You won't be disappointed!

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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.

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.

"Black Widow" is well worth seeing simply because it stars Van Heflin. While Heflin is not at all famous today, I love seeing him in films because he was a great 'everyman' character--not beautiful by Hollywood standards, but a terrific actor nonetheless. It also didn't hurt that he had the likes of Gene Tierney and Ginger Rogers in support, nor did it hurt that the film was genuinely entertaining. My only reservation is that the plot is VERY difficult to believe.The film begins with Helfin's wife (Tierney) going on a trip and Heflin reluctantly going to a party held by an annoying celebrity (Rogers). There at the party, Heflin meets a shy aspiring writer--and he feels obliged to take her under his wing and help her in her career. What he doesn't realize is that this cute, naive woman is anything but---she's a calculating and completely amoral woman (hence the title of the film). Now I sure thought it was going to look like a variation on "All About Eve"--and it sure looked that way for a while. But the film also takes some amazing twists--and kept me in suspense throughout when the film became a murder mystery! The biggest strength of the film is Helfin's gritty and likable performance. But the film also had a highly entertaining plot--provided you don't wind that it's VERY fanciful and hard to believe if you really think about it. Still, I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoyed it--as will most lovers of classic Hollywood films.

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!