{"id":19336,"date":"2019-06-16T14:40:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-16T18:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19336"},"modified":"2019-06-18T13:51:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T17:51:07","slug":"br-black-widow-1954","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=19336","title":{"rendered":"BR: Black Widow (1954)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Film<\/strong>: Very Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: \u00a0Excellent<\/p>\n

Extras<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong> Twilight Time<\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong>\u00a0All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong>\u00a0 October 16, 2018<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong>\u00a0 Film Noir \/ Melo-Noir<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0A Broadway producer must do his own investigating after he’s wanted by the police for murdering a pretty girl.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a02008 Audio Commentary by film noir historian Alan K. Rode \/\u00a0<\/span>Isolated Stereo Music Track \/ 2 x 2008 Featurettes: “Gene Tierney: Final Curtain for a Noir Icon” (6:17) + “Ginger Rogers at Twentieth Century-Fox” (8:31) \/ Theatrical Trailer \/ 8-page colour booklet with liner notes by film historian Julie Kirgo \/ Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a> and www.twilighttimemovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although esteemed and longtime Fox screenwriter Nunnally Johnson was responsible for a slew of classic films \u2013 The Grapes of Wrath<\/strong><\/a> (1941), Roxie Hart<\/strong><\/a> (1942), My Cousin Rachel<\/strong><\/a> (1952) \u2013 he only directed 8 films, of which 2 were very early CinemaScope production \u2013 Night People<\/strong> (1954), shot on location in postwar Berlin, and Black Widow<\/strong> (1954), a noir-melodrama (melo-noir) top-heavy with major stars.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s adaptation of Patrick Quentin’s novel Fatal Woman<\/strong> (a pseudonym for Hugh Wheeler) is almost as slick as this stellar big screen production. The fluid script flips between different time-frames, some of which are recalled by central figure Peter Denver (trim Van Heflin), a major Broadway producer who meets fledgling \/ wannabe writer Nanny Ordway (Peggy Ann Garner) at a party hosted by Lottie Marin (Ginger Rogers), his next-door neighbour and star of his latest production.<\/p>\n

Peter and Nanny hit it off as newfound friends, and the supportive mentor loans the newbie writer use of his swanky flat (!) while absent wife Iris (Gene Tierney) aids her mother\u2019s recuperation at a distant hospital. When Iris returns, she finds Nanny swinging from a rope in the bathroom.<\/p>\n

The film’s remaining two-thirds have Peter being suspected of and soon fingered as the chief suspect in Nanny\u2019s murder. He mounts his own hasty person-to-person investigation, always hopping a few steps ahead of lead Det. Bruce (George Raft) from apartments to pubs, sorting through details which reveal even close friends are convinced he was having an affair with a very young & na\u00efve scribe.<\/p>\n

While a mild noir (if not a frothy whodunnit), Black Widow<\/strong> never maintains much of an edge in part because Peter\u2019s escape from the claws of the law and his agility in meeting the right people at the right times are far too neat, and yet Heflin sells the nonsense with his deft, underrated performance, and has Peter\u2019s desperation often hovering close to explosive violence.<\/p>\n

A meeting with a pub hostess (stage actress Hilda Sims in a rare film role) starts tense but is ratcheted down when he gets frank details and insight, but his visit to Nanny\u2019s supposed friend & flatmate Claire Amberly (Virginia Leith) gets nasty: the heavy throat-grabbing is jarring and improbable, but it\u2019s designed to show Peter\u2019s desperation and ability to kill.<\/p>\n

Like a classic whodunnit, the suspects are ultimately assembled in one locale where Det. Bruce sifts through the revised facts, and eventually hones in on the real killer in a scene that features a rare solid moment from otherwise stone-faced Raft.<\/p>\n

In his commentary (ported over from Fox’s 2008 DVD), noir specialist Alan K. Rode rightly cites a few parallels to Fox\u2019s other tale of a usurper in NYC\u2019s theatrical world, All About Eve<\/strong><\/a> (1950), in which a young, hungry actress does everything possible to sabotage the marriage and career of an aging Broadway star and take her place. While Eve<\/strong> was no murder mystery, the two productions share a special lushness which is pushed to meticulously detailed extremes in Widow<\/strong> \u2013 a move that takes away some of the story\u2019s edge, because everyone and everything is so damn beautiful.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a case where the production and costume designers may have over-transcended the story\u2019s elemental plotting with sleek sets, actresses decked in stunning coats & dresses, and the pastel colour palette severely dominated by classic 1950s creamy powder blue.<\/p>\n

Cinematographer Charles G. Clarke (The Captain from Castile<\/strong>, Violent Saturday<\/strong><\/a>, The Sound and the Fury<\/strong><\/a>) may have had too real estate to cover with CinemaScope\u2019s early 2.55:1 ratio, but the colour design and lighting are still dreamy, almost superseding the film\u2019s dark story. The grisliest image of Nanny’s noosed cadaver is a clean shadow, rendered like a magazine sketch using quick, lean dark brushstrokes over a dark turquoise canvas, whereas one of Clarke’s most artful moments has him framing the neon lights in the pub like brushstrokes when Peter talks closely to the hostess.<\/p>\n

If the story fails to offer much meat, the look and feel ensure Widow<\/strong> is one of the most beautiful melo-noirs; neither the actor blocking nor any background objects and ornamentation are ever out of place. The very wide ratio does create problems with group shots, however; without the flexibility for dynamic camera movements,\u00a0non-speaking actors frequently pivot and reposition themselves in robotic movements, sometimes with backs to the camera so our focus is on key speakers.<\/p>\n

Although his Main Title music makes use of the same mega-booms in his score for\u00a0Broken Lance<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(1954), Leigh Harline\u2019s lush music still hones in on darker moments as Peter finds himself implicated in a relationship and murder that will ruin his career and marriage. The recurring use of Richard Strauss\u2019 \u201cDance of the Seven Veils\u201d from Salome<\/strong>, though, is overbearing; the theme is incessantly played by Nanny, and while it does capture her naivety as an earnest romantic, its tone is too heavy-handed..<\/p>\n

At 95 mins., Widow<\/strong> is well-paced, and much of the momentum comes from the rhythms of the starry cast. Tierney\u2019s role is small but essential, and it\u2019s a modest performance by a major Fox star whose career would come to a quick close within a year as mental illness and personal anguish could no longer be suppressed. Also retained from Fox\u2019s 2008 DVD is a short bio featurette on the star’s tragic shift from the big screen to a sanitarium, and the brutal shock treatments which robbed her of memories, and the ability to perform major roles. After The Left Hand of God<\/strong><\/a> in 1955, the actress would remain absent from film until 1960.)<\/p>\n

Rogers clearly had fun spouting snooty quips at snooty socialites, and as Rode points out, Lottie is cut from a similar cloth as Eve<\/strong>\u2019s Margo Channing, as is Lottie\u2019s long-suffering husband Brian (Reginald Gardiner). Fancy clothes notwithstanding, stone-faced Raft actually looks the part and almost<\/em> manages to deliver a performance, conveying authority through his firm voice.<\/p>\n

As Tierney\u2019s career was coming to a close, those of Garner and Leith were transitioning to what should\u2019ve been long-term rises to major parts, but things didn\u2019t work out in their favour. Garner, who won a Juvenile Oscar for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn<\/strong> (1945) is fine in an adult role, but she immediately returned to episodic TV, where she remained for the next decade, appearing in just two more features \u2013 The Cat<\/strong> (1966) and Robert Altman\u2019s A Wedding<\/strong> (1978).<\/p>\n

Perhaps key challenges in playing Nanny were the character\u2019s limited details \u2013 in flashbacks she\u2019s seen as a genial ing\u00e9nue, almost devoid of edge until a handful of brief moments that still fail to show her as an evil schemer but a misguided fool. Garner\u2019s also plagued by a weird hairstyle that always looks unkempt, and a shade of orange-blonde \u2013 either deliberate designs to heighten Nanny\u2019s desperate hunger to fit into NYC\u2019s creative elite, or bad makeup & hair design.<\/p>\n

Whereas fellow child actor Skip Homeier managed to fair better in adult roles, playing a truly amoral, ruthless blonde (!) killer in Cry Vengence<\/strong><\/a> (1954) and innumerable TV appearances, Fox failed to renew Leith\u2019s contract after some buildup in Violent Saturday<\/strong> (1955), On the Threshold of Space<\/strong> (1956), and the noir classic A Kiss Before Dying<\/strong> (1956), which co-starred rising Fox players Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, and Joanne Woodward.<\/p>\n

The former model was always striking on film, but she had a limited range and eerie, distant persona which may have hindered her ability to stand out among the studio\u2019s other newcomers. Leith did appear in some TV series, but she\u2019s sadly immortalized as the decapitated talking head in the infamous bad movie classic The Brain That Wouldn\u2019t Die<\/strong><\/a> (1962).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Whereas the American artist had clearly never bothered to look at a picture of Gene Tierney…<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

… The Italian artist got her right…<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

… But there is NO such long-haired, red-headed babe in the film!<\/p><\/div>\n

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Widow<\/strong> doesn\u2019t quite live up to its image as a dark, chilling noir with edgy characters \u2013 the original poster art infers more drama with weird caricatures of the cast, including a non-existent, long-haired sorta-blonde \u2018black widow\u2019 and a rendition of Tierney that\u2019s more Lauren Bacall \u2013 but as a slightly bitter cream-filled pastry, it\u2019s an indulgent amusement. It\u2019s also fun to watch the unique amalgam of new and veteran stars, such as ever-reliable Otto Kruger as Nanny\u2019s uncle, and an unbilled, gawky Aaron Spelling, future hitmaker in television (Charlie\u2019s Angels<\/strong><\/a>, The Love Boat<\/strong>,\u00a0Beverly Hills, 90210<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

\"\"Twilight Time\u2019s Blu features a crisp HD transfer with clean, radiant sound, and a few extras from the Fox disc were retained \u2013 Rode\u2019s excellent, hugely informative commentary, an isolated stereo track of Harline\u2019s score with some studio chatter, bio featurettes on Tierney and Rogers \u2013 whereas the pressbook and stills gallery remain exclusive to the 2008 DVD.<\/p>\n

Julie Kirgo\u2019s appreciation pays particular homage to actor Gardiner and his quite delicate balancing act in playing a cinema cliche – the untalented husband who offers comfort, companionship, and sex to the glamorous, domineering wife. Also noted are the men behind Patrick Quentin, a pseudonym for Hugh Wheeler (A Little Night Music<\/strong>,\u00a0Candide<\/strong>, and\u00a0Sweeney Todd<\/a><\/strong>), and occasional collaborator Richard W. Webb.<\/p>\n

Nunnally Johnson\u2019s films as director include Night People<\/strong><\/a> (1954), Black Widow<\/strong> (1954), How to Be Very, Very Popular<\/strong> (1955), The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit<\/strong> (1956), Oh, Men! Oh, Women!<\/strong> (1957), The Three Faces of Eve<\/strong><\/a> (1957), The Man Who Understood Women<\/strong> (1959), and The Angel Wore Red<\/strong> (1960).<\/p>\n

Other features adapted from novels by “Patrick Quentin” include\u00a0Homicide for Three<\/strong> (1948),\u00a0The Strange Awakening<\/strong> (1958),\u00a0Ladies Man\u00a0<\/strong>(1960), and screenplays for\u00a0Five Miles to Midnight<\/strong> (1962),\u00a0Something for Everyone<\/strong> (1970),\u00a0Travels with My Aunt\u00a0<\/strong>(1972), and\u00a0Nijinsky<\/strong> (1980).<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2019 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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