Black Widow (Fox Film Noir)
starring: Mabel Albertson, Harry Carter, Richard H. Cutting, Reginald Gardiner, Peggy Ann Garner
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Product Description:
Studio: TcfheRelease Date: 03/11/2008Run time: 95 minutesRating: Nr
Amazon.com:
Ginger Rogers steals the show as a selfish, snide Broadway superstar in Nunnally Johnson's Black Widow, preening, snooping, gossiping, and bestowing air kisses in equal abundance. This late-era (1954) color film noir is as delicious for its fabulous performances as for its dishy look at showbiz, fangs and all. Think of it as All About Eve with murder. Rogers is Carlotta Marin, a grande dame of the thea-tah, married, it would seem happily, to Brian Mullen (Reginald Gardiner). Discussing friends whose marriage is threatened by an alleged affair, Brian assures Lottie they wouldn't face such disgrace. "After all," he deadpans, "we have an understanding." "What kind of understanding?" Lottie asks warily. "The understanding that if you catch me with another woman, you'll break my neck." The two collapse in laughter. Yet at the heart of Black Widow is something grim, the death of a young, ambitious writer named Nancy (Peggy Ann Garner), who gloms onto a theater producer (Van Hefflin), who's in love with his wife, Iris (Gene Tierney, heartbreakingly lovely). Nancy's death appears to be self-inflicted, and yet as each piece of evidence--a weird suicide note, a threatening letter received in the mail--piles up, things begin to point to murder.
The cast is excellent, especially delivering the great backbiting dialogue. And the plot contains more twists than Lombard Street in San Francisco, and will keep viewers guessing, and riveted, to the end.Extras include a great commentary by Alan K. Rode, an expert in film noir, as well as two wonderful featurettes, on the careers of Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney respectively. Robert Osbourne offers his always insightful thoughts on the roles of Rogers, especially, as she sought to carve out a career after being paired with Fred Astaire. These solo steps are not to be missed.--A.T. Hurley
Studio: TcfheRelease Date: 03/11/2008Run time: 95 minutesRating: Nr
Amazon.com:
Ginger Rogers steals the show as a selfish, snide Broadway superstar in Nunnally Johnson's Black Widow, preening, snooping, gossiping, and bestowing air kisses in equal abundance. This late-era (1954) color film noir is as delicious for its fabulous performances as for its dishy look at showbiz, fangs and all. Think of it as All About Eve with murder. Rogers is Carlotta Marin, a grande dame of the thea-tah, married, it would seem happily, to Brian Mullen (Reginald Gardiner). Discussing friends whose marriage is threatened by an alleged affair, Brian assures Lottie they wouldn't face such disgrace. "After all," he deadpans, "we have an understanding." "What kind of understanding?" Lottie asks warily. "The understanding that if you catch me with another woman, you'll break my neck." The two collapse in laughter. Yet at the heart of Black Widow is something grim, the death of a young, ambitious writer named Nancy (Peggy Ann Garner), who gloms onto a theater producer (Van Hefflin), who's in love with his wife, Iris (Gene Tierney, heartbreakingly lovely). Nancy's death appears to be self-inflicted, and yet as each piece of evidence--a weird suicide note, a threatening letter received in the mail--piles up, things begin to point to murder.
The cast is excellent, especially delivering the great backbiting dialogue. And the plot contains more twists than Lombard Street in San Francisco, and will keep viewers guessing, and riveted, to the end.Extras include a great commentary by Alan K. Rode, an expert in film noir, as well as two wonderful featurettes, on the careers of Ginger Rogers and Gene Tierney respectively. Robert Osbourne offers his always insightful thoughts on the roles of Rogers, especially, as she sought to carve out a career after being paired with Fred Astaire. These solo steps are not to be missed.--A.T. Hurley
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: 
- Truly Awful
Where to begin with truly awful movie?Ginger Rogers is just terrible.Her performance was so bad I laughed out loud just about anytime she opened her mouth.Sometimes I laughed out loud even when she wasn't speaking.Her "work" in this movie would be justification alone for the Academy to demand the return of the Oscar they gave her for Kitty Foyle.That she won that Oscar over Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) and Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story) was crime enough, but this performance is just ... Read More
Rating: 
- '"50'S MURDER MYSTERY IN CINAMASCOPE,STEREO&COLOR"
AN ALL STAR CAST WITH A CARDBOARD SKYLINE BACKGROUND VIEW FROM THIS RITZY APARTMENT
BUILDING WHERE SOME OF THE CHARACTERS RESIDE+SOME OUTDOOR SHOTS. VAN HEFLIN
IS BLAMED FOR A MURDER HE DID NOT COMMIT .
LOTS OF SUSPECTS,AND LOTS OF FUN FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE AND OLD FASHION MYSTERY.
IT'S MADE FORREPEATED VIEWING,EVEN THOUGH BY THEN YOU KNOW WHO THE KILLER
IS . IT'S MOVIE COMFORT FOOD. MORE MYSTERY THAN NOIR.( PEGGY ANN GARNER'S
WAIST IS THE TINIEST I'VE EVER SEEN.) ... Read More
Rating: - She was no black widow - She was a firefly eaten by a mantis!
I liked this one! It had allot of twists and turns! Me and two other cops watched this old who done it together. I said it was the one guy and someone else said it was this other guy and the third cop figured the so called black widow was pregnant. It turned out that none of us saw the correct ending early on. It had a great cast and some descent lines for the 50's. It's not quite as good as Laura but that one really is a classic. This was just good clean fun!
Rating: - An excellent who done it with minor Noir touches. Great cast !
This movie is a well done who done it with a great cast Van Heflin (the victim) , George Raft (the inpsector) Ginger Rogers (the pompous celebrity) , Gene Tierney (Van's suffering wife)
Van is accused of murdering a woman who he was seeing on a friendly platonic basis. He goes out all to clear his name and when the murderer is revealed it is a surprise. Great interesting story with some twists at the end. This is in widescreen and in color. It has some Noir touch due to the dark mood the film ... Read More
Rating: 
- "Black Widow" Without A Lot of Bite....
Its really difficult to hate any film with a stellar cast such as Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft and Van Heflin.For that matters, its difficult to hate any of their individual films.Bring them together for one picture and "hate" might be a strong word, but "indifferent" fits the bill."Black Widow" feels more like a Cinemascope experiment than a cohesive and engaging film.Cinemascope was brand spanking new and you could tell that 20th Century Fox was attempting to churn out as much product ... Read More
- Truly AwfulWhere to begin with truly awful movie?Ginger Rogers is just terrible.Her performance was so bad I laughed out loud just about anytime she opened her mouth.Sometimes I laughed out loud even when she wasn't speaking.Her "work" in this movie would be justification alone for the Academy to demand the return of the Oscar they gave her for Kitty Foyle.That she won that Oscar over Joan Fontaine (Rebecca) and Katharine Hepburn (The Philadelphia Story) was crime enough, but this performance is just ... Read More
- '"50'S MURDER MYSTERY IN CINAMASCOPE,STEREO&COLOR"AN ALL STAR CAST WITH A CARDBOARD SKYLINE BACKGROUND VIEW FROM THIS RITZY APARTMENT
BUILDING WHERE SOME OF THE CHARACTERS RESIDE+SOME OUTDOOR SHOTS. VAN HEFLIN
IS BLAMED FOR A MURDER HE DID NOT COMMIT .
LOTS OF SUSPECTS,AND LOTS OF FUN FOR PEOPLE WHO LIKE AND OLD FASHION MYSTERY.
IT'S MADE FORREPEATED VIEWING,EVEN THOUGH BY THEN YOU KNOW WHO THE KILLER
IS . IT'S MOVIE COMFORT FOOD. MORE MYSTERY THAN NOIR.( PEGGY ANN GARNER'S
WAIST IS THE TINIEST I'VE EVER SEEN.) ... Read More
- She was no black widow - She was a firefly eaten by a mantis!I liked this one! It had allot of twists and turns! Me and two other cops watched this old who done it together. I said it was the one guy and someone else said it was this other guy and the third cop figured the so called black widow was pregnant. It turned out that none of us saw the correct ending early on. It had a great cast and some descent lines for the 50's. It's not quite as good as Laura but that one really is a classic. This was just good clean fun!
- An excellent who done it with minor Noir touches. Great cast !This movie is a well done who done it with a great cast Van Heflin (the victim) , George Raft (the inpsector) Ginger Rogers (the pompous celebrity) , Gene Tierney (Van's suffering wife)
Van is accused of murdering a woman who he was seeing on a friendly platonic basis. He goes out all to clear his name and when the murderer is revealed it is a surprise. Great interesting story with some twists at the end. This is in widescreen and in color. It has some Noir touch due to the dark mood the film ... Read More
- "Black Widow" Without A Lot of Bite....Its really difficult to hate any film with a stellar cast such as Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft and Van Heflin.For that matters, its difficult to hate any of their individual films.Bring them together for one picture and "hate" might be a strong word, but "indifferent" fits the bill."Black Widow" feels more like a Cinemascope experiment than a cohesive and engaging film.Cinemascope was brand spanking new and you could tell that 20th Century Fox was attempting to churn out as much product ... Read More
