Black Widow (1954) User Reviews (70)

Fading stars breathe life into artificial murder mystery set on Broadway

[bmacv · 8/10 · 6 October 2003]

No matter how pretentious the cocktail party, never escape by asking another wallflower out for dinner. That was theatrical producer Van Heflin's mistake when, on the terrace of Broadway diva Ginger Rogers' apartment, he took pity on hopeful young writer Peggy Ann Garner. Just a few months later, she was found hanged in the bathroom of his apartment.

It was all very innocent, though. While his wife, another star on the Rialto (Gene Tierney), was away tending to her ailing mother, Heflin let Garner use his place as a daytime office so she could write in quiet comfort. (Well, not so quiet: She listens to `The Dance of the Seven Veils' from Salome incessantly and fixates on a line from the opera: `The mystery of love is stronger than the mystery of death.') But when it turns out not only that she was pregnant but that she was murdered, the police sensibly enough find in Heflin their prime suspect.

Black Widow, written and directed by Nunnally Johnson, assembles an impressive array of Hollywood luminaries across whose resumés long shadows were beginning to creep. Along with Rogers, Tierney and Heflin, there's George Raft as a police detective, Otto Krueger as Garner's actor uncle and Reginald Gardiner as Rogers' whipped spouse. It's an ensemble-cast, 40s-high-style mystery movie, made about a decade too late but not too much the worse for that (even allowing for its color and Cinemascope).

Heflin's technically the center of the movie – the patsy racing around to prove his innocence. But the meatier parts go to the women, except for Tierney, all but wasted in the recessive role of the elegant but dutiful wife. Garner makes her abrupt exit early in the movie, but returns in startlingly revisionist flashbacks. And, as the grande dame (named `Carlotta,' perhaps in homage to another grande dame of the stage, Marie Dressler's Carlotta Vance in Dinner at Eight?), Rogers strides around in big-ticket outfits and fakes a highfalutin drama-queen accent. For most of the movie it seems like ill-fitting role for the essentially proletarian Rogers, but it's shrewdly written, and near the end she shows her true colors, becoming, briefly, sensational.

Like Repeat Performance and All About Eve, Black Widow uncoils in a high-strung, back-stabbing theatrical milieu that's now all but vanished – all the money and the glamour have moved west. (Not to put too fine a point on it, but the tiny part of a struggling Greenwich Village actor is taken by television producer Aaron Spelling, now one of the richest men in Hollywood.) The movie cheats a little by withholding information essential to our reading of the characters, but it's a forgivable feint; the characters are all `types' anyhow. There is, however, one baffling omission – there's not a single widow in the plot.

A Guilty Pleasure With A Strange Cast: Not Very Noir

[museumofdave · 6/10 · 21 March 2013]

I greatly enjoyed this Cinemascope, Stereo-Sound romp, but mainly as a Guilty Pleasure, as it's a film very much of it's time, with mismatched acting styles, lush, unbelievable sets, a central premise that doesn't make much sense (lending your expensive apartment to a just-met down-and-out writer while your wife's away),and an early attempt to make visual sense of the then-new wide-screen process.

Why do I like it? Ginger Rogers is way over the top, popping on and off screen with snappy diva one-liners, like Margo Channing on pep pills; Peggy Ann Garner plays a subversive Lolita, crazy-seductive and irresistible, and you can even spot Aaron Spelling towards the end in a bit part as a theatre employee.

The palette is loaded with pastel colors so popular in the 1950's, and the whole thing is sort of a mild domestic whodunit whipped up into an anemic Douglas Sirk confection. Great it ain't, but because of Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney (who has very little to do but does it beautifully) and Reginald Gardner, I found it greatly entertaining.

Well-acted, well-upholstered soap opera/murder mystery...

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 3 December 2005]

Van Heflin gives a striking, forceful performance as a theatrical producer in New York City who befriends a lonely 20-year-old girl at a party; she's a would-be writer hoping for success, he takes a shine to her and offers a helping hand...but then she turns up dead! Curiously mistitled drama really doesn't involve "a predatory female". Peggy Ann Garner is intriguing as the youngster who, in flashbacks, is revealed to be scheming and ambitious, somewhat ruthless, but not a black widow. Gene Tierney has a thankless role as Heflin's wife (she looks grim throughout), but Ginger Rogers is fun as a colorful, gossiping actress. The film has some ridiculous passages, red herrings and side-plots (one involving another young woman who appears to be fabricating a wild story just to frame Heflin is never explored), and a slightly anti-climactic finish. The film looks good and has some funny/catty lines in the beginning, but in the end it all seems a bit silly. **1/2 from ****

Ginger Rogers and Peggy Ann Garner Star

[drednm · 1 December 2005]

Very impressive cast in a better than OK murder mystery. With touches of All About Eve and Sunset Boulevard, this film moves along at a good clip with only a few draggy scenes.

Ginger Rogers plays a bitchy stage diva who is married to a mousy man (Reginald Gardiner) and lives in the same apartment building as her producer (Van Heflin) who is also married to an actress (Gene Tierney). While Tierney is away, Heflin attends one of Rogers' big parties and meets a quiet young woman (Peggy Ann Garner) who actually has no real interest in acting or theatre. She is a writer. He invites her out for a real meal and she insinuates herself into his life.

The party scene is pretty funny with Ginger ripping off several "Margo Channing" ripostes at the expense of Bea Benaderet. Heflin is infatuated with the serious young Garner whose only link to the stage is her uncle (Otto Kruger) who is an actor. She also befriends a young brother and sister from Boston (Virginia Leith & Skip Homeier) who are doing the Greenwicj Village beatnik thing.

Well there is an apparent suicide and that brings in a detective (George Raft) who hounds everyone. When the suicide is discovered to be a murder, things get really dicey for all involved.

For the most part the acting is solid. I never liked Heflin but he's OK in this film. Rogers plays the diva well and looks great. Tierney gets a few good scenes. Raft is solid as the detective. Gardiner is especially good, but Peggy Ann Garner, a top child star of the 40s is quite excellent as the moody and strange young writer. Oddly, she didn't make a film after this one for another 12 years. She reminds me here of Barbara Bel Geddes. Bea Benaderet as the party guest, Otto Kruger as the uncle, and Leith and Homeier as the beatniks are all good.

Also in this film are Cathleen Nesbitt oddly cast as a cleaning lady, Mabel Albertson is the bar owner, Hilda Simms plays the sympathetic waitress, and believe it or not, the gangly witness from the movie theater is Aaron Spelling, who would have a major career as a TV producer.

Worth a watch.

glossy '50s mystery

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 17 January 2006]

Van Heflin is a theatrical producer who's suspected of murder in "Black Widow," a 1954 20th Century Fox Technicolor film directed by Nunnally Johnson. The film is set in New York among the sophisticated Broadway set, and the cast is full of familiar faces: Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Reginald Gardiner, Peggy Ann Garner, Virginia Leith, Otto Kruger, Mabel Albertson, and even Aaron Spelling.

Garner plays a young writer who, new to New York, keeps making increasingly important friends until she winds up an apparent suicide in the apartment of producer Peter Denver and his beautiful actress wife, Lottie. Soon, however, it's revealed that she was murdered, and Heflin is the prime suspect. During his own investigation as he tries to keep George Raft from putting him in prison, he learns that the sweet young thing may have been young, but she wasn't sweet.

Though a little slow at times, this is a highly entertaining film with its shots of New York and panoramic views from luxury apartments. The acting is wonderful. Ginger Rogers is great as the glamorous, acid-tongued Iris, a well-known actress with a ne'er do well husband, played effectively by Gardiner. Gene Tierney looks lovely but has a supporting role in this as Heflin's wife. The film sports two former child actors: Peggy Ann Garner as the murder victim and Skip Homeier as one of her love interests. Newcomer Virginia Leith is Homeier's sister and Garner's confidante. Garner looks appropriately innocent.

The looping in this film is very obvious for some reason - at least on television, some of the sound was fuzzy and then boom! the dubbing would come in. A very minor point. The mystery is intriguing, the glamor high, the dialogue sharp - an engrossing way to spend one's time.

Peter Denver = Peter Duluth

[wvmcl · 6/10 · 27 November 2009]

When I watched this movie on DVD, the plot and characters seemed familiar. I realized that the story was based on an episode in the "Peter Duluth" series by Patrick Quentin. For some reason, they changed the character's name to Peter Denver - maybe they thought it was easier to pronounce.

"Patrick Quentin" was a pen name used by four different writers in various combinations from around 1930 into the 1960s. They also used the names Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. See the Wikipedia article on Patrick Quentin for more details.

The best known Patrick Quentin novels are those featuring Peter Duluth, a Broadway producer, and his wife Iris, a famous actress. They solve mysteries in the glamorous New York theatre world - a bit like Nick and Nora Charles. Most of these novels have the word "puzzle" in the title - "Puzzle for Fools", "Puzzle for Players", etc. "Black Widow", published in 1952, was an exception to the title pattern. All of the Duluth novels I have read have been very entertaining "Golden Age" mysteries, and I highly recommend them to mystery fans. In fact, all of the books by Patrick Quentin or any of his pseudonyms that I have read have been very good mysteries.

I was surprised that this script was given such high-end treatment - Cinemascope Technicolor and stereo sound. The script is a bit old fashioned, with its narration and flashbacks, and the cast is so-so. I think Peter Duluth was intended to be a more dashing character than the rather frumpy Van Heflin could convey. Cary Grant would have been perfect in the role. I still found it an entertaining 90 minutes. But check out the Peter Duluth books for a truly good read.

Tightly constructed, beautifully filmed, straight up high society suspense

[secondtake · 7/10 · 17 August 2011]

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!

In Colour & Widescreen For No Good Reason.

[georgewilliamnoble · 7/10 · 15 November 2018]

This is a colourful mystery yarn, nothing to deep or steep, with a limited pallet of suspects. In the right hands this could of been a decent "Film Noir" but the colour all rather lush and plush on top of highly unsuitable widescreen which mostly ruins the framing of the actors while giving this studio shot film an artificial look that undermines the suspense. Nonetheless, this is enjoyable froth nicely dated and a good movie for a wet and lazy afternoon.

Good who done it of it's time.

[guilfisher-1 · 8/10 · 2 February 2006]

This is the 1954 movie, not the latter one with Debra Winger in it. It's rare to see this film although it's shown on Fox Movie Channel once in a while. Directed by Nunnally Johnson who also adapted it from a story by Hugh Wheeler, it tells the tale of a young girl, excellently played by the famous child star, Peggy Ann Garner, all grown up, who attempts to make it big in NYC. Along the way we meet many characters who she uses to get where she wants to go. Among them are Ginger Rogers, in an overacted yet delightful performance as a famous actress who demands to be the center of attention; Van Heflin as an underplayed playwright, becoming one of the victims; Gene Tierney, wasted in a thankless role as the supporting wife to Van, going around looking pretty but nothing much else given to her to do; Reginald Gardner, a distinguished veteran in films, playing hen pecked hubby to Ginger; George Raft, in his usual dead pan performance as the detective investigating the case (he must have taken classes under Buster Keaton's tutelage); another veteran character actor, Otto Kruger makes an impressive appearance as does Cathleen Nesbitt, the distinguished English actress I've had the pleasure to have worked with, in a surprisingly small and thankless role as an American housekeeper; Virginia Leith, young 20th Fox starlet as Garner's roommate and another child actor grown up, Skip Homeier (remember him in TOMORROW THE WORLD?) as Garner's boy friend.

Put all the stars together and you have a strong cast of players. Add Technicolor and cinemascope and you have good entertainment of it's time.

entertaining story, magnificent visual effects

[pzanardo · 7/10 · 17 March 2001]

"Black Widow" is a well-written, though old-style, entertaining mystery. The story is taken from a novel by Patrick Quentin, a sound mystery-writer.

However the essence of the movie lies in the magnificent cinemascope photography, colors and visual effects. Note that most scenes have in the background large windows or terraces wide-open on the spectacular, terrific New York sceneries. Even the furniture of the various apartments is carefully chosen and placed, with beautiful artistic effects. Outstanding is the brief scene inside the dark bar, with the costumers merged into a liquid light: an evident reminiscence of Edward Hopper's paintings.

Alas! All these visual beauties are seriously damaged, if not destroyed, by the TV version, which essentially shows just half of the screen.

The performances by all interpreters are generally good and professional. A major (personal) disappointment is that Gene Tierney does nothing. She's not even in the list of suspects, since she was thousands of miles away from New York during the whole murder affair. She just sits silently on the background, adding her incomparable beauty and natural refinement to the magnificent New York views. It should be added that George Raft seems completely out-of-role... but I'm too fond of this guy to be able to criticize him.

"Black Widow" is a good film; hopefully someone will be able to see it on the wide screen.

Fine-looking but sluggish murder mystery

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 21 October 2017]

BLACK WIDOW is an all-star Hollywood film noir shot in vibrant colour and featuring a starring role for ageing starlet Ginger Rogers. The story is about a pretty young woman who falls for a big-shot theatre producer, causing the finger of suspicion to fall on him when she's found murdered. The cast are decent here and Van Heflin does fine with his 'wronged man' material, but the main problem is with the sluggish pace. There are too many peripheral characters and sub-plots that merely murky the waters, and for a murder mystery there's absolutely no suspense. Still, at least it looks good.

a worth while watch

[ryancm · 8/10 · 18 March 2008]

Now on DVD, 1954's BLACK WIDOW is a handsome, intriguing and enjoyable whodunit. Filmed in the glory days of CinemaScope and stereo sound, this is what Fox did at its best. Their scope films from THE ROBE on should all be released on DVD. BLACK WIDOW stars Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin and Gene Tierney. Peggy Ann Garner is the "new" girl in town with aspirations to become a writer. As luck would have it her Uncle happens to be an actor in a show produced by the Van Heflin character and then things start to get sticky. A small drawback is the use of so many interiors with fake backgrounds and some static blocking of scenes, something like a stage play. Other than that the picture rocks with twists and turns with some good acting by some old pros. Ginger Rogers (probably not unlike her real self) is wonderful as an aging diva. Van Heflin is properly perplexed in an undemanding role. Gene Tierney still looks good, but doesn't have much to do. Peggy Ann does very well as the center of attention. Virginia Leith, a Fox contract player, is awesome in her few scenes. She should have made more films. A nice bit is turned in by an unbilled Mabel Albertson, and a very nice performance by a Hildy Simms helps the plot along. People writing about this should NOT do any spoiler alerts as I was surprised as to who did Peggy Ann Garner in. A wonderful transfer and two short but interesting specials on Gene and Ginger. A very insightful commentary makes this a disc to have. Now Fox has to release some other titles of the same era such as NO DOWN PAYMENT; WOMEN'S WORLD; IN LOVE AND WAR; and UNTAMED.

Nostalgia for long gone actors, maybe, but it's still a reasonably satisfying mystery

[Terrell-4 · 7/10 · 18 March 2008]

"To put the kindest face on it," says forceful Broadway theater queen Carlotta Marin about Nanny Ordway, a young woman found hanging in the bathroom of Peter and Iris Denver's apartment, "the girl was a little horror...a transparent. syrupy little phony with about as much to offer a man as Coo Coo the Bird Girl. Not even Peter with all of his radiant innocence about women could have been stirred for one instant by that dingy little creep."

"Lotty," says Peter, "the girl is dead."

"I know. And that's precisely why I refuse to speak harshly of her."

And with that we find ourselves in the middle of Black Widow, a murder mystery about ambition, obsession and regret. It might be subtitled The Life, Ambitions and Death of Nanny Ordway. Since it also is about theater people, Black Widow features some stylish dialogue, some clever performances and some back-biting relationships. And since the movie is based on a mystery written by Hugh Wheeler (under the pseudonym of Patrick Quentin), we have a story of uncomfortable psychological possibilities with at least two believable murder suspects and a story that, to my way of thinking, is satisfying and a bit sad.

But is Black Widow a first-class movie? Not exactly, but it's a lot of fun if you like older movies.

Nancy Ordway, "Nanny" (Peggy Ann Garner), is a 20 year-old want-to-be writer when she arrives in New York City knowing only an aging uncle who acts on Broadway when he can get jobs. Nanny has a way of moving up in the world. Before long she's met Peter Denver (Van Heflin), a successful producer, whose wife, Iris (Gene Tierney), is a beautiful and famous actress. Iris will be out of town for a few weeks. Nanny meets Brien Mullen (Reginald Gardiner), Peter and Iris' neighbor who, with his wife, the famous actress Carlotta Marin (Ginger Rogers), lives just above the Denvers in an equally swank penthouse apartment. Brien is a weak but charming man who knows his well-being depends on his imperious wife. "I'm...well, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm Miss Carlotta Marin's husband," says Brien when he meets Nanny for the first time. "I have a name of my own, of course, but it seems stupid to use it when I can get so much more attention simply telling whose husband I am."

Nanny has also captivated the 21-year-old son of a rich Boston family. That's after she wangled an invitation to share digs with the young man's sister. Nanny by now has become friends with Peter, even to the point of his letting her use the apartment to write in while he's in the office and Iris is still out of town. Nanny, in other words, is a piece of work.

When Nanny is found hanging in the Denver's bathroom on the evening Iris returns home, it's not long before Detective Bruce (George Raft) suspects it's not suicide, but murder...and Peter is the lead suspect. By the end of the movie we've learned Peter is dogged and desperate, but slowly figuring things out. Then we learn Detective Bruce is also figuring things out, and we may be in for a surprise.

The sense of regret comes partly from some of the characters we've come to know. We may not admire them all, but we don't dislike them, either. Partly, though, it comes from the actors. All of them bring memories of better days. It's fun to see stars like Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft and Reginald Gardiner do their stuff one more time in an A movie that's well written and directed,. We realize, however, that all of them are either on the slide downward or are just about to tip over. Even Peggy Ann Garner, a major child star a few years ago, wasn't able to parley this role into major adult status.

For those who like to read mysteries and not just watch them, a trip to the used book stores in search of Patrick Quentin would be worth the time. Wheeler became part of Patrick Quentin in 1936 when, at 24, he began collaborating with Richard Webb. They also wrote under several other pseudonyms. Wheeler became the sole Patrick Quentin in the Fifties when Webb retired. Most of the Quentin mysteries feature Broadway producer Peter Duluth (changed to Denver for some reason in Black Widow). Start out with the Puzzle series that began in 1936 with A Puzzle for Fools, then on with A Puzzle for Players, ...for Puppets, ...for Warriors, ...for Fiends, ...for Pilgrims. Wheeler was a good writer who developed complex plots with solid characters and more style than you might expect. He turned to writing plays in the Sixties. In the Seventies he wrote the books for the Sondheim productions of A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd and Pacific Overtures, as well as for Candide. His theater successes, unfortunately, tended to make people forget he was Patrick Quentin. He's worth reading again.

Rather stiff melodrama

[arturus · 5/10 · 5 December 2006]

Everyone tries hard to make this work, but somehow, it never fits together. Johnson's script gives some authentic 50s New York texture to the early scenes (some location shots help a lot) and the theatrical atmosphere seems right for its time (this theatrical milieu is almost totally gone from New York now), but the plot creaks its way to an oddly flat conclusion.

The standouts for me are Rogers, who tries hard to play a character different from her usual, Mabel Albertson as a restaurant owner, and Cathleen Nesbitt, again playing against type, as an American housekeeper. Tierney looks distracted and is wasted here (were her mental problems beginning to surface during the making of this?), Hefliin goes though the motions; the supporting cast is decent but flat, quite missing the opportunity to add some texture to the piece, except for those I've mentioned, Nesbitt and Albertson.

And finally, Fox has started to show this creaky but interesting melodrama in its original, widescreen version. New York City at last takes its role as another character in the piece.

The Drawingroom Gets a Face-lift

[dougdoepke · 14 August 2009]

Five years earlier, this drawingroom drama would have been filmed in small screen b&w. But the year is 1954 and film audiences are staying home with their new-fangled little black boxes. So a big budget studio like TCF takes what amounts to an "Ellery Queen in Manhattan" plot, gussies it up in lavish color, stretches the screen to Cinemascope length, loads up the marquee with big names, and sends the result out to compete with Lucille Ball and Milton Berle. I don't know how well the strategy succeeded commercially, but I enjoyed the movie then and still do.

As a whodunit, the mystery's only partially successful—not enough suspects and too convoluted to follow. At the same time, the pacing sometimes sags in ways that undercut the suspense. Still, the 95 minutes does add up to a gorgeous tapestry, thanks to expert art direction, set decoration, and a well-upholstered cast. And who could hold together a sometimes-confusing storyline better than the always-reliable Van Heflin. Also, I expect urbane writer-director Nunnally Johnson fit comfortably with the sophisticated Manhattan setting and show-biz personalities. So, it's not surprising that he gets off some insider innuendo. Catch the cocktail party shot at gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, known for her bizarre headgear; I expect Johnson was settling an old score there. Then too, having the ingénue (Garner) turn up mysteriously pregnant is rather daring for the straitjacketed Production Code period. Also, watch for the skinny young actor (Oliver) interviewed by Heflin near film's end. That's future TV mogul Aaron Spelling getting a proverbial foot in the door.

Anyway, the film provides an entertaining glimpse of drawingroom drama getting a face-lift during the early years of the television challenge.

Please ban pan and scan!

[David-240 · 6/10 · 8 July 1999]

This film, viewed in its pan and scan version, is a classic example of how not showing widescreen, or in this case cinemascope, movies in the letterbox format completely distorts and seriously damages the film. There are several scenes in which characters enter a room and speak but we don't see them, or even worse when we see one character talking endlessly to thin air. Scenes in which four characters are supposed to be seen simultaneously and in which their reactions are as important as their dialogue are reduced to one or two visible characters. Please screen these movies as the film-makers intended.

Having said that this is hardly a great movie. It is a dully made and predictable whodunnit with a fabulous performance by Ginger Rogers as a bitchy Broadway star. That is she is fabulous until the last couple of scenes when she seems to forget her characterisation altogether and opts for cheap melodramatics. Sadly Raft is quite terrible and Tierney has nothing to do. But Heflin is good and Peggy Ann Garner is effective in one of her few adult roles. Pleasant enough time-filler.

The Black Widow, deadliest of all spiders, earned its dark title through its deplorable practice of devouring its mate.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 9 June 2019]

Black Widow is written and directed by Nunally Johnson. It stars Ginger Rogers, Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Peggy Ann Garner and Reginald Gardiner. Music is by Leigh Harline and cinematograpgy by Charles G. Clarke. A young writer insinuates herself into the life of a Broadway producer - with dire consequences...

A CinemaScope/De Luxe colour production out of 20th Century Fox, Black Widow flirts with the boundaries of colour film noir. Heflin is the Broadway producer who has his world turned upside by what at first we think is a femme fatale, only the pic isn't as straight forward as that. In fact, the title is a bit of a bum steer for this is not about some male murdering femme fatale, quite the opposite in fact, so expectation of that will only cause disappointment.

Essentially this ends up as a who and why done it? And for the most part the pic holds the attention as the narrative pitches Peter Denver (Heflin) as the Broadway producer frantically trying to prove himself innocent of a murder. Cards are kept close to the chest as Johnson's screenplay drips suspicion into the play at various points. We the audience are forced into questioning the manoeuvres of the lead protagonists, which gains momentum once Raft's Detective Bruce starts investigating the case. However, some have cried out that the revelation was too easy to spot, maybe so if one is so desperate to do so, but of course we do hear this a lot from folk not happy with the film they have watched. Personally, I didn't see it coming, but conversely, I was personally disappointed with the reveal. So, there you go, roll the dice and take a chance with it really.

Tech aspects are hit and miss. The CinemaScope format doesn't quite work here, given that most of the play is performed in apartments. When it comes to the cityscapes of New York - and the framing of characters within them - it's a treat, especially as Clarke's colour lenses are splendid, but Johnson the director doesn't appear to get a handle on the format. Acting is also an interesting parade. Heflin is great, draws you into his "on the run to clear my name" malarkey with conviction, while Rogers is having a blast as the waspish lead lady with delusions of grandeur. Raft is a one note let down in a "for the money" role, and Tierney (sadly getting closer to succumbing to her mental health problems) is poorly written and Gardiner likewise. Garner (stepping in when Maggie McNamara fell ill) is fine, slinky and suspiciously delicate, but the course of the story leaves us short of more from her.

As a whole? it's a mixed bag, but definitely it's on the good side of good, particularly for Heflin and Rogers fans and for those of a noir persuasion. 7/10

Manipulative Status Seeker Meets the Scorned Wife

[biorngm · 7/10 · 10 July 2018]

Review - Black Widow, released 1954 Opening scene is Gene Tierney and Van Heflin kissing, before Gene's character boards a plane and Van's character promises to attend a party given by their neighbors, living directly above them.

The party is packed with people, cocktails with a piano player, theater folk mostly. A conversation begins on the terrace between successful Broadway producer, Peter Denver, and an apparent writer, a young woman named Nancy Ordway, calling herself Nanny to all those she comes in contact. The story traces the initial manipulations of the young lady through an uncle, an artist and her student brother. There are more people the woman touches through her pursuit of status and money to support the position climbing. The money is later proposed coming from a lawyer based on an extortion scheme, as the Miss Ordway got herself pregnant in her endeavor. She claims Peter Denver was her lover, and later, her lover is found to be Pete's friend and neighbor, Brian Mullen. Brian admits to the police he was too much a coward to confront Nanny, and get rid of her, but that did not stop his wife from killing out of spite. It was sad enough Nanny took Brian's wife Lottie away for her selfish purposes, but things were never to be the same with her pregnancy coupled with the plans she had to exhort money through an attorney.

Closing scene has George Raft, Gene Tierney and Van Heflin as Heflin's character speculates the courtroom drama should be award winning with the acting expected from the guilty party.

The ninety minutes of film is set primarily in the two apartments of the main characters, they live directly above one another, with the top unit having a terrace. When the Broadway producer and his actress wife return home to find Nanny hanging from the shower rail, an apparent suicide. Accused of murdering the young lady, the producer sets out to exonerate himself, while avoiding the police. Through a series of contacts with friends, relatives and Nanny's co-worker, the producer deduces who the lover might be and just what kind of game Nanny was hatching. Initially questioned by the police of his whereabouts the afternoon of the murder, the producer claims he was in a movie theater for about two hours watching a film by himself. Much later in the movie, the story is validated by someone working in the same movie house, hoping to see the man about a part in an upcoming play of his. The producer suspects his friend and neighbor, but hears that neighbor was much too weak to make a final confrontation. The detective offers the concluding analysis, pinpointing the real killer, after carefully sorting through the facts of the case.

This was an above average film based on the well-acted story and manner the same story was told. Hardly film-noir, cinemascope and color prevent it from being so, plus there needs to be more intrigue, cloak-and-dagger effects were lacking. It was certainly star-studded with the four people appearing before the title at the start of the movie. Each celebrity played their part perfectly, making the film worth watching all the way through. Enjoy.

van heflin. ginger rogers. gene tierney. george raft. its ok.

[ksf-2 · 7/10 · 18 July 2020]

Stars Van Heflin and Ginger Rogers. Gene Tierney and George Raft. married man Peter Denver (Heflin) strikes up a conversation with young cutie Nancy (Peggy Garner) but unfortunately, cute Nancy wakes up dead. in his apartment! they had met at Carlotta's party (G. Rogers) in NYC, and of course, that started the gossip mill. the cops finally decide it was moidah, so Denver has to figure out who dunnit just to avoid being convicted himself! George Raft is the police detective for the investigation. Keep an eye out for Mabel Albertson... she was GREAT in Whats up Doc, That Girl, and Bewitched! everyone's mother. Written by Hugh Wheeler. some similarities to All About Eve, although no-one croaks in Eve. Both are Twentieth Century Fox films. Carlotta is so spiteful and hateful.. this one has much more acrimony, (and a less clever script!) than Eve. kind of a strange part for Ginger Rogers.. she doesn't sound like the Rogers we have seen in the films from the 1930s. Directed by Sam Nunnaly. he was nominated TWICE, for writing both times. check out Nunnaly's track record.. he made some great films. Try to guess the ending... there are clues here and there, if you pay attention. it's pretty good.

Ginger Rogers runs away with the movie despite the stellar cast.

[eddax · 8/10 · 27 May 2009]

Ms. Ginger Rogers is 43 years old by now (1954) and in one of her last roles before retirement. Here, she plays somewhat against type, being a bitchy society grande dame. Despite being top-billed, it's actually a supporting role, although it's definitely the juiciest part. One of her lines is one of the best I've heard in a long time: "She was insane! To hang herself when she could abuse drugs!" I'm kinda warming to Ms. Rogers, though I'm still not finding her face memorable. She brings her brand of energy to her roles, so that she stands out even when the role or even her acting isn't all that good, she still shines. That's what makes a star.

This is coincidentally also one of the last roles of Gene Tierney, one of the most luminous of actresses because of her classic beauty. While not big on acting talent, she was still capable enough to fit perfectly into femme fatale roles in film-noir movies (e.g. Laura and Leave Her to Heaven - her sole Oscar nomination). That she plays a put-upon wife here is a waste.

Fellow film-noir regular Van Heflin rounds off the cast. He is good, as is the movie, but the highlights are definitely when Ms. Rogers is on screen.

Black Widow

[Spuzzlightyear · 7/10 · 22 March 2012]

So imagine a film noir. Now, imagine that film noir as a technicolor Cinemascope production, and you have Black Widow. A certainly interesting, but just passable noir about a Broadway producer framed for a murder he didn't commit. Fleeing from the police, he picks up clues about the victim, and realizes his friends are not what they seem (of course). While this is pretty to look at, unfortunately, once you figure out what the cops are doing. the suspense disappears somewhat, and completely collapses at the end when we do find out the real murderer as it's almost presented as an anticlimax. Still worth a look though for it's amazing photography.

The Appearance of Impropriety.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 27 November 2008]

This is a big colorful Hollywood drama and murder mystery. Van Heflin is a wealthy Broadway producer. In his wife's absence (Gene Tierney), he befriends a twenty-year-old girl who is a would-be writer, Peggy Ann Garner. She stands out as refreshingly candid and likable, especially in the midst of all the vacuous and egomaniacal theatrical types around her -- the bitchy and outrageously hammy Ginger Rogers as a famous actress; her husband, the lumpen Reginald Gardner who would starve on his own; some snooty but likable Boston Brahmins (Virginia Leith and Skip Homeier). Best performance in a small role: Hilda Simms as a waitress, the only cast member who acts as if she's not trying to reach the balcony.

Heflin takes an avuncular interest in the innocent Garner and allows her to write in his apartment because it has an inspiring view of Central Park. Nothing more than that, and an occasional lunch or dinner together. But when Tierney returns and Heflin meets her at the airport, they reach their apartment only to find Garner's body hanging by the neck in the bathroom, in a spooky shot built around the shadow of the corpse with its head pulled all the way back.

George Raft enters the story as a police detective who immediately eyes Heflin as a suspect. It turns out that the naive Garner was strangled before being hanged, and that she was in fact pregnant at the time. And here Heflin claims to have been "letting her work in my empty apartment during the day." Right.

Heflin spends the rest of the movie trying to track down the real murderer. Raft spends the rest of the movie tracking down Heflin. There follows one red herring after another, as it is gradually revealed that Garner was in reality a phony, manipulative, lying, greedy bitch. The killer turns out to be not who you might quickly think of.

You know something? This is basically a noir story but it's acquires a dual personality due to the impeccably (and horribly dated) grooming of the cast. There's not a single ignorant bum in it. No ex-boxer with a skull as empty as a basketball. The external shots of New York are fine and evocative -- a telephone exchange is Murray Hill, not 555. There are ads in Times Square for the now extinct Knickerbocker beer, which wasn't bad. But the set decoration is sufficiently generic upper-middle-class to coagulate the normal eyeball. Bland, clean, sterile, with carefully place figurines in everybody's apartment -- Buddhas, African fertility jub-jubs, life-sized Chinese statues of the Goddess of the Jade Empire. Nothing is ever out of place. There are no dishes in the sink. The walls are creamy and the doors a dusky green. I hope no one is going to argue that this is a noir milieu. Not that the plot suggests anything more than the disarticulated skeleton of "All About Eve" either. It's not that sophisticated and not that overwritten, though it is more overwrought.

As a director, Nunnaly Johnson was a good screenwriter. But how did he allow so many anomalies to creep into the script? "The secret of love is greater than the secret of death." If he's ripping off Oscar Wilde, then it's a higher order parody because Wilde was a parody of himself.

And the title. A female black widow spider, as we all remember -- and in case we didn't, Van Heflin's portentous introduction reminds us -- kills and eats her mate after the marriage is consummated, exactly like my ex wife. But what's this got to do with the story we see unfolding on the screen? Why. nothing at all. The more recent "Black Widow", with Deborah Winger and Teresa Russell -- now there is a full-fledged and well thought out film (except for the climax).

Still, I don't want to dismiss this too easily. Van Heflin's character is true to his wife and likable enough that we don't want to see him hanged for something that he not only did not do, but did not even think of doing. If it weren't for that, this could easily have been a talky and ill-joined play, with everyone standing around in those neat apartments, hurling zingers at one another and ducking behind those pistachio tchotchkes.

this sweet young girl is everything you think she isn't

[rose_lily · 8/10 · 16 September 2013]

This is a neat little crime movie in a minor key. Nunnally Johnson's script is basically a linear, expository narrative, the plot building and unfolding without the diversion of tacked on flourishes. The production, in fact, would have benefited from the addition of "noir-ish" elements to amp up the tension and suspense level as this is a visually unengaging film. Both the cinematography and lighting are unimaginative and flat. The camera functions as a static eye invariably positioned as if photographing a stage play. This lack of dynamism extends to the lighting, which captures every scene in full-lit monotone, without contributing any nuance of character or mood.

A Ginger Rogers older than we are accustomed to seeing her, looks aged and brittle. She plays Carlotta Marin, an applauded stage diva lording in regal dominance over her domain. Her wan, defeated husband, Brian Mullen, portrayed by Reginald Gardner, endures all, only too well aware that he plays lackey to his domineering wife. He defines himself as a "hitchhiker" along for the ride, an impotent passenger seated in his wealthy wife's glory train.

Van Heflin puts out a good performance as the successful Broadway producer Peter Denver, contending with his volatile, demanding star "Lottie" Marin. Gene Tierney, as Iris, Heflin's wife, is delegated to the background, given little to do in the movie other than serve as the understanding, patient helpmate.

Enter the seemingly naïve waif, Nancy Ordway, played by the former child actress Peggy Ann Garner, who engineers to insert herself into this mix of the Broadway elite. She announces her ambition to be a famous writer but this is far from her real agenda. She's a manipulating, conniving little gold digger and none of these worldly Manhattan sophisticates can even sniff out her game. This is where the logic of the plot unravels. Wouldn't someone with the professional stats and savvy of a Broadway big-shot producer like Peter Denver scope out a conniver like Nancy? The gullibility level of this crowd is to a one…an improbability.

George Raft, as the voice of the law, Det. Bruce, is not given much to do but play the authoritative investigator.

All in all, the movie no great event, still provides an hour or so of agreeable entertainment.

Purpose Girl

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 8 July 2012]

That multi-talented force of nature Nunnally Johnson put together this project and got a really stylish cast to star in Black Widow. To say it was borrowed a lot from All About Eve is no exaggeration.

Black Widow is the story of young Peggy Ann Garner who is described as a 'purpose girl'. Like Eve Harrington, Garner is a young lady with a mission which is to insinuate herself with the upper crust of the theatrical profession. Her target is a man, producer Van Heflin whom she meets when she crashes the party of his star Ginger Rogers.

Instead of an aspiring actress, Garner is an aspiring writer and Heflin who is slightly married to Gene Tierney let's her use his apartment and his typewriter for his story idea. Today he'd just buy her a laptop. When she's found hung in his apartment buy Tierney, Heflin has a lot of explaining to do all around. Especially after the cops call it murder.

There's a rather droll performance by Reginald Gardiner in what could have been his career role. He's the husband of Ginger Rogers and that is his whole identity. Kind of like Kevin Federline and Britney Spears for you young people. Gardiner conveys a deep sadness in his role which is essentially that of a permanent guest who relies on his never ending charm to stay in Ginger's good graces. He'd like to be on his own, but he's weak and without much character. All in all I think he's the best one in the cast.

For such a talented group which also includes Otto Kruger as Garner's uncle and George Raft as the homicide detective the film is sluggish and moves like the entrails of a snail at times. It's not bad, but could have and should have been far better.

Both disappointingly dull and lacking in suspense!

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 12 June 2017]

Copyright 1954 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 27 October 1954. U.S. release: November 1954. U.K. release: March 1955. Australian release: 28 May 1955. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,520 feet. 95 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Murder mystery in which a Broadway producer is suspected of strangling a girl he had befriended. A moderately ingenious but disagreeable story, tamely developed. — "Sight & Sound".

NOTES: Fox's 18th CinemaScope feature and the first to return only a modest profit (on what was a very modest investment at that). CinemaScope was already losing its box-office lure.

COMMENT: A murder mystery in CinemaScope certainly sounds novel and promising, but alas this movie gives the idea such an indifferent work-out it's impossible to reach any conclusion as to the Scope screen's effectiveness in dramatizing this sort of entertainment. The whodunit aspects are indifferently, even perfunctorily handled, and the characters are so one-dimensional that little if any suspense is generated.

True, Ginger Rogers plays her vindictive actress with a certain amount of bite and sparkle, and Peggy Ann Garner is briefly effective as the "All About Eve" clone and victim, but the rest of the players come nowhere near these standards. George Raft just rattles off his lines, while Van Heflin as usual seems to go out of his way to be plain dull. Reginald Gardiner is handed some pungent lines, but he is so unbelievable that his observations count for little. In fact, all the pretentious allusions in the dialogue generally fall flat.

Production values are minor, CinemaScope being poorly utilized, while a most incompatible and obvious stand-in pretends to be Van Heflin in the New York location shots.