Portrait from Life | |
---|---|
Directed by | Terence Fisher |
Written by | |
Story by | David Evans |
Produced by | Antony Darnborough |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Jack Asher |
Edited by | Vladimir Sagovsky |
Music by | Benjamin Frankel |
Production company | |
Distributed by | General Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 90 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £132,800 [1] [2] |
Box office | £150,000 (by 1953) [1] or £136,900 [2] 245,405 admissions (France) [3] |
Portrait from Life (also known as Lost Daughter, and in the U.S. as The Girl in the Painting) [4] is a 1948 British drama film directed by Terence Fisher and starring Mai Zetterling, Robert Beatty and Guy Rolfe. [5]
A British Army officer, Major Lawrence (Guy Rolfe), is on leave from being stationed in occupied Germany just after WW2 when he sees a painting of a beautiful young girl called Hildegard in a London art gallery. While viewing the painting he is approached by an old man, Professor Franz Menzel (Arnold Marlé), who escaped from Nazi Germany in the 1930s leaving his family behind and claims to be the young girl's father. Major Lawrence agrees to search for the young girl when he returns to Germany. On returning to Germany and after a long search Major Lawrence eventually tracks down the young girl but she is suffering from amnesia and living with a German couple who claim to be her parents. As Lawrence investigates, the circumstances of the young girl's past become more complicated.
Anthony Steel has one of his earliest film appearances. [7]
The New York Times wrote, "the new picture at the Little Carnegie stems from an intriguing idea, and there are several very effective sequences in the drama, plus a fine performance by the Swedish actress, Mai Zetterling. Indeed, if the whole of The Girl in the Painting were as good as its parts, the posting of this notice would be a much more pleasant task. Too much, rather than too little, story and plodding direction are the principal faults"; [8] while Allmovie described it as "an over-orchestrated "guilty pleasure" from the glory days of British romance pictures." [4]
Producer's receipts were £93,000 in the UK and £43,900 overseas. [2]
The film made a profit of £4,100. [1]
Mai Elisabeth Zetterling was a Swedish film director, novelist and actress.
Albert R.N. is a 1953 British war film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Jack Warner, Anthony Steel and Robert Beatty.
Terence Fisher was a British film director best known for his work for Hammer Films.
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Guy Rolfe was a British actor.
Paul Massie was a Canadian actor and academic. He later became a theater professor at the University of South Florida in the 1970s. He remained on faculty until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1996.
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