Black Widow (1954), beginning of the end of the classic era

[AddisonDeWitless]

> {quote:title=dpompper wrote:}{quote}Have you seen the "South Park" guys' characterizations of Barbra? (They're merciless.)

So is she, from what I hear.

[Hibi]

How did Barbara wind up on South Park???? (****!)

[brackenhe]

I didn't start watching South Park until a few years into it's run, but they portrayed her as a large mechanical monster called Mecha Streisand, but I never really understood why. I know they go after all celebs but that one was a head scratcher, unless she'd said something about them or the show.

[Hibi]

LOL. Oh, Streisand! For some reason I was thinking Stanwyck! (Couldnt see why they would be interested. Now Streisand makes some sense!)

[DownGoesFrazier]

In the interest of accuracy, the murder was committed by Professor Plum, not the plumber. What would a plumber be doing in the billiard room?

[MovieMadness]

*Leave Her To Heaven* and *Black Widow* do seem to have one thing in common, each film only has one nut case, the rest of the people are all somewhat normal.

[DownGoesFrazier]

The Peggy Ann Garner character was normal?

[Hibi]

LOL. I thought it was Peggy Ann Gardner?

 

Edited by: Hibi on Jan 3, 2013 6:07 PM

[DownGoesFrazier]

You're thinking of Ava Garner.

[MovieMadness]

No, I thought she was the nut case in *Black Widow*. The Ginger Rogers charactor was a normal stuck up star that had a tag a long husband. Think Zsa Zsa Gabor, lol.

[DownGoesFrazier]

I was just thrown off by the fact that Ginger strangled the young lady to death. If that's normal, so be it.

[MovieMadness]

That is true, but up to the point where they reveal who the killer is in *Black Widow* she acts very normal. They could have made the killer to be any of the cast surrounding the crime scene, even Gene Tierney could have been made the killer.

 

I guess though technically Ginger Rogers is a murderer and could be a nut but a lot of people do kill a cheating spouse or the participant. Usually they get a reduced sentence out of sympathy I think.

[FredCDobbs]

>I was just thrown off by the fact that Ginger strangled the young lady to death. If that's normal, so be it.

 

She did it in the public hallway, and then she dragged the body to the bathroom, found some rope or electrical cord, raised the girl up several feet, and strung her up to the shower head. And then she sat down and wrote a fake suicide note. All without wrinkling her fancy dress. All while remaining calm.

[Hibi]

LOL. OK. I get those 2 mixed up...............

[Hibi]

Now that's grace under pressure!

[AddisonDeWitless]

> {quote:title=FredCDobbs wrote:}{quote}

> > I was just thrown off by the fact that Ginger strangled the young lady to death.

> She did it in the public hallway, and then she dragged the body to the bathroom, found some rope or electrical cord, raised the girl up several feet, and strung her up to the shower head. And then she sat down and wrote a fake suicide note. All without wrinkling her fancy dress. All while remaining calm.

Well, as Finance said in another thread, Ginger could do anything at least better than average. (She probably did it backwards and in heels too.)

[DownGoesFrazier]

That was my point. Stanwyck in that role would have wrinkled her dress.

[FredCDobbs]

It's on now.

 

Is is a noir? Is it not a noir? Is it a Techicolor noir? Is it a neo-nor?

 

Is the old-time cast noir?

[TopBilled]

I still dislike this thread. I think the original subject should have had a question mark at the end. It seems like a doomsday approach to classic film, without letting others decide if it is truly the end, or just a beginning with newer technology.

[AddisonDeWitless]

I still like it (this thread, the movie sucks.)

 

(And it's not a noir. )

 

[FredCDobbs]

Ok.

[TopBilled]

One thing I will add here is that I watched MOONFLEET last night, and during the broadcast I researched the film online. Fritz Lang, known for his noir output, was the director. Stewart Granger calls the finished product dreary, while others more kindly call it moody.

 

Lang was hired by MGM to film it in Cinemascope and color. At the time, Lang was open to the possibilities of these technologies to tell a somber story. But a few years later, he reversed his opinion. He told a film scholar that Cinemascope was overused by the studios and that comparing film to classic painting, only one real masterpiece from the Renaissance period could be said to frame subjects the way Cinemascope does: The Last Supper. Lang claimed that everything else is more effective when it shows subjects up close and intimately.

 

BLACK WIDOW definitely does not do that. It shows the subjects isolated and defined by an ambitious spatial design. I happen to like it. I also happen to like the use of cold colors, something that Lang eschews in favor of earth-tones. I guess it's a matter of personal taste.

 

But none of this ever signaled the end of classic movie-making, or else we would looking at TCM as a museum and Hollywood would no longer be cranking out motion pictures.

[AddisonDeWitless]

Jeez Heflin's being a dink to Virginia Leith.

Ease up, Van. I mean I know she's not the best, but it could be Gloria Talbott.

[AddisonDeWitless]

ps- you could land a small-engine plane in the "crummy little" Greenwich Village apartment that was too un-inspiring and drab for Garner to write in (replete with a bay window view of the city.) It's nicer than Heflin and Tierney's digs.

[FredCDobbs]

Yes, her apartment would rent for about $4,000 a month now.