Portrait in Terror (1965)
** (out of 4)
Ugo Bonacic (Vjekoslav Afric) is murdered in the still of the night and it appears to have been done due to a painting that he owned. As the police investigate his murder there's an American (William Campbell) who might have some sort of connection to the painting.
In 1963 Roger Corman helped produce OPERATION TICIJAN but before long he realized that it wasn't going to be marketable in America so it was sold as a TV package. The film had a running time of 95 minute so it also had to be cut down to fit a time slot so the film was edited to 81 minutes. Video Watchdog's Tim Lucas has done a terrific video essay about the entire production and history of this film, which can give much better details about it but I will add that this television edit is slightly better than the original film.
The original film, which you can read my review for on its page, was an okay movie that simply ran on way too long and obviously that portion of things are improved by chopping off nearly fifteen minutes. A lot of the footage that is missing actually helps the pacing of the film and I think this short version plays much better because of this. The opening sequences to both versions are completely different and this one here jumps right into the action, although it does miss a great closing shot of the striptease.
The performances are decent for the most part and I'd argue that there's some fancy camera-work at times. If you're a die-hard or just slightly curious then you can watch both the original version as well as this television version but if you only want to view one then I'd recommend this one. Of course, the history doesn't stop here because this film would be edited a third time for BLOOD BATH and it too would be edited and added to for TRACK OF THE VAMPIRE.
