Van Heflin is a theatrical producer who's suspected of murder in "Black Widow," a 1954 20th Century Fox Technicolor film directed by Nunnally Johnson. The film is set in New York among the sophisticated Broadway set, and the cast is full of familiar faces: Ginger Rogers, Gene Tierney, George Raft, Reginald Gardiner, Peggy Ann Garner, Virginia Leith, Otto Kruger, Mabel Albertson, and even Aaron Spelling.

Garner plays a young writer who, new to New York, keeps making increasingly important friends until she winds up an apparent suicide in the apartment of producer Peter Denver and his beautiful actress wife, Lottie. Soon, however, it's revealed that she was murdered, and Heflin is the prime suspect. During his own investigation as he tries to keep George Raft from putting him in prison, he learns that the sweet young thing may have been young, but she wasn't sweet.

Though a little slow at times, this is a highly entertaining film with its shots of New York and panoramic views from luxury apartments. The acting is wonderful. Ginger Rogers is great as the glamorous, acid-tongued Iris, a well-known actress with a ne'er do well husband, played effectively by Gardiner. Gene Tierney looks lovely but has a supporting role in this as Heflin's wife. The film sports two former child actors: Peggy Ann Garner as the murder victim and Skip Homeier as one of her love interests. Newcomer Virginia Leith is Homeier's sister and Garner's confidante. Garner looks appropriately innocent.

The looping in this film is very obvious for some reason - at least on television, some of the sound was fuzzy and then boom! the dubbing would come in. A very minor point. The mystery is intriguing, the glamor high, the dialogue sharp - an engrossing way to spend one's time.

"Black Widow" is well worth seeing simply because it stars Van Heflin. While Heflin is not at all famous today, I love seeing him in films because he was a great 'everyman' character--not beautiful by Hollywood standards, but a terrific actor nonetheless. It also didn't hurt that he had the likes of Gene Tierney and Ginger Rogers in support, nor did it hurt that the film was genuinely entertaining. My only reservation is that the plot is VERY difficult to believe.

The film begins with Helfin's wife (Tierney) going on a trip and Heflin reluctantly going to a party held by an annoying celebrity (Rogers). There at the party, Heflin meets a shy aspiring writer--and he feels obliged to take her under his wing and help her in her career. What he doesn't realize is that this cute, naive woman is anything but---she's a calculating and completely amoral woman (hence the title of the film). Now I sure thought it was going to look like a variation on "All About Eve"--and it sure looked that way for a while. But the film also takes some amazing twists--and kept me in suspense throughout when the film became a murder mystery! The biggest strength of the film is Helfin's gritty and likable performance. But the film also had a highly entertaining plot--provided you don't wind that it's VERY fanciful and hard to believe if you really think about it. Still, I was able to suspend disbelief and enjoyed it--as will most lovers of classic Hollywood films.

That multi-talented force of nature Nunnally Johnson put together this project and got a really stylish cast to star in Black Widow. To say it was borrowed a lot from All About Eve is no exaggeration.

Black Widow is the story of young Peggy Ann Garner who is described as a 'purpose girl'. Like Eve Harrington, Garner is a young lady with a mission which is to insinuate herself with the upper crust of the theatrical profession. Her target is a man, producer Van Heflin whom she meets when she crashes the party of his star Ginger Rogers.

Instead of an aspiring actress, Garner is an aspiring writer and Heflin who is slightly married to Gene Tierney let's her use his apartment and his typewriter for his story idea. Today he'd just buy her a laptop. When she's found hung in his apartment buy Tierney, Heflin has a lot of explaining to do all around. Especially after the cops call it murder.

There's a rather droll performance by Reginald Gardiner in what could have been his career role. He's the husband of Ginger Rogers and that is his whole identity. Kind of like Kevin Federline and Britney Spears for you young people. Gardiner conveys a deep sadness in his role which is essentially that of a permanent guest who relies on his never ending charm to stay in Ginger's good graces. He'd like to be on his own, but he's weak and without much character. All in all I think he's the best one in the cast.

For such a talented group which also includes Otto Kruger as Garner's uncle and George Raft as the homicide detective the film is sluggish and moves like the entrails of a snail at times. It's not bad, but could have and should have been far better.