Black Widow (1954)

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.

Pity about a promising and talented young girl who gets out of purpose by falling in love with the wrong person, since he is married to the wrong woman. Van Heflin makes the best out of a hopelessly incriminating mess, as a hanged girl is found in his apartment whom he has been shielding and helping. He is also married, and his wife is not happy about it. Ginger Rodgers stands aloof and freely abuses everyone, as she is entitled to it as the leading diva and primadonna, but she is actually the real victim of the plot, and she can't help it. The real tragedy is not the girl's, who proves a major disappointment as she actually seems to get what she deserves, an ambitious blue-stocking with some certain talent but no sense to cultivate it, the real tragedy is not Van Heflin's either, although he has every reason to feel paranoically persecuted, which he is, but by sheer accident of circumstances and by nobody's fault, while the real tragedy is Ginger Rodgers', who isn't even aware of it, but her downfall is so monumental that it can't even be shown. It happens after the film is finished, and Van Heflin actually starts suggesting her efficient defense. It's a lush thriller of wonderful salon architecture with all New York at your feet from the balcony, where the talented young authoress is wasting her talent on doting on the wrong guy, and Nunnally Johnson as both author, producer and director has made an interesting enough entertainment, but something is seriously lacking. It's too polished to be natural and therefore not very convincing. The music helps the production with some extra charm, especially Richard Strauss, who has been helpful with some musical loans, but the tragedy is not tragic, and the romance is not romantic. Van Heflin in his righteous fury as the unintended victim carries most part of the drama on his shoulders and does it well, while Gene Tierney doesn't help him much. You lack the solid sense of realism, it's all too artificial, but then the characters are all established and rich celebrities of the New York jet set, and perhaps such people act and live that way. Intriguing, to say the least, but you will soon forget the whole incident, until after some years you run across the film again and recognize that you've seen it before and has to admit you've forgotten the whole thing and will probably do it again...

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.

Advertised as the first mystery film to be shot in CinemaScope, 1954's "Black Widow" turns out to be a minor Technicolor film noir that yet contains numerous satisfying elements. Produced, written and directed by Nunnally Johnson, the picture also showcases the talents of a quartet of Hollywood's biggest names: Van Heflin, Gene Tierney, Ginger Rogers and George Raft. (Johnson had previously written the script for Tierney's third picture, 1941's "Tobacco Road.") In the film, Broadway producer Peter Denver (Heflin) goes to a party at the home of stage actress Lottie Marin (Rogers) and meets a pretty, 20-year-old aspiring writer from Savannah, Nancy Ordway (Peggy Ann Garner, 23 here and grown up quite nicely since "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"). He allows her to use his luxury apartment to write in while he is at work and his wife Iris (Tierney) is visiting her sick mother, but when Nancy is found hanged in the bathroom, an apparent suicide, that's when Detective Bruce (Raft) comes a-calling. And when it is discovered that Nanny (as she is popularly known; "Nanny Ordway" sounds more like a new Disney flick, though, no?) had actually been murdered, Peter's claim of innocence falls on increasingly deaf ears....I must say, for an A-list murder mystery given the maximum production treatment by 20th Century Fox, this one is exceedingly easy to figure out. Even I was able to nail the culprit halfway through (although there ARE numerous twists and turns before we get to the ultimate revelation), and I usually stink at this kind of guessing game. But really, one glaringly obvious clue to the killer's identity will be missed only by the most inattentive of viewers. Still, as I said, the film does have its compensations. Despite the Maltin Film Guide's assertion that Rogers and Raft give "remarkably poor performances," I thought they were just fine. Rogers' character is just a prima donna bitch, that's all, and fairly unlikable, and Raft is his usual wooden/tough-guy self. The film also gives us fine supporting work from Reginald Gardiner (as Lottie's kept husband), Otto Kruger (this was his 100th film) and Skip Homeier (who will always be "Star Trek"'s Dr. Sevrin to me!). Van Heflin easily steals the picture as the accused man, combing NYC like a "TV detective," as he puts it, to clear his name; he is excellent here. And Gene Tierney, my main reason for renting this film in the first place? Well, let's just say that she acquits herself admirably, despite looking a bit tired and delicate, and given her particular circumstances in 1954. At that time, she was battling depression and was just a year away from a seven-year sojourn in various mental institutions, including several dozen electroshock treatments. In her 1979 autobiography "Self-Portrait," the actress writes about the "Black Widow" shoot: "I was not well, my mind was playing tricks. Again, I had trouble with my lines. I would go blank and not recognize the face of someone I had known for years...I held together through force of habit." Trouper that she was, though, Gene turns in a creditable performance. Still, an early line that Peter delivers to Iris--"I'd just as soon go to a party in an insane asylum"--does make the viewer wince in sympathy! And, oh...baby-boomer fans of the old "Petticoat Junction" TV show may be interested to know that Bea Benaderet makes an uncredited appearance in this film; you can't miss her during the party scene. Harder to spot, however, is the young Aaron Spelling. I've watched "Black Widow" twice now and still couldn't locate him. Finding Aaron, it seems, is a much more difficult proposition here than picking out the actual killer!