hwg1957-102-265704 A routine murder mystery perhaps but it is enhanced by the widescreen format, gorgeous technicolor, a fine music score by Leigh Harline and solid playing from long established actors like Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Reginald Gardiner, Otto Kruger and Cathleen Nesbitt. Not to mention Cosmo Sardo who apparently has over 400 acting credits to his name. Among the younger actors is Peggy Ann Garner who unfortunately is only in at the beginning and the end but makes a fascinating figure about whom the mystery surrounds.Based on a story by Patrick Quentin (whose real name is Hugh Wheeler) and co-written by Hugh Wheeler (whose pen name is Patrick Quentin) and the director Nunnally Johnson the plot is unsurprising though there is some good dialogue along the way. The title 'Black Widow' is rather misleading and unhelpful as it obviously suggests that the murderer is female.Not a waste of time but not riveting.

vert001 Immediate spoiler:I suppose the 'Black Widow' of the title is Ginger Rogers' 'Lottie', who seems to have devoured the identity of husband Reginald Gardiner entirely. Not that there appears to have been much of a character in him to devour in the first place. Gardiner does a fine job of playing the kept husband, but surely he should have been younger rather than older than his ultimately insecure diva wife. That ironic turn in Lottie's bitchy character didn't seem particularly likely to me (what exactly was she supposed to have seen in him?), but Lottie as the 'Black Widow' gives us a clue to the mystery before the mystery even begins.If those characters seemed unlikely, Van Heflin's producer seems incredible. What could have been in his mind to give a girl he barely knew the run of his apartment when he wasn't there? And how naive could a major Broadway producer be? The scene in which Heflin pushes around and threatens a girl in order to gain information from her is almost like a genuine noir character trying to break out, but Heflin was so nice before this scene and remained so nice afterwards that the sudden violence, limited as it was, appeared out of character. And Peggy Ann Garner's 'Purpose Girl' rarely gave me the impression of having any particular purpose. She seemed a bit scatterbrained and gave the impression of making up things as she went along.BLACK WIDOW's main interest is probably as an experiment in making something like a film noir by way of CinemaScope and striking color. It doesn't really work but had to be tried. The width of the screen and technically necessary visual distances from the characters plays too much against the intensity required for effective noir. Rather than characterization and moral ambiguity we get set design and pseudo-stage blocking. Form and substance work too much at cross purposes.The always solid Van Heflin is, uh, solid as the lead, Ginger Rogers is properly flamboyant as our femme fatale (though this sort of role doesn't really suit her), Gardiner may give the best performance of all while being the most miscast. Peggy Ann Garner was okay, though the movie would have been much improved had she been more than okay, while George Raft was wooden even by 'Dragnet' standards. The troubled Gene Tierney had little to do and sat on the couch most of the time while doing it. You get the impression that Nunnally Johnson or Daryl F. Zanuck or somebody was doing her a favor by casting her in such an undemanding role.Truth to tell, BLACK WIDOW is much more of a whodunit than it is a film noir, and as such it's effective enough. The 'suicide' of Garner's character certainly caught me by surprise the first time I saw it, and the puzzle of what had happened retained a certain academic interest throughout. Looking at it for what it is, BLACK WIDOW is a decent movie; looking at it for what it is not (something directed by Hitchcock rather than Nunnally Johnson, say) is probably unfair.

LeonLouisRicci Here we have a Movie that is Mistitled and Mislabeled. There isn't a Widow in this Film, let alone a Black Widow and this is often called Film Noir (even released on DVD in a Noir Series). Please can we have just a little bit of clarity in Marketing. Oh well.Very typical of the 1950's this is quite the representation of one of those Hollywood attempts at luring Adults to the Movie Theatre by offering something, anything, that they couldn't get for Free from the "One Eyed Monster". Like a Star Studded Cast, Technicolor, Cinemascope, and some Daring Themes (here read, Out of Wedlock Pregnancy).This is basically a "Who Done It?" that plods right along, although it is held back frequently so Audiences can gawk at the impressive Wide Screen where the Actors stand on extreme right and extreme left and Talk to one another while the Colors drip from the Screen and delightfully decorated Backgrounds sit there dutifully. An observation emerges, this could be the Theatre, not the Movie Theatre, but the Theatre Theatre.The Aging Cast all seem so Professional, in a Non-Stanislovsky kinda way, taking their Style from the Studio System. There are some Cynical lines and the Murder Mystery has a sense of a Writer who Loves His Craft. It is all a package with some Entertainment Value, and as an Historical Icon that is like a Motion Picture Postcard from 1954.

secondtake Black Widow (1954)An early full color Cinemascope drama, loaded with starts, and written by a high powered but somewhat forgotten stage and screen writer of the 40s and 50s, Nunnally Johnson. And this is one of a handful of films he directed, too. It's really quite a fully blossomed drama, and it grows with complexity as it goes. And it's packed with stars. The leading man has always impressed me even though he's not the handsome or powerful sort that usually commands the first credits, Van Heflin. he's really amazing, subtle and perfectly sophisticated and well meaning and (eventually) tortured.His wife is played with usual cool cheerfulness by Gene Tierney, and their neighbor and friend is a haughty and ridiculous (perfectly so) Ginger Rogers. Rogers takes her role to the hilt, both in arrogance and frivolity and later in emotional breakdown.What ensues is not just highbrow Broadway theater culture, but eventually a criminal (or psychologically suspenseful) tidal wave sweeps over the relatively lightweight beginnings, and the effect is kind of remarkable in its own way. I mean, it's so completely theatrical and melodramatic, and yet it really works as an interpersonal and heartfelt (and probing) drama, too. The writing is smart, nuanced, and it plays the line of being exactly what it is--meaning that it's about the very world that Johnson lives in.The cop in this case is George Raft, always a little stiff and stiff again here, but he does his job. The seductress who is the center of all these talents is Peggy Ann Garner. Who is she? Well, after several years of being a successful child actress, and except for a small role in an obscure 1951 Fred Zinnemann film as an adult, Garner was a television actress (including some t.v. movies) bouncing from one series to another. Then, at the end of her career, she had small roles in three more features. And in many ways, she's the weak link here--she's supposed to be sleeping her way to success in the theater world, and yet there's something not quite right about her in this role. I suppose I underestimate middle aged rich men.The plot this girl weaves for those around her is elaborate and devilish. And when it goes wrong for her, it really goes wrong for our main man Heflin. At the point the film is very much like Hitchcock film, with the apparently innocent man accused of a crime. Unlike Hitchcock, Johnson uses flashbacks at key points near the end., which do their job but also have a way of deflating the suspense.See for yourself!