PORTRAIT FROM LIFE

 

I'm currently reading TERENCE FISHER--MASTER OF GOTHIC CINEMA, written by Tony Dalton. It appears to be the volume on the life and works of English film director Fisher, best known for his several Hammer horror films. 

One of the best features of the book so far is that it gives a comprehensive look at the films Fisher directed before he started working on the Hammer horrors. This has given me the impetus to seek out some of these titles. 

Last night I ventured on YouTube and viewed PORTRAIT FROM LIFE, a 1948 production from Gainsborough Pictures, and the fourth film Fisher directed. It's an understated but effective drama dealing with the problems of European refugees after the end of WWII. (The movie was also known as LOST DAUGHTER in America.)

A Major Lawrence (Guy Rolfe) is on leave in London from his post in occupied postwar Germany. The bored Major wanders into an art gallery, where he becomes mesmerized by a portrait of a beautiful young girl. The name of the picture identifies the girl as "Hildegarde", but an elderly Austrian professor (Arnold Marle) claims that the girl is actually his long-lost daughter Lydia. The Major decides to help the Professor find out who the girl really is. The duo track down the artist (Robert Beatty), but the man is dying of alcoholism. Before the artist expires, he reveals enough clues to send the Major off searching several displaced persons camps in Germany. The Major finds the girl in the portrait (Mai Zetterling) but she claims to be the daughter of a shifty-looking fellow also at the camp (Herbert Lom). Eventually the Major unlocks the girl's past and finds out her real identity. 

PORTRAIT FROM LIFE has a number of on and off camera talents that Terence Fisher would work with later on at Hammer Films, such as actors Guy Rolfe, Herbert Lom, Arnold Marle and Sam Kydd, cinematographer Jack Asher, camera operator Len Harris, and music composer Benjamin Frankel. It's tempting to take examples from this movie and match them up with scenes from Fisher's later Hammer work, but PORTRAIT FROM LIFE should be appreciated on its own merits. It's not a spectacular film by any means, but the mystery behind the girl's identity draws the viewer in, and the story does get a bit suspenseful towards the climax. 

PORTRAIT FROM LIFE has a few film noir aspects to it--the main character narrates parts of the story, there's a flashback that gives out important plot details, and amnesia and false identities are involved. There's also plenty of moody black & white photography from Jack Asher, and Fisher uses many dramatic close-ups. But this film doesn't have the hard-boiled aspect of American noirs. Major Lawrence isn't a desperate, distraught anti-hero--he's a conscientious, responsible military officer. There's a hint that Lawrence is attracted to Hildegarde/Lydia, but he truly is concerned about her welfare. The character who fits the noir bill much better is that of the drunken artist played by Robert Beatty. 

Mai Zetterling is so naive and innocent as the girl in the portrait that she seems like a character in a fairy tale, which must have pleased a sentimentalist like Terence Fisher. Herbert Lom is memorable as always as the duplicitous villain, but he doesn't overplay the role. The film is also filled with small parts in which the performers playing them are allowed to have moments, a trait that one sees in all of Fisher's directorial efforts. 

If you are looking for key moments that anticipate Fisher's later Hammer Gothics, there is a gripping sequence where Herbert Lom's character stalks a camp resident who has been informing on him. This sequence even has some swirling leaves in it--the first thing I think about when it comes to Terence Fisher's cinematic style. 

PORTRAIT FROM LIFE is a very good film, and it's proof that Terence Fisher could tell interesting screen stories that were not Gothic horrors (especially when he had an above-average script to work with).