Black Widow

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

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

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 t...