirk, 1949) Portrait of Marianne and Marguerite Patourel (Green Dolphin Street, Victor Saville, 1947) [v.28] 148 Portrait of Olivia Harwood (So Evil, My Love, Lewis Allen, 1948) [v.29] 148 Portrait of Helen Wright (Humoresque, Jean Negulesco, 1946) [v.24]

vi 149 Gallery of Modern Portraits [vi.1] [vi.2] [vi.3] [vi.4] [vi.5] [vi.6] [vi.∑] [vi.8] [vi.9]

149 150 151 152 153 153 153 154 155

[vi.10]

156 156 [vi.12] 157 [vi.13] 158 [vi.11]

[vi.14]

158 [vi.15] 159 [vi.16] 159 [vi.1∑] 160

Portrait of a Woman in a Garden (The Second Woman, James V. Kern, 1950) Portrait of Nancy Blair, aka Cassandra (The Locket, John Brahm, 1946) Portrait of Mrs. Bonner (The Locket, John Brahm, 1946) Portrait of Christabel Caine Carey (Born to Be Bad, Nicholas Ray, 1950) Portrait of Linda Hamilton (The Man in the Net, Michael Curtiz, 1959) Portrait of Evelyn Heath as Saint Cecilia (Guest in the House, John Brahm, 1944) Self-Portrait of Peggy Born (Body and Soul, Robert Rossen, 1947) Portrait of Katherine March (Scarlet Street, Fritz Lang, 1945) Portrait of the First Mrs. Carroll, aka The Angel of Death (The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Peter Godfrey, 1947) First Portrait of Sally Morton (The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Peter Godfrey, 1947) Second Portrait of Sally Morton (The Two Mrs Carrolls, Peter Godfrey, 1947) Portrait of an Unknown Woman (Bluebeard, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944) Portrait of Jeannette Le Beau, aka The Maid of Orléans (Bluebeard, Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944) Portrait of Ada Elcott (Kind Lady, John Sturges, 1951) Portrait of Mary Herries (Kind Lady, John Sturges, 1951) Portrait of a Murderer (The Big Clock, John Farrow, 1948) Portrait of a Man and a Woman (The Big Clock, John Farrow, 1948)

162 Bibliography 166 Index 174 About the Authors



Preface Picture a museum in which the portrait of Carlotta Valdes, an important prop in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, hangs on a wall next to the painted portrait of the title character of Otto Preminger’s Laura and opposite the uncanny portraits of the desired or murdered women in Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street, George Cukor’s Gaslight, and Nicholas Ray’s Born to Be Bad. In an adjacent gallery, the visitor of this imaginary museum can contemplate the portraits of patriarchs that feature in films such as House of Strangers, Suspicion, Gilda, and Strangers on a Train. This is the exact concept of this book. The Dark Galleries presents itself as a conventional museum guide of this fictitious collection of painted portraits, which play an important part in the plot or the mise-en-scène of several American (and some British) noir crime thrillers, gothic melodramas, and ghost stories of the 1940s and 1950s. Apart from an extensive introductory essay, this museum guide comprises about a hundred entries on the artistic and cinematic aspects of these painted portraits. As in a real museum, these portraits are thematically grouped in separate picture galleries. The six galleries of this museum contain portraits of dying characters, patriarchs, matriarchs and female ancestors, ghosts, fatal women, and modern portraits respectively. Taking the fictitious for real, this book tallies with some of my earlier publications such as The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2007), which was conceived as an architectural monograph containing floor plan reconstructions of a series of domestic buildings that feature in Hitchcock films. Moreover, some elements of this book concept go back to the late 1990s when I enjoyed contributing to the originally Dutch version of the Encyclopedia of Fictional Artists edited by Koen Brams – an English translation was published by JRP|Ringier, Zürich in 2010. Brams’ fascinating collection of fictitious artists, who are characters in novels and plays, was one of the sources of inspiration for this museum guide of noir and gothic paintings, which is written in collaboration with Lisa Colpaert. For this, both Lisa and I owe Koen our deepest gratitude. We also owe thanks to various other individuals and institutions. This book is the result of a research project focusing on the cinematic representations of artworks at the School of Arts of University College Ghent, Belgium. We are grateful for the support of this institution, which made the publication of this volume possible. We also benefited greatly from the help offered by several film librarians and archivists. We specifically would like to thank staff members of the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and at the Warner Brothers Archives at the University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles. In particular, our gratitude goes to

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Barbara Hall and Jenny Romero at the Herrick Library and Sandra Joy Lee Aguilar and Jonathon Auxier at the Warners Archive. In ­addition, we would like to acknowledge the staff of the library at Cinematek Brussels. Some paragraphs of this book were published earlier as an a­ rticle in Dutch in the May/June 2012 issue of the Belgian art journal De Witte Raaf. We would like to thank editor Dirk Pültau for giving us the opportunity to test out the format of a museum guide. Other parts were published as an article in a theme issue on art and film of the Canadian film studies journal Cineaction in the fall 2013. We thank editor Susan Morison for her valuable remarks. Some of the ideas of this book also developed at conference panels or seminars such as a session on imaginary artists at the Association of Art Historians Conference in Warwick in 2011 and at the 2011 Summer Film Seminar organized by VDFC in Antwerp. Other parts were developed in the context of a master seminar at the School of Arts at University College Ghent, and at a research seminar at the Department of Art-, Music-, and Theater Studies of Ghent University. We like to thank chairs, co-presenters, audience members, colleagues, and students for their critical remarks. We also owe gratitude to Ivo Blom, David Bordwell, Paul Busch­ mann, Nathalie Cools, Karel De Cock, Hilde D’haeyere, Stefan Franck, Elias Grootaers, Koenraad Jonckheere, Lynda Nead, Tom Paulus, Nicolas Provost, Joost Van der Auwera, and Petra Van der Jeught. We also thank MER. Publishers, who were immediately in favor of the museum guide format used in this book. Special thanks go to Susan Felleman (University of South Carolina), who accepted to co-supervise the research project as well as research assistant Vito Adriaensens, who contributed to this project with numerous valuable remarks and editorial assistance. Steven Jacobs August 2013

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PART ONE

INTRODUCTION: ART AND ARTISTS IN THE AMERICAN CINEMA OF THE 1940S AND 1950S


Enchanted portrait in The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)


The Power of Portraits In Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941), there is a famous scene in which a police inspector explicitly focuses his attention on a cubist painting in the hall of the house of the protagonists. The painting is Pablo Picasso’s still life Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit (1931) and the policeman’s f­ ascination with it is striking, because it is “useless” from the point of view of ­narrative advancement. What’s more, the still life even halts the action for a while. In his influential 1976 article “Narrative Space,” Stephen Heath used the scene to begin an argument about the inextricable links between screen space, narrative, and the spectator’s psychological identification in classical film style.1 In Suspicion, there seems to be no psychological connection between the character and the Picasso painting, which also evokes a spatial realm completely at odds with the classical perspective of the film camera. In addition, there seems to be no symbolical correlation between the painting and the characters or the situation – a kind of relation that is often evoked in film scenes showing paintings, particularly those containing religious imagery. Hitchcock himself, for instance, used this symbolical dimension of paintings in The Wrong Man (1956) and Psycho (1960). In The Wrong Man, a picture of Christ as the Sacred Heart becomes invested with a strong sense of psychic closeness when the protagonist prays to it at a significant moment in the story. In Psycho (1960), Norman Bates’ voyeuristic peephole is covered by a painting representing Susanna and the Elders, an apocryphal story that “reveals several themes elucidated in Psycho: voyeurism, wrongful accusation, corrupted innocence, power misused, secrets, lust, and death.”2 Similarly, in Kiss of Death (Henry Hathaway, 1947), a former gangster looks at a large painting depicting Little Children Coming to Jesus when he visits his children in an orphanage. In Cat People (Jacques Tourneur, 1942), the apartment of Irena (Simone Simon) is decorated with artworks representing cats, including a little statue of King John of Serbia on horseback, who is piercing cats with his sword. These kinds of relationships between an artwork and one of the characters of the story are not established in Hitchcock’s Suspicion. However, the taking notice of the Picasso still life must be seen in relation to another painting featured in the film that also draws the characters’ attention. This painting is the portrait of General McLaidlaw, the father of Lina McLaidlaw, the film’s female protagonist played by Joan Fontaine. In contrast to Picasso’s post-cubist still life, this painting is perfectly integrated into the narrative. The explanation for this 1 2

Stephen Heath, “Narrative Space,” Screen 17, 3 (1976), 68–112. Erik S. Lunde and Douglas A. Noverr, “Saying It with Pictures: Alfred Hitchcock and Painterly Images in Psycho,” in Paul Loukides and Linda K. Fuller (eds.), Beyond the Stars: Studies in American Popular Film: Volume 3: The Material World in American Popular Film (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993), 101.

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self-portrait in a richly decorated golden frame in his office whereas kind-hearted George Bailey (James Stewart) honors his deceased father with a simple photograph on the wall. This differentiation had become highly popular in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,ve possibilities of This differentiation between pictorial and photographic portraits is striking particularly when we take into account that, from a perspective outside the diegesis, many painted portraits featured in these films were actually retouched photographs. The famous portrait in Laura, for instance, was an enlarged photograph that was lightly brushed with paint to give it the appearance of an oil painting.50 No doubt, this was also the case with many of the other “oils” in tawdry golden frames included in this gallery of noir and gothic portraits. Instead of being based on pictorial qualities, the hypnotic powers of these painted portraits of the characters depend on photographic techniques and skills (apart from the cinematic ones mentioned above). However, this hybrid combination of pictorial and photographic techniques was already an established convention in the history of portrait painting since the nineteenth century. With the advent of photography, particularly in the United States many run-of-the-mill portrait-painting studios changed over to using the camera or actually painted in oils on top of photographs.51 Moreover, when oil portraiture had surrendered its primary function of recording a likeness to the new technique of photography, it emphasized its ability to offer the unique attractions of the expressive possibilities of paint. In a style of painting that is often thought of as the “Munich School” manner, which had become highly popular in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, images of striking realism were combined with exciting and dynamic brushwork.52 Artists and Models A painted portrait also implies that an artist has been involved. In most films, however, the (fictitious) artist is unknown and even irrelevant to the story, which focuses on the relation between the painted portrait and its owners or beholders. Nonetheless, noir crime thrillers and melodramas are inhabited by quite a collection of artist characters. Films such as Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944), Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945), The Two Mrs. Carrolls, Guest in the House (John Brahm, 1944), Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948), Whiplash (Lewis Seiler, 1948), 50 William Hare, Early Film Noir: Greed, Lust, and Murder Hollywood Style (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2003), 114. 51 Robin Simon, The Portrait in Britain and America. With a Biographical Dictionary of Portrait Painters 1680–1914 (Boston: G.K. Hall & Co, 1987), 132. 52 Simon, The Portrait in Britain and America, 19 and 48–49.

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Artist, model and collector in The Locket (John Brahm, 1946)

Art class in The Locket (John Brahm, 1946)


Looking for clues in I Wake Up Screaming (H. Bruce Humberstone, 1941)

Murder mystery clue in Invisible Ghost (Joseph H. Lewis, 1941)

Murder mystery clue in The Hound of The Baskervilles (Terence Fisher, 1959) Murder mystery clue in The Falcon in Mexico (William Berke, 1944)

Smuggled Bellini painting in Captain Carey U.S.A. (Mitchell Leisen, 1950)

Smuggled paintings in Captain Carey U.S.A. (Mitchell Leisen, 1950)

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Detail referring to a murder in Kind Lady (John Sturges, 1951)

Art forgery in Crack-Up (Irving Reis, 1946)

Oriental statuette containing heroin in The Lineup (Don Siegel, 1958)

Pre-Columbian statue containing microďŹ lm in North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)

Oriental statue covering a camera in The Big Sleep (Howard Hawks, 1946)

Idol of Kwan Yin in Three Strangers (Jean Negulesco, 1946)

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PART TWO

AN ILLUSTRATED SURVEY OF NOIR AND GOTHIC ART, ARTISTS, MUSEUMS, AND COLLECTORS


ARTISTS

Gaston Morel (John Carradine) in Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944)

Christoffer Cross (Edward G. Robinson) in Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945)

Geoffrey Carroll (Humphrey Bogart) in The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Peter Godfrey, 1947)

Douglas Proctor (Ralph Bellamy) in Guest in the House (John Brahm, 1944)

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Eben Adams (Joseph Cotten) in Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948)

Norman Clyde (Robert Mitchum) in The Locket (John Brahm, 1946)

Gabriel Broome (Mel Ferrer) in Born to Be Bad (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

Mark Bellis (Ray Milland) in So Evil, My Love (Lewis Allen, 1948)

Michael Gordon (Dane Clark) in Whiplash (Lewis Seiler, 1948)

Hendrik van der Zee (James Mason) in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951)

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The Mob (Robert Parrish, 1951)

Nightmare Alley (Edmund Goulding, 1947)

Slightly Scarlet (Allan Dwan, 1956)

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MODERN ART IN THE HOMES OF CRIMINALS

Edgar Degas in Illegal (Lewis Allen, 1955)

Edgar Degas in New York Confidential (Russell Rouse, 1955)

Paul Cézanne in New York Confidential (Russell Rouse, 1955) Vincent Van Gogh in Phantom Lady (Robert Siodmak, 1944)

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PART THREE

MUSEUM CATALOGUE OF PAINTED PORTRAITS


The following pages make up a museum catalogue comprising entries on about a hundred painted portraits that feature in noir thrillers, gothic melodramas, and supernatural ghost stories of the 1940s and the 1950s. As is the case in every museum, the paintings are grouped in different rooms. This museum consists of six galleries. Some of them are dedicated to portraits of specific character types such as (I) dying characters, (II) patriarchs, (III) matriarchs and female ancestors, and (IV) ghost-like figures. The largest gallery (V) shows fatal portraits of desirable women. The last gallery (VI) hosts an exhi­bition of portraits painted in a modernist style. Self-evidently, as in all museums, the organization of the galleries is to a certain extent arbitrary; several works could be put on display in another room. However, in each of the introductions to the galleries, we explain our choices and make explicit some of the interrelations between the exhibits. Each catalogue entry briefly situates the portrait in the film’s narrative. It gives information on the portrait’s history, its relation to its creators, owners, and beholders. In short, it tells the story of the portrait before it became part of this museum collection. In the more extensive entries, attention is also drawn to art-historical aspects as well as to the ways the paintings are visualized in the mises-en-scène. Some entries provide information on the production of the portrait, mentioning the “real” artist who painted the picture. As in every common art gallery, this museum holds famous masterpieces as well as lesser-known or less interesting works. This is reflected in the varying size of the catalogue entries. Longer entries, such as those dealing with the portraits in Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944), Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945), or Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958), for instance, deal with the highlights of this museum, which are usually paintings that can be considered as principal characters in the films in which they feature. In addition, over the years, these paintings have also attracted much critical and scholarly attention, often becoming important topics in film theory.


I. Gallery of Dying Portraits It is no coincidence that the era of film noir and gothic melodramas spawned a film version of Oscar Wilde’s famous novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In 1945, Albert Lewin, a director with highbrow affectations, adapted the novel for the screen for MGM. From many perspectives, Wilde’s novel has become the model for the ways in which painted portraits feature in film. The story about a painting that ages instead of its sitter prefigures the endless variations on the portrait as a harbinger of death. Like the paintings discussed in the gallery of matriarchs, Dorian’s altered portrait can, moreover, be interpreted as a return of the repressed and as a token of a family history marked by bloodshed. The death of the portrait’s sitter is also an important theme in The Lodger (John Brahm, 1944), Odd Man Out (Carol Reed, 1947), and A Double Life (George Cukor, 1947). Reed’s 1947 effort features an artist eagerly trying to paint the soul of a dying man. A Double Life inverts the plot of The Picture of Dorian Gray back to a “normal” situation; hence the portrait remains unblemished while the sitter ages. When the protagonist (Ronald Colman) is faced with his portrait, he is not only confronted with his downfall but also with his mortality. This is also the case in Mr. Skeffington (Vincent Sherman, 1944) and Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950), in which portraits function as a memento of the lost beauty and youth of the female protagonists and as a shrine to their socialite identities.

if a strange power guided the artist’s hand, as if the painting had a mind of its own. Hallward was very secretive about the portrait when he had finished it. He did not have any ambition to exhibit it and was reluctant to show it to visitors. The artist also did not want Dorian to meet Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders), who thought the portrait to be Hallward’s best work and who could not believe that anyone as handsome as the man portrayed existed. The portrait’s function, to freeze and frame the model’s youthful beauty, would soon be reversed by Dorian’s Faustian wish that the picture grow old so that he could always remain young and beautiful. The portrait first started changing when Dorian broke up with his fiancée and started living solely for pleasure. One night, Dorian noticed that a touch of cruelty had materialized in the mouth of his painted face. From then onward, Dorian refused to have anyone look at his portrait, even when his close friend Basil Hallward eventually decided that he wanted to

[I.1]

Portrait of Dorian Gray (Basil Hallward, 1886) Basil Hallward (Lowell Gilmore) painted the full-length portrait of the youthful and handsome Dorian Gray (Hurd Hatfield) in his London studio in 1886. It depicts Dorian Gray in a well-tailored suit standing next to a table that displays a black Egyptian statuette of a cat. When Dorian posed for Hallward, it seemed as

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exhibit the painting after all. He also moved the life-size portrait from the central room of his luxurious mansion, where it had stood among other objects of his extensive art collection, to his old study in the attic, which had been unused for years. Dorian would only show the dreadfully altered portrait to Basil Hallward decades later. The artist hardly recognized his painting and thought it to be beyond nature and reason. For fear of the artist revealing his secret, Dorian killed him in front of the hideous picture. After the murder, the hands in the portrait became marked with bloodstains. Later, in an effort to undo the spell, Dorian attempted to destroy the picture. As he planted his knife into the heart of the portrait, his own body in fact took the blow. Dorian took his own life trying to destroy the portrait. His stabbed body was found under the portrait, which had posthumously been restored to its original image of youth and beauty. Lord Wotton first admires the picture of Dorian Gray in the artist’s studio, but the painting remains invisible to the spectator until the sitter himself is astonished by it. Through

a conventional shot/reverse shot of portrait and sitter, underscored by swelling music, the intimate relationship between Dorian and his painted counterpart is emphasized. Moreover, the shock that Dorian experiences when he first sees his perfect mirror image is transferred to the spectator by means of a color insert shot. A similar shot/reverse shot pattern is employed when Dorian sees the first traces of decay in the portrait. We are, then, witnesses to a second color insert shot in the scene in the attic where artist Basil Hallward lays eyes on his work of art that represents full-blown decay. The insertion of color once again comes as a shock to us, but this time out of horror rather than beauty. The portrait is thus cinematically animated twice by means of a color insert shot, but also through the moving shadow of the spinning lamp and Dorian’s silhouette as he kills Hallward, through the knife that rips the canvas and, finally, through a swirling fade when the decaying portrait is restored to its original form. Dorian’s portrait dominates many key scenes. What’s more, whenever the portrait is absent, it is nevertheless present in the visualization of the Dorian Gray character, impersonated by Hurd Hatfield in an almost statuesque manner. As Felleman (1997: 51) has noted, Dorian is constantly framed by hallways, doors and mirrors. The protagonist is thus visually split; the “bodily Dorian becomes a static, unvarying visual simulacrum of a fantasy,” whereas “the portrait, although it is no more ‘real’ than the body, records visually the immaterial ‘substance’ of Dorian’s evil deeds” (1997: 50). Felleman (1997: 45) further refers to Dorian as an “object of desire (…) what a femme fatale is to the male protagonist in film noir: sexually alluring but enigmatic and potentially

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treacherous.” Dorian’s ambiguous sexuality and enigmatic identity is indeed reminiscent of the film noir femme fatale, who is also often doubled by a painted portrait. Like most fatal portraits in this museum, Dorian’s portrait functions as a double both symbolically and cinematically. Dorian’s narcissism is, like the femme fatale’s, further emphasized by the fact that he is often doubled by a mirror as well. Being an uncanny double, the portrait evokes an uncertainty about who is alive and who is dead, the portrait or its sitter. Although some fatal portraits clearly codify the actual death of their sitters (Phantom Lady, Whirlpool, The Crimson Kimono), others leave more room for doubt. The portrait consequently poses a threat to the portrayed (Laura, The Unsuspected, A Double Life). Dorian Gray’s portrait seems to be an inversion of the fatal portrait theme: it is not the life of its sitter that is threatened, but that of the portrait. Like many noir portraits, however, Dorian’s picture

is ultimately visualized next to the dead body of its sitter. Lewin’s adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray is one of the few films that featured a painting in which the artists were credited. The portrait of the young Dorian Gray was made by academic portraitist, Henrique Medina, a Portuguese painter who lived in Hollywood for a few years, where he painted actresses’ portraits. According to IMDb, years after the film was released, a friend of Hurd Hatfield’s supposedly bought the portrait of the young Dorian and gave it to the actor. As Variety mentioned in its 02/26/1945 issue, American magic realist Ivan Le Lorraine Albright painted the portrait of Dorian Gray in its final stages of disintegration. His grotesque and exaggerated depictions of decay and corruption made Albright very well suited to do this painting, which currently resides in the Art Institute of Chicago. The Picture of Dorian Gray (Albert Lewin, MGM, 1945, painted by Henrique Medina and Ivan Le Lorraine Albright)

[I.2]

First Self-Portrait of Mr. Slade (Slade, late 19th Century) [I.3] Second Self-Portrait of Mr. Slade (Slade, late 19th Century) Mr. Slade painted two miniature self-portraits that became important clues in the Jack the Ripper murder mystery. The first portrait of the deceased painter was in the possession of his brother (Laird Cregar), who deeply admired his work. “The life in those eyes! They are fine and clear. There is a sensibility about his lips. You are looking at the work of a genius. It is as real as though he were alive. I can almost hear his voice again when I look at this.” The second, almost identical, self-portrait was painted

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Sophie Patourel (Gladys Cooper), finds out that her lost love, Dr. Edmond Ozanne (Frank Morgan), William’s father, has returned; and a second time after Marianne and William return

from New Zealand, when Marianne finds out about William’s love for Marguerite. Green Dolphin Street (Victor Saville, MGM, 1947)

had to rent a room from Olivia Harwood (Ann Todd), a virtuous missionary widow whom he had met on a boat returning from Jamaica. Although Bellis considered himself a visionary artist, he painted the portrait of Olivia Harwood in a realist-bourgeois style. In the portrait, Harwood wears a bridal dress that she received from a girl in Jamaica who hoped it would make her joyful. She wore this dress the first time she posed for Bellis. Even though Olivia was hurt when she first saw her painted portrait, she recognized that this was the way she once thought she’d grow up to be. “You wouldn’t know me when I was at school. I was the leader of everything. I danced the best; I even looked the best. Why did you have to bring it all back to me? Everything that I wanted to be. Everything. Time lost.” An issue of Variety (02/27/1947) reveals that artist Richard Kitchin, who also did the portrait for The Uninvited [IV.1], painted the portrait of Olivia Harwood.

[V.28] Portrait of Olivia Harwood

(Mark Bellis, c. 1890) Artist and rogue Mark Bellis (Ray Milland) was once described as “a fascinating character [who] seems to have committed every crime in the calendar: forgery, larceny, murder, burglary, theft. We’ll exclude painting, though I gather this is outrageous enough to be considered a crime by the critics.” Due to financial issues, Bellis

So Evil, My Love (Lewis Allen, Paramount British Pictures, 1948, painted by Richard Kitchin)

[V.29] Portrait of Helen Wright

(Unknown Artist, c. 1940) This portrait adorned the luxurious Long Island beach house of Helen Wright (Joan Crawford), who was a wealthy, neurotic socialite who tried to forget about her unhappy marriage with Victor Wright (Paul Cavanagh) by excessive alcohol consumption. A patroness of the arts, she was the benefactress of young violinist Paul Boray (John Garfield), which ultimately resulted in a successful concert career for Boray. Helen Wright and Paul Boray fell in love but when she realized that their affair might not only destroy Boray’s concert career, but their lives as well, she committed suicide. Director Negulesco frames Crawford together with her portrait in the key scene in which her character decides to kill her self. Humoresque (Jean Negulesco, Warner Brothers, 1946)

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VI. Gallery of Modern Portraits Most noir portraits are painted in a bourgeois realist style and in many cases the portrait is unmistakably a retouched photograph. An important subgroup, however, consists of modernist portraits. Strikingly, when portraits are executed in a modernist style, the artists who made them are almost always important characters in the film. The women portrayed often enthrall or haunt these modern artists, in contrast to the portraits painted in conventional styles, which rather seem to enchant other male characters who observe instead of create the painting. Non-naturalist styles are thus invoked in order to emphasize the enchanting or haunting qualities of the portraits. In many cases, their enigmatic nature is further stressed by a non-illusionist but also emphatically anti-dynamic – i.e. uncinematic – style referring to modernist movements such as Symbolism, Surrealism, and Magical Realism. Female characters are presented as ­petrified figures, or fossilized icons, that emphasize the lackluster nature of portraits and thus break the narrative and optical dynamics of the film. Several portraits painted in a modernist style can be interpreted as instruments that channel desire. The artists are enabled to transform the desired woman into a sexually passive image, not by possessing the portrait, but by creating it. Scarlet Street (Fritz Lang, 1945), The Two Mrs. Carrolls (Peter Godfrey, 1947), and Bluebeard (Edgar G. Ulmer, 1944) connect art to voyeurism, sexuality, and violence by featuring artists that reveal themselves as frustrated Pygmalions who desperately try to mold their beloved ones into an ideal. In the process, they sometimes lose the ability to distinguish the original from the copy. This often results in madness or murder; a plot structure that, on the one hand, can be related to a century-old tradition of artists’ legends associating the artistic process with madness and crime. On the other hand, it tallies with a populist anti-art discourse that marked 1940s Hollywood cinema, in which various forms of non-naturalistic art were considered to be the work of madmen (Waldman 1982). [VI.1]

Portrait of a Woman in a Garden (Del Lopez, c. 1945) Painted by Mexican modernist Del Lopez, this watercolor shows the face of a woman with streaming hair among plant-like forms. Intertwined with the arabesques of nature, the woman’s face is reminiscent of Symbolist portraits, but the pictorial style of the plants rather refers to Fauvism, particularly the work of Raoul Dufy. The portrait represents Vivian Sheppard (Shirley Ballard), the former fiancée of architect Jeffrey Cohalan (Robert Young). She died in a car crash the night before their

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Index Affairs of Cellini, The 37 Agony and the Ecstasy, The 37 Aherne, Brian  151 Albright, Ivan Le Lorraine  59, 97 Aldrich, Robert  42, 50, 51, 52, 79, 90, 91 Allégret, Marc  102, 109 Allen, Lewis  41, 64, 71, 79, 89, 120, 121, 148 Alton, John  128 Amazing Mr. X, The  25, 26, 120, 128 Anderson, Judith  116 Andrews, Dana  103, 132, 137 Arden, Eve  39, 40 Arliss, Leslie  76, 102, 108, 118 Arp, Jean  159 Ashley, Edward  135 Asphalt Jungle, The  40, 41, 90 Audubon, James  64, 146 Auiler, Dan  125 Aumont, Jacques  24 Avery, Milton  91 Bacall, Lauren  35, 75 Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer, The  37, 75 Backfire 25 Badel, Alan  51, 77 Bainter, Fay  114 Balázs, Béla  24 Ballard, Shirley  149 Balzac, Hononé  28 Baragrey, John  147 Bari, Lynn  128 Barker, Jess  82, 154 Barlach, Ernst  47 Barrett, Edith  141 Barrymore, Ethel  84, 85, 106, 158, 159 Barrymore, John  61 Barrymore, Lionel  31 Basehart, Richard  114 Bauer, Evgenii  19 Baxter, Anne  153 Bazin, André  27 Beavers, Mary  117 Bel Geddes, Barbara  126 Bellamy, Ralph  55, 70, 153 Bellan, Ferdinand  60, 123 Bellini, Jacopo  44, 46 Bellows, George  56, 138, 140 Belting, Hans  17, 38 Benda, Helena  115 Benjamin, Walter  18

Bennett, Compton  36, 73, 118, 144 Bennett, Joan  35, 60, 142, 143, 154, 155 Bergman, Ingrid  115 Berke, William  44, 46, 74, 81, 131 Bernhardt, Curtis  34, 72, 79, 85, 140 Bey, Turhan  128 Bickford, Charles  35, 75 Big Clock, The  34, 39, 47, 48, 72, 81, 84 159–60 Big Combo, The  42, 85 Big Heat, The  91, 111, 113, 155 Big Knife, The  50, 51, 58, 91 Big Sleep, The  45, 46 Birds, The  104, 116, 126 Birley, Sir Oswald  102 Black Widow 76 Blackmail 126 Blackout, aka Murder by Proxy  75, 131, 145 Blair, Betsy  158 Blanche Fury  102, 109 Blue Gardenia, The  35, 76 Bluebeard  32, 36, 47, 49, 58, 67, 70, 83, 149, 157, 158 Blueprint for Murder  57, 58 Body and Soul  35, 74, 153 Bogart, Humphrey  29, 36, 49, 70, 155, 156 Born to Be Bad  34, 60, 62, 63, 66, 67, 71, 79, 152 Born to Kill 25 Boyer, Charles  115 Brackman, Robert  56–57, 63, 64, 121, 122 Brahm, John  2, 25, 26, 32, 33, 34, 70, 71, 78, 84, 95, 98, 151, 153 Brennan, Walter  34, 67 Brent, George  144 Brian, David  112 Broken Lance 101 Bronzino, Agnolo  57, 58 Brooks, Geraldine  76 Browning, Robert  28 Brute Force 31 Burglar, The  42, 86, 118–19 Burr, Raymond  76 Cahill, Arthur  102 Cahn, Edward L.  43, 87 Calhern, Louis  40 Callejo, Cecilia  131 Calvert, Phyllis  118 Campaux, François  54 Capra, Frank  31 Captain Carey U.S.A.  44, 46, 81, 83 Carlson, Richard  128

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Carradine, John  36, 49, 70, 157 Carter, Ann  155 Casement, Sir Roger  105 Cat People  15, 16, 35, 77, 80 Caulfield, Joan  138 Cavanagh, Paul  148 Cézanne, Paul  41, 89 Chaplin, Charlie  61 Chase, Ilka  121 Chase, William  56 Chute de la maison Usher, La  19, 29, 49 Clair, René  50, 51, 102, 108 Clark, Dane  67, 71, 72, 140, 145, 146 Clift, Montgomery  114 Clouzot, Henri-Georges  54 Coburn, Charles  113 Colby, Anita  64, 127 Coleman, Herbert  124, 125 Colman, Ronald  95, 99, 121 Compson, Betty  128 Connolly, James  105 Conover, Lily  49 Conspirators, The  42, 43 Constant, Benjamin  115 Conte, Richard  102, 103 Conway, Tom  131 Cooper, Gary  104 Cooper, Gladys  112, 148 Cording, Harry  133 Corot, Jean-Baptiste-Camille  125 Corridor of Mirrors  28, 47, 49, 120, 127 Cortese, Valentina  114 Cortez, Ricardo  84, 150 Cotten, Joseph  55, 56, 71, 121, 122 Coulouris, George  110 Courbet, Gustave  125 Couture, Thomas  125 Crabtree, Arthur  146 Crack-Up  39, 42, 45, 79, 83 Craven, Frank  113 Crawford, Broderick  41 Crawford, Joan  77, 112, 148 Cregar, Laird  97 Crimson Kimono, The  34, 35, 54, 72, 97, 130, 134 Cromwell, John  43, 87 Crossfire 35 Cukor, George  21, 26, 95, 99, 111, 116 Cummings, Robert  100 Curtis, Alan  133 Curtis, Donald  128 Curtiz, Michael  21, 29, 51, 58, 73, 74, 85, 91, 120, 139, 140, 153

Daisy Kenyon  35, 77 Dali, Salvador  39 Damned Don’t Cry, The  111, 112 Dark Corner, The  4, 24, 26, 28, 30, 36, 41, 42, 56, 78, 82, 120, 130, 141 Dark Mirror, The 53 Dark Passage  35, 75 Dark Waters  112, 114 Darnell, Linda  64, 127 Dassin, Jules  30, 31, 76 Daves, Delmer  35, 75 Davis, Bette  34, 58, 64, 67, 72, 99, 112, 113, 140 Day, Laraine  150 Day, Robert  54 De Chirico, Giorgio  122, 123, 159 de Havilland, Olivia  113, 114 de Kooning, Willem  54 de Laviglière, Nicolas  124 De Toth, André  112, 114 Dead Reckoning  43, 87 Dear Murderer  131, 146 Decker, John  60–63, 85, 154, 155, 157 Degas, Edgar  41, 43, 58, 89 Dekker, Albert  41, 73, 144 Delvaux, Paul  122, 123, 150 DeMille, Cecil B.  67 Destination Murder  43, 87 Dexter, John  136 Dieterle, William  21, 32, 55, 57, 65, 71, 79, 81, 83, 85, 101, 120, 122 Dishonored Lady  35, 47, 48, 77, 119 Dmytryk, Edward  35, 50, 51, 101 Doane, Mary Ann  20, 48, 111, 151, 156 Double Life, A  95, 97, 99 Douglas, Kirk  52 Downs, Cathy  141 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 81 Dragonwyck  26, 111, 112, 117 Drake, Betsy  150 Dreyer, Carl Theodor  19 Dufy, Raoul  149 Dulles, John Foster  64 Durgnat, Raymond  19 Duryea, Dan  119 Dwan, Allan  43, 88 Dyer, Richard  42 Dying Swan, The 19 El Greco 37 Elephant Walk 101 Elliott, Charles Loring  125 Elsaesser, Thomas  18, 144, 145

167


Epstein, Edward Z.  122 Epstein, Jean  19, 29, 49 Esmond, Carl  73, 144 Evans, Maurice  75, 159 Evanson, Edith  112 Experiment Perilous  18, 24, 30, 34, 35, 36, 67, 73, 78, 130, 131, 144–45 Fairbanks, Douglas  61 Falcon in Mexico, The  44, 46, 74, 81, 131 Falkenberg, Paul  54 Farrow, John  34, 47, 72, 81, 84, 160 Fearing, Kenneth  160 Felleman, Susan  20, 21, 26, 27, 29, 96, 116, 123, 156 Female Jungle  30, 35 Ferren, John  60, 63, 124, 126 Ferrer, José  132 Ferrer, Mel  62, 71, 152 Field, Mary  41 Fields, W.C.  61 Fisher, Terence  44, 46, 48, 49, 75, 102, 109, 145 5 Fingers  42, 87 Fitzgerald, Walter  109 Fleming, Victor  81 Flynn, Errol  61 Fontaine, Joan  15, 60, 104, 116, 152 Footsteps in the Fog 119 Ford, Glenn  105, 113, 140 Forsythe, John  55 Fountainhead, The  36, 101, 104 Freedberg, David  17, 38 Freeland, Cynthia  27 Fregonese, Hugo  24, 25, 80, 132, 133 Fried, Michael  17 Fuller, Samuel  34, 54, 72, 130, 134 Fuoco, Il 19 Gabel, Martin  100 Gable, Clark  61 Gad, Urban  19 Gainsborough, Thomas  116, 124, 138 Garbo, Greta  61 Gardner, Ava  59, 122, 123 Garfield, John  35, 148, 153 Gaslight  21, 26, 111, 115–16 Gauguin, Paul  41, 154, 155 Genthon, Joanne  126 Geray, Steven  150 Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The  21, 25, 26, 34, 64, 75, 120, 127–28 Giannini, A.P.  102

Gilda  42, 86, 101, 104–105 Gilmore, Lowell  74, 95 Goddard, Paulette  64, 127 Godfrey, Peter  26, 29, 70, 149, 155, 156, 157 Gogol, Nikolai  28 Gough, Michael  109 Goulding, Edmund  43, 88 Granger, Stewart  109, 118, 119 Grant, Cary  37, 75, 104 Greco, El  57, 98, 158, 159 Green Dolphin Street 147–48 Greenstreet, Sidney  110 Gregg, Virginia  74 Grey, Lynda  121 Grisseman, Stefan  157 Groesbeck, Dan Sayre  67 Grot, Anton  139, 140 Guest in the House  2, 32, 55, 70, 153 Gunning, Tom  106, 126, 142, 143 Gynt, Greta  146 Haesaerts, Paul  54 Hale, Jonathan  106 Hals, Frans  43 Hanson, Helen  20, 21, 29, 111, 115, 116 Harding, Chester  125 Hardwicke, Cedric  104 Harris, Robert A.  125 Harrison, Rex  127, 128 Hart, Richard  147 Hasso, Signe  99 Hatfield, Hurd  73, 95, 96, 97, 138, 140 Hathaway, Henry  15, 16, 26, 56, 78, 82, 120, 141 Hawks, Howard  45, 46 Haworth, Ted  59, 105, 106 Hawthorne, Nathaniel  28 Hayward, Susan  100 Hayworth, Rita  105 Healy, George Peter Alexander  125 Heath, Stephen  15 Heiress, The  112, 114 Helm, Fay  151 Helmore, Tom  124 Henreid, Paul  49 Henri Matisse 54 Henri, Robert  56 Herzogenrath, Bernd  157 Hesse, Paul  64, 127 Hicks, Thomas  125 Hirsch, Foster  23, 132 Hitchcock, Alfred  15, 16, 21, 35, 39, 41, 43, 45, 46, 59, 60, 64, 73, 80, 90, 91, 94, 101,

168


102, 104, 105, 106, 107, 111, 116, 117, 120, 124, 125, 126, 146 Hoban, Phoebe  160 Hobson, Valerie  109 Hoffmann, E.T.A.  28 Holbein, Hans  123 Holden, William  100 Hound of the Baskervilles, The  44, 46, 102, 109 House of Strangers  101, 102–103 House on Telegraph Hill, The  111, 114–15 Hoyt, Joseph  85 Humberstone, H. Bruce  30, 31, 44 Hume, Benita  121 Humoresque 148 Hussey, Ruth  121 Huston, John  37, 40, 41, 42, 46, 90, 113 I Married a Witch  50, 51, 102, 108 I See a Dark Stranger  80, 105 I Wake Up Screaming  30, 31, 43, 44 I Walked with a Zombie  46, 47 Illegal  41, 58, 89 In This Our Life 113 Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique  125 Inman, Henry  125 Invisible Ghost  43, 44, 120, 128–29 Isle of the Dead  46, 47 It’s a Wonderful Life 31 Ivan, Rosalind  106, 110 Jack the Ripper  24, 26, 97, 132, 133 Jackson Pollock 54 Jenkins, Stephen  106 Johnson, Nunnally  76 Johnson, Rita  160 Jones, Carolyn  153 Jones, Jennifer  56, 65, 121, 122 Kahlo, Frida  154 Katz, James C.  125 Kaye, Danny  138 Kellaway, Cecil  83, 108, 121 Kellow, Brian  143 Kemper, Charles  106 Kern, James V.  26, 82, 83, 150 Kerr, Deborah  105 Kind Lady  34, 36, 45, 46, 57, 75, 84, 158–59 Kiss Me Deadly  42, 79, 90 Kiss of Death  15, 16 Kitchin, Richard  64, 121, 148 Klee, Paul  42, 90 Kline, Franz  54

Knight, Patricia  147 Kohlmar, Fred  128 Kokoschka, Oskar  156 Kollwitz, Käthe  47 Kosleck, Martin  64, 140 Koster, Henry  37 Kreuger, Kurt  141 Kris, Ernst  24, 37 Kröger, Friedrich  125 Krutnik, Frank  151 Kurz, Otto  24, 37 La Cava, Gregory  37 Ladd, Alan  74, 153 Lake, Veronica  108 Lamarr, Hedy  48, 77, 119, 144 Lanchester, Elsa  48, 72, 159, 160 Lang, Fritz  22, 23, 29, 32, 35, 36, 41, 55, 60, 61, 66, 70, 76, 78, 80, 81, 82, 83, 91, 94, 101, 103, 106, 111, 113, 130, 142, 143, 149, 154, 155, 157 Lang, Walter  138 LaShelle, Joseph  137 Launder, Frank  80, 105 Laura  21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 41, 56, 59, 85, 94, 97, 103, 120, 130, 132, 136–38, 139 Lawrence, Thomas  120 Lederer, Francis  77, 134, 135, 136 Lee, Anna  72, 134 Lee, Belina  145 Lee, Christopher  109 Leisen, Mitchell  44, 46, 81, 83 Leith, Virginia  76 Letondal, Henri  84 Letter, The 64 Lewin, Albert  21, 29, 30, 34, 37, 59, 71, 74, 95, 97, 120, 123, 140 Lewis, Joseph H.  42, 43, 44, 85, 120, 129 Lieven, Albert  73, 144 Lindbergh, Charles  63 Lindsell, Stuart  76, 118 Lineup, The  45, 46 Linley, Betty  114 Locket, The  24, 33, 34, 36, 48, 51, 71, 78, 84, 150–51 Lockwood, Margaret  118 Lodger, The  24, 25, 95, 97–98 Lorne, Marion  39, 73, 105 Lorre, Peter  76, 110 Lost Moment, The 100 Lubin, Arthur  119 Lubitsch, Ernst  40, 102

169


Lucky Partners 37 Lugosi, Bela  128 Lukas, Paul  144 Lupino, Ida  51 Lured 35 Lust for Life  37, 52, 53 McGilligan, Patrick  62 Mackay, Phoebe  118 Mckay, Scott  153 Mackenzie, Mary  49 Macready, George  42, 104 Madonna’s Secret, The  34, 36, 47, 49, 77, 130, 134, 135, 136 Magnus, Eduard  125 Maltese Falcon, The 42 Mamoulian, Rouben  137 Man in Grey, The  76, 102, 108, 118 Man in the Attic  24, 25, 80, 132, 133 Man in the Net  51, 74, 153 Mankiewicz, Joseph L.  21, 25, 26, 42, 64, 75, 87, 101, 103, 111, 117, 120, 128 Mann, Anthony  34, 41, 141 March, Fredric  108 Marin, Edwin L.  102, 107 Marlowe, Hugh  76 Marx Brothers  61 Masks of the Devil, The 19 Mason, James  43, 71, 98, 108, 118, 122, 123, 144 Massey, Raymond  104 Matisse, Henri  54, 153 Mazursky, Paul  54 Meader, George  85 Medina, Henrique  59, 97 Meredith, Burgess  40 Meyerhold, Vsevolod  19 Mikael 19 Miles, Vera  125 Milestone, Lewis  37 Milland, Ray  71, 121, 148, 160 Ministry of Fear  41, 91 Minnelli, Vincente  37, 52, 53 Minturn, Kent  19, 20, 47 Miró, Joan  43 Mitchell, W.J.T.  18, 38 Mitchum, Robert  48, 71, 150, 151 Mob, The  43, 88 Modigliani, Amadeo  160 Modleski, Tania  111, 116 Moon and Sixpence, The 37 Moorehead, Agnes  100 Morandi, Giorgio  42, 90

Moreau, Gustave  157 Morgan, Frank  148 Morrow, Neyle  134 Moulin Rouge 37 Mr. Ace  102, 107 Mr. Skeffington  74, 95, 99 Munch, Edvard  155 Murder by Proxy, aka Blackout  75, 131, 145 Murder, My Sweet  50, 51 Mystery of Doctor Isarov’s Portrait, The 19 Mystère Picasso, Le 54 Mystery Street 36 Naked City, The  30, 31 Naked Maja, The 37 Namuth, Hans  54 Neagle, John  125 Neel, Alice  160 Negulesco, Jean  42, 43, 45, 46, 54, 56, 110, 148 Neighbors 62 New York Confidential  41, 58, 89 New York Stories: Life Lessons 54 Newman, Azadia  137 Newton, Robert  72, 98 Night and the City  30, 31, 35, 76 Night Gallery 49 Nightfall 35 Nightmare Alley  43, 88 Ninotchka 102 No, No, Nanette  39, 40 North by Northwest  45, 46 North, Michael  139 Novak, Kim  124, 125 Now, Voyager  111, 112 Nye, Ben  128 O. Henry’s Full House 54 O’Brien, Pat  39, 42, 83 O’Neil, Barbara  132 O’Neill, Henry  150 O’Rorke, Brefni  105 O’Shea, Daniel  122 Oberon, Merle  40, 114 Odd Man Out  47, 72, 95, 98 Of Human Bondage 64 Olivier, Laurence  116 On the Riviera 138 Ophüls, Max  35, 76, 84 Orlac’s Hände 47 Osborne, Vivienne  117 Over-Exposed 35 Oxley, David  109

170


Païni, Dominique  18, 21 Palance, Jack  24, 51, 132, 133 Pall, Gloria  134 Palmer, Byron  133 Palmer, Lilli  74, 153 Palmer, R. Barton  23 Pandora and the Flying Dutchman  21, 34, 59, 67, 71, 120, 122–23 Paradine Case, The  64, 102, 104, 107, 116, 126, 130, 131, 146 Parnell, Emory  131 Parrhasius 27 Parrish, Robert  43, 88 Pastrone, Giovanni  19 Patrick, Gail  135, 136 Pearse, Patrick  105 Peck, Gregory  107, 146 Perret, Léonce  19 Peterson, Lowell  21 Peucker, Brigitte  117, 126 Phantom Lady  24, 35, 47, 49, 52, 53, 73, 89, 97, 100, 130, 131, 133 Phillip, John  125 Picasso, Pablo  15, 16, 41, 42, 54, 58, 90, 104, 140, 153 Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1915)  19 Picture of Dorian Gray, The (1945)  28, 29, 30, 34, 59, 74, 95–97, 140 Place, Janey  19, 21, 30, 130 Poe, Edgar Allan  27, 28, 29, 30, 36, 49, 98, 140, 142 Polan, Dana  20 Pollock, Griselda  37, 53 Pollock, Jackson  35, 54 Polony, Frank  59, 137, 138 Ponce De Léon, Fidelio  91 Ponto, Erich  85 Portman, Eric  127 Portrait, The 19 Portrait of Jennie  21, 23, 32, 34, 51, 55, 56, 63, 64, 65, 67, 71, 79, 81, 83, 85, 120, 121–22 Portrait ovale, Le 19 Powell, Dick  51 Powell, Mousie  64, 127 Preminger, Otto  21, 22, 23, 28, 35, 56, 77, 85, 94, 103, 120, 130, 132, 137, 138, 139 Price, Vincent  103, 117 Protazanov, Yakov  19 Psycho  15, 16, 43

Raksin, David  137 Raphael 141 Rapper, Irving  111, 112 Rattner, Abraham  59, 105 Ray, Man  59, 63, 123 Ray, Nicholas  34, 60, 62, 63, 66, 71, 79, 152 Rebecca  21, 111, 112, 116–17, 125 Rebel, The 54 Reckless Moment, The  35, 42, 76, 84, 85, 95, 98 Reed, Carol  37, 42, 47, 72, 85, 95, 98 Reed, Donna  147 Reis, Irving  37, 39, 45, 75, 79, 83 Rembrandt  27, 158, 159 Renoir, Jean  35, 75 Renoir, Pierre-Auguste  138 Richardson, Ralph  114 Robinson ,Edward G.  41, 55, 56, 60, 62, 70, 102, 103, 106, 142, 154, 155 Robson, Flora  121 Robson, Mark  46, 47 Rockefeller, John D.  63 Romney, Edana  127 Rooney, Mickey  61 Rope  41, 91 Rosenfeld, Alexander  67 Rossen, Robert  35, 74, 153 Rouault, Georges  50, 51, 52, 58, 91, 105, 138 Rouse, Russell  41, 89 Rousseau, Henri  154 Rowland, Roy  35, 48, 77 Russell, Elizabeth  121 Russell, Gail  120 Rutherford, Ann  64, 127, 136 Ryan, Frank  37 Ryan, Robert  152 Ryley, Robert  160 Salce, Luciano  37 Salisbury, Frank O.  64, 118, 144 Sanders, George  95 Sargent, John Singer  119 Sarra, Manlio  124, 125 Satan Triumphant 19 Saville, Victor  148 Scarlet Street  24, 32, 34, 36, 47, 49, 51, 55, 60, 61, 62, 70, 78, 81, 82, 83, 94, 101, 102, 106, 149, 154-55, 157 Schleier, Merrill  159 Schrader, Paul  23 Schultheiss, John  20 Scorsese, Martin  54 Scott, Lizabeth  49

Raft, George  107 Rains, Claude  40, 41, 85, 99, 138

171


Scott, Zachary  147, 152 Scourby, Alexander  113 Second Woman, The  26, 35, 36, 82, 83, 149–50 Secret Beyond the Door 36 Seiler, Lewis  32, 35, 71, 131, 147 Selznick, David O.  57, 64, 121, 122, 146 Serling, Rod  49 Seventh Veil, The  36, 64, 73, 118, 130, 144 Shaw, Victoria  72, 134 Shayne, Konstantin  123 Sherman, Vincent  25, 74, 95, 99, 111, 112 Shockproof  131, 147 Shop Around the Corner, The 102 Sidney, Sylvia  107 Siegel, Don  45, 46, 76, 110 Simmel, Georg  27 Simon, Norton  122 Simon, Simone  15, 77 Siodmak, Robert  35, 47, 53, 73, 89, 102, 106, 130, 133 Sirk, Douglas  35, 36, 101, 147 Sjöstrom, Victor  19 Skinner, Cornelia Otis  120 Sleep, My love 36 Slightly Scarlet  43, 88 Smith, Alexis  146 So Evil, My Love  71, 79, 148 So Goes My Love 37 Sokoloff, Vladimir  83 Solon, Ewen  109 Soussloff, Catherine M.  37 Spiral Staircase, The  102, 106 Stage Fright  41, 90 Stanwyck, Barbara  49, 60, 77, 156, 157 Starewicz, Wladyslaw  19 Sterling, Anne  158 Stevenson, Robert  35, 77, 119 Stewart, Garrett  38 Stewart, James  32, 124, 126 Stieler, Joseph Karl  125 Stirling, Linda  135 Stolen Face  48, 49 Stolen Life, A  34, 58, 64, 67, 72, 79, 85, 130, 140 Stone, Andrew L.  57, 58 Stone, Irving  53 Stössel, Ludwig  83, 157 Strangers in the Night  34, 130, 141 Strangers on a Train  39, 59, 73, 80, 101, 102, 105–106 Strudwick, Shepperd  84 Stuck, Franz  157

Sturges, John  34, 36, 45, 75, 84, 102, 159 Sturges, Preston  50, 51 Sullivan’s Travels  50, 51, 102 Sully, Thomas  125 Summerfield, Eleanor  75, 145 Sünden der Väter, Die 19 Sunset Boulevard  95, 100 Suspicion  15, 16, 18, 41, 58, 90, 101, 104, 116 Swanson, Gloria  100 T-Men 41 Tasca, Fausto  102 Telotte, J.P.  20, 23 Terry, William  141 That Uncertain Feeling 40 Thiele, William  34, 77, 130, 134, 135, 136 Thimig, Helen  141 Thin Man, The 43 Thin Man Goes Home, The 43 Third Man, The  42, 85 Thompson, J. Lee  54 Thorpe, Richard  43 Three Cases of Murder  48, 49, 51, 77 Three Coins in the Fountain 56 Three Strangers  45, 46, 110 Tierney, Gene  75, 117, 127, 132, 136, 137, 138 Todd, Ann  118, 144, 148 Tone, Franchot  47, 73, 133 Torres, Vincente  150 Totter, Audrey  138 Tourneur, Jacques  15, 16, 18, 35, 46, 47, 73, 77, 78, 80, 130, 145 Tourneur, Maurice  19 Toye, Wendy  48, 49, 77 Trilby 19 Trouble with Harry, The  55, 60, 124, 126 Turner, Lana  147 Two Mrs. Carrolls, The  24, 26, 29, 30, 32, 36, 47, 49, 52, 60, 67, 70, 149, 155–57 Tyler, Audubon  64, 107, 146 Ulmer, Edgar G.  32, 70, 83, 149, 157, 158 Uninvited, The  64, 120–21, 148 Unmarried Woman, An 54 Unsuspected, The  21, 29, 30, 34, 36, 40, 41, 58, 73, 85, 91, 97, 120, 130, 138–40 Valli, Alida  107, 146 van Dael, Jan-Frans  124 Van Dyck, Anthony  37, 124 Van Dyke, W.S.  43 Van Gogh, Vincent  52, 53, 54, 89 van Leyden, Ernst  60, 62, 63, 152

172


Van Loo, Charles-Andre  124 Varos, Remedios  123 Veidt, Conrad  47 Verdict, The  76, 110 Vermilyea, Harold  84 Vernet, Marc  19, 38 Vertigo  35, 60, 80, 94, 116, 117, 120, 123–26 VeSota, Bruno  30 Vickers, Martha  131 Vidor, Charles  42, 86, 101, 105 Vidor, King  36, 101, 104 Visite à Picasso 54 Vogel, John George  64, 127, 128 Vorhaus, Bernard  25, 26, 120, 128 Vosper, John  74, 99

Zaccardi, Luigi  124, 125 Zanuck, Darryl F.  128, 137 Zeuxis 27 Ziolkowski, Theodore  28

Wager, Jans  113 Waldman, Diane  38, 51 Walker, Helen  43 Walker, Michael  146 Walker, Robert  105 Warwick, Robert  103 Washburn, Bryant  74, 131 Webb, Clifton  41, 42, 56, 82, 85, 136, 141 Wendkos, Paul  42, 86, 119 What a Way to Go! 54 Wheeler, Lyle  138 While the City Sleeps  101, 103, 154 Whiplash  32, 71, 130, 131, 146–47 Whirlpool  97, 103, 130, 132 Whistler, James Abbott McNeill  133, 159 Wiene, Robert  47 Wilcox, Herbert  39, 40 Wilde, Cornel  147 Wilde, Oscar  27, 28, 30, 59, 95 Wilder, Billy  95, 100 Wilkie, David  125 Winterhalter, Franz Xavier  125 Wise, Robert  25, 111, 115 Witness to Murder  35, 48, 49, 77 Wittkower, Rudolf and Margaret  37 Woman in the Window, The  22, 23, 24, 29, 66, 67, 80, 130, 142–43, 155 Woman on the Beach, The  35, 75 Woodall, Joanna  111 Wright, Tom  49 Written on the Wind 101 Wrong Man, The  15, 16 Wyler, William  112, 114 Young, Robert  149 Young, Terence  28, 120, 127

173


Art book in The Portrait of Jennie (William Dieterle, 1948)


About the Authors Steven Jacobs is an art historian specialized in the relations between film and the visual arts. His other research interests focus on artistic visualizations of architecture, cities, and landscape in film and photography. His publications include The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock (010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2007) and Framing Pictures: Film and the Visual Arts (Edinburgh University Press, 2011). He currently teaches at the Department of Art-, Music-, and Theater Studies of Ghent University in Belgium. Lisa Colpaert is a researcher at the School of Arts, University College Ghent. Her research interests focus on the representation of visual arts in film and costume design. She is also a fine arts/fashion design scholar and has a small fashion label.


Illustration Sources: all illustrations are digital frames of DVD or video copies of the films apart from the following stills or publicity materials: – p. 52: Cinematek Brussels – cover (front), cover (back), fronti­ spiece, p. 22 (top), p. 22 (bottom), p. 33 (top), p. 33 (bottom), p. 34, p. 65, p. 66 (top), p. 66 (bottom): Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, CA – p. 62: Reporters, Belgium This book is part of a research project on cinematic representations of artworks at the School of Arts, University College Ghent, Belgium. This project also includes the compilation film Incidents in a Museum (2013) by Steven Jacobs and Karel De Cock, the DVD box and accompanying booklet Art & Cinema: Belgian Art Documentaries (­published by Cinematek Brussels in 2013) as well as a book on sculpture in film to be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2015. In addition, this project will also result in a work by artist and filmmaker Nicolas Provost, which is based on the visual materials of this museum guide to noir and gothic portraits. Project Supervisors: Steven Jacobs and Susan Felleman Project Collaborators: Vito Adriaensens, Lisa Colpaert, Nathalie Cools, Karel De Cock, Nicolas Provost

Published by AraMER: AraMER is an imprint of MER. Paper Kunsthalle Geldmunt 36 B-9000 Gent Belgium www.merpaperkunsthalle.org www.aramer.org Copy-editing: Vito Adriaensens and Petra Van der Jeught Book Design: Luc Derycke & Jeroen Wille, Studio Luc Derycke Printed at: New Goff, Gent © 2013 AraMER & MER. for this edition. © 2013 Steven Jacobs & Lisa Colpaert for this edition. isbn 978 94 9177 519 2 d/2013/7852/182

Cover: Portrait of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) in Laura (Otto Preminger, 1944) Back cover: Portrait and sitter (Joan Bennett) in The Woman in the Window (Fritz Lang, 1944)



Picture a museum in which the portrait of Carlotta Valdes, an important prop in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, hangs on a wall next to the painted portrait of the title character of Otto Preminger’s Laura and opposite the uncanny portraits of the desired or murdered women in Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street, George Cukor’s Gaslight, and Nicholas Ray’s Born to Be Bad. In an adjacent gallery, the visitor of this imaginary museum can contemplate the portraits of patriarchs that feature in films such as House of Strangers, Suspicion, Gilda, and Strangers on a Train.

This is the exact concept of this book. The Dark Galleries deals with American (and some British) films of the 1940s and 1950s, in which a painted portrait plays an important part in the plot or the mise-enscène. Particularly noir crime thrillers, gothic melodramas, and ghost stories feature painted portraits that seem to hold magical power over their beholders. In addition to an extensive introductory essay, this museum guide presents about one hundred entries on the artistic and cinematic aspects of noir and gothic painted portraits.

“This is a highly original piece of research that analyzes an apparently marginal aspect of film visuality but demonstrates the centrality of the painted image to the narrative of American cinema in the 1940s and 1950s.” – Lynda Nead (Birkbeck College), author of The Haunted Gallery: Painting, Photography, and Film c. 1900 (2008) “The topic treated here is a fascinating subject and a valuable addition to cross-medial research on cinema and painting.” – Ivo Blom (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) “The Dark Galleries sketches in an entertaining way the confrontation between the classicism of Hollywood and the modernist stance of the art and artists in film noir.” – Tom Paulus (University of Antwerp)


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