The police inspector Fonseca is interested in two Lisbon men in particular, the wealthy and notorious Greek criminal Aristides Mavros and an American suspected smuggler with a fast boat, Captain Evans.
A number of beautiful women work for Mavros, including a secretary, Maria, who came to him for help when she was destitute. A menacing and jealous servant, Serafim, is secretly in love with Maria, but the attraction is not mutual.
Main characters
Irish-born Sylvia Merrill, married to a much older millionaire Lloyd, is tired of waiting for government officials to rescue her husband, held as a prisoner behind the Iron Curtain. She offers a large sum of money to Mavros, who correctly surmises that Sylvia has an ulterior motive. If her husband dies without a will, it could take as long as seven years for her to inherit his wealth.
Evans is hired by Mavros to go after Lloyd in his boat. Having developed a romantic attraction to Maria, the American finds himself hated by Serafim, who attempts to kill him. Mavros gives his man permission to kill Evans during the rescue of Lloyd, and by now Sylvia is on board with the idea that Lloyd won't come back alive, either.
Evans manages to foil Serafim's plans and sees him fall to his death. Fonseca, having been tipped off by Maria, has an informer prepared to identify the smuggler, but to the policeman's surprise it is Mavros who is fingered as the culprit rather than Evans. A happy Maria has her man, while Sylvia is left with only a husband she has betrayed.
Lisbon was adapted from a short story by Martin Rackin.[2] Reportedly, Paramount Pictures bought the rights to the story in 1951 and Irving Asher was in charge of the production.[3] The topic of the film was sensitive under the Cold Warperspective of the 1950s and there were initial concerns about how Paramount would deal with a story involving the Iron Curtain. Luigi Luraschi, Paramount's Head of Foreign & Domestic Censorship at the time, wrote a report to the CIA in January 1953 stating that "[Lisbon] could be messy if mishandled, but so far we have them thinking along the right track and this could be very useful to us. Shall watch very carefully."[4]
Irving Asher hired director Nicholas Ray and, in early 1953, Joan Crawford was in talks to star as main character Sylvia Merril. Eventually, after several rewrites, the project was shelved as Asher and Crawford weren't sure about the strength of the script.[5][6] Nicholas Ray and Joan Crawford went on to film the 1954 western Johnny Guitar.
Paramount then sold the rights to Republic Pictures and Herbert J. Yates hired Ray Milland for his second directorial effort and starring role in the film. After Milland's work on A Man Alone, Yates hired him to direct one film a year for four years.[7]
Milland reportedly wanted A Man Alone co-star Mary Murphy for the female lead,[3] a part which ultimately went to Irish actress Maureen O'Hara. In her 2004 autobiography, 'Tis Herself: A Memoir, O'Hara wrote about her role in Lisbon: "For the first time in my career I got to play the villain, and Bette Davis was right – bitches are fun to play."[8]
In August 1955 Milland flew to Europe to scout locations.[9]
Cinematographer Jack A. Marta filmed using the Naturamaanamorphicwidescreen lens system, a format developed by Republic Pictures in the 1950s. Color filming was achieved using the Trucolor process, developed in the 1940s by Consolidated Film Industries (a division of Republic Pictures). Variety stated that "Lisbon makes a colorful setting" and "Republic's anamorphic Naturama process and Trucolor go a long way towards visual impressiveness."[10]
Lisbon had its premiere in Los Angeles on August 15, 1956[11] followed by wide theatrical release on August 17, 1956.
For the home market, the film was released on VHS Cassette in the 1990s, bearing the tagline "After Casablanca they all came to... Lisbon."[12] As of late 2019 DVD and Blu-ray editions are available at amazon.com.
Reception
Variety commented, "As a smooth, romantically-inclined American amusing himself with smuggling operations, [Ray Milland's] trouping comes off very well. As a production, the picture could have used a little sharper overseeing of story material" and concluded, "The starring foursome are quite glib and pleasing in the principal roles."[10]
