Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Matho The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

wes-connors Broadway producer Van Heflin (as Peter Denver) reluctantly attends a cocktail party held by the star of his newest hit show "Star Rising" although he doesn't care for parties or the leading actress. There, he meets aspiring 20-year-old writer Peggy Ann Garner (as Nancy "Nanny" Ordway), who has crashed the party and lost her companion. Eager to leave, Mr. Heflin invites Ms. Garner to dinner. She claims to be desperately hungry and he promises no strings are attached. One of them is not telling the truth...The title and credits are misleading, but "Black Widow" manages to be engrossing. Some of the intrigue may be accidental; for example, we wonder what Heflin finds so alluring about Garner. She also attracts attention from Reginald Gardiner, Otto Kruger and Skip Homeier. We also wonder when top-billed stars Ginger Rogers (as Carlotta "Lottie" Marin) and Gene Tierney (as Iris Denver) are going to take over as Heflin's leading woman. Low-key detective George Raft (as Bruce) has a clue, then doesn't.****** Black Widow (10/28/54) ***WC-Db6 : Nunnally Johnson ~ Van Heflin, Peggy Ann Garner, Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney

JLA-2 Was this a play first? It feels like it. It's a virtually stage-bound film that is barely opened up. Almost all of it is set in 3 locations. Perhaps Hitchcock could have made this gripping - as he did in "Rear Window" and "Rope" - but that doesn't work here.In fact, Hitchcock might also have been interested in the "wrong man" aspect of this plot. But that is not developed here either. It's simply a drawing room murder mystery that is not really all that much of a murder mystery.The performances aren't horrible, but nothing is really memorable. Ginger Rogers has the meatiest part, but doesn't make it to the league of Bette Davis' Margot Channing....but then who could?The denouement - which, from the French means, "the untying of a knot" - is literally about a knot. But, again, one could see that coming a mile away. So, the movie ends with a thud.Speaking of that, I wish the movie had ended with a thud. If the actual murderer had gone leaping off the much-discussed balcony overlooking Central Park, it would have been much more memorable.

Applause Meter 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.

ferbs54 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!