Good start, but then it gets ruined

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

BLACK WIDOW is an all-star Hollywood film noir shot in vibrant colour and featuring a starring role for ageing starlet Ginger Rogers. The story is about a pretty young woman who falls for a big-shot theatre producer, causing the finger of suspicion to fall on him when she's found murdered. The cast are decent here and Van Heflin does fine with his 'wronged man' material, but the main problem is with the sluggish pace. There are too many peripheral characters and sub-plots that merely murky the waters, and for a murder mystery there's absolutely no suspense. Still, at least it looks good.

A road company rip-off of All About Eve with just enough changes to avoid a lawsuit from Mank - both were from the same stable, Fox, who weren't about to let Nunally Johnson bite the hand that fed him - that relies on a 'Murder, She Wrote' cast-list to sell a ho-hum plot. Wheeled out in any order you like are Van Heflin, Otto Kruger, Reginald Gardiner, George Raft, Gene Tierney, Ginger Rogers, Peggy Ann Gardner, Skip Homier, just for openers. Fox veteran Nunnally Johnson turned in the screenplay and shouted 'Action' and 'Cut' and a good time was had by all. There was nothing about the plot that even required let alone yelled out for Cinemascope but in 1954 that was still the new kid on the technical block so they threw that in, too. Can stand a look.

Copyright 1954 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. New York opening at the Roxy: 27 October 1954. U.S. release: November 1954. U.K. release: March 1955. Australian release: 28 May 1955. Sydney opening at the Regent. 8,520 feet. 95 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Murder mystery in which a Broadway producer is suspected of strangling a girl he had befriended. A moderately ingenious but disagreeable story, tamely developed. — "Sight & Sound". NOTES: Fox's 18th CinemaScope feature and the first to return only a modest profit (on what was a very modest investment at that). CinemaScope was already losing its box-office lure.COMMENT: A murder mystery in CinemaScope certainly sounds novel and promising, but alas this movie gives the idea such an indifferent work-out it's impossible to reach any conclusion as to the Scope screen's effectiveness in dramatizing this sort of entertainment. The whodunit aspects are indifferently, even perfunctorily handled, and the characters are so one-dimensional that little if any suspense is generated. True, Ginger Rogers plays her vindictive actress with a certain amount of bite and sparkle, and Peggy Ann Garner is briefly effective as the "All About Eve" clone and victim, but the rest of the players come nowhere near these standards. George Raft just rattles off his lines, while Van Heflin as usual seems to go out of his way to be plain dull. Reginald Gardiner is handed some pungent lines, but he is so unbelievable that his observations count for little. In fact, all the pretentious allusions in the dialogue generally fall flat. Production values are minor, CinemaScope being poorly utilized, while a most incompatible and obvious stand-in pretends to be Van Heflin in the New York location shots.

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