Black Widow (1954)

Director:

Nunnally Johnson

Writers:

Nunnally Johnson (writer)
Hugh Wheeler (story)

Release Date:

14 March 1955 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

An electrifying drama about a predatory female!

Plot:

A married Broadway producer is taken with an innocent young woman who wants to be a writer and make it on Broadway...

Plot Keywords:

Broadway | Pregnant Woman Murdered | Hanged Girl | Actress | Melodrama

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	'Lottie' Marin
Van Heflin	...	Peter Denver
Gene Tierney	...	Iris Denver
George Raft	...	Detective Lt. C.A.Bruce
Peggy Ann Garner	...	'Nanny' Ordway
Reginald Gardiner	...	Brian Mullen
Virginia Leith	...	Claire Amberly
Otto Kruger	...	Gordon Ling
Cathleen Nesbitt	...	Lucia Colletti
Skip Homeier	...	John Amberly
Hilda Simms	...	Anne

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #17093, Adult Audience) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Rather stiff melodrama

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 why, oh why does Fox persist in showing this in a faded pan and scan print? The showy use of the new CinemaScope process and the carefully composed shots are totally ruined in pan and scan! The film is shown with its 4 track stereophonic soundtrack intact...has Fox lost a good copy of the wide screen negative?