Rent Portrait of Clare (1950)

Little comfort - Portrait of Clare review by RB

Portrait of Clare was the underrated British Director Lance Comfort's last A-movie and fared badly at the box office. In retrospect it is not difficult to see why: the critical tide at the time was running against melodrama, in which Comfort had scored his most notable successes, while the public taste had moved on in the interim. The film, too is not a complete success , although it copes reasonably well in reducing the original 900-page source novel to something manageable on screen. Today the cut-glass accents of many of the participants can be a distraction, while the central character neither suffers, or manipulates, enough to ignite the melodramatic tension such a story demands. Having said that it is still a good watch, and representing as it does the watershed in Comfort's career (after the performance of this he was largely to work in lower-budget films, of which he made 20 before his death in the early 60's) it is still required viewing for those like me interested in the career trajectory of this, still largely unsung, director. For some of the best from Comfort, check out such titles as Bang! You're Dead, Silent Dust, Bedelia, and Hatter's Castle, all listed on this site. For an example of what he was capable of bringing in, even when latterly working with reduced budgets, also rent Tomorrow at Ten.