Black Widow — Directed by Nunnally Johnson — Murder Melodrama. A man let’s a young chick stay at his place and there’s hell to pay. 95 minutes Color 1954
**
Glib trash. It’s not a Noir but a puerile Agatha Christie Who Dun It. One’s interest lodges not in Who but in How, which is all right, but it does mean that one cares nothing about the characters. For none of the performers are believable as husband (Reginald Gardner), producer (Van Heflin), actor (Ginger Rogers), chick (Peggy Ann Garner) wife (Gene Tierney, detective (George Raft, who appears in the same suit and tie and the same monotone he assumed for decades. He has great presence but no artistic authority.) This is the sort of bunk that we in the 50s were asked to swallow, the Valium of the age, a truly sinful time.
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