Noir: Black Widow (1954 and 1987) and Blitz
BLACK Widow (1954) --- Cinemascope does Manhattan, albeit mostly indoors, but there are shots of streets, with sometimes a cast member to show cast/crew went there. Grown-up Peggy Ann Garner schemes along “Eve” lines to get better of Broadway sorts who reap varied whirlwinds, and to show what she tempts with, there is w-i-d-e view of Peggy’s endless legs as she sets snare for hapless Van Heflin, Reginald Gardner, callow Skip Homier. The cast often lines up across the scope screen like a show-up at headquarters, only police dick George Raft goes on-site for most of investigating, noir credentials neatly tucked behind his lapel. Billing shows how names rose and dipped as Cinemascope took dominance: Ginger Rogers first up, age rather suddenly an issue, and she plays to it as had been case in Forever Female’s close-related part. Van Heflin, who made almost any melodrama almost believable, gets the wrong man lead, while Gene Tierney seems all of a sudden fragile and not so much Gene Tierney anymore, but that is likelier result of us knowing more about her personal circumstance than at the time Black Widow was made. Nunnally Johnson was being given pictures to write, produce, and direct, which he didn’t care much to do, but Zanuck said why not, so he accommodated. Result is OK, a lot of insider Broadway chat, or what we are supposed to read as that. Was Johnson aiming barbs at real-life luminaries he had known, or are these stick figures to represent generic stage types? Some have called Black Widow a most stage bound of Cinemascope releases from 1954, and I suppose it is, but fun is there for ones who like talk, lots of that, bouncing from one wall to an opposite one. Kind of like watching sound being invented all over again. Twilight Time released Black Widow as a limited edition some years back. Now Amazon wants $42 for it, so I guess we have a collectable gaining speed.
BLACK WIDOW (1987) --- Talk about a common title, but always effective, whether for a Republic serial, a more recent comic book adapt, or in this instance, a cat-mouse pairing for hot numbers of the day Debra Winger and Theresa Russell, doing a sort of Body Heat dance to R-rated music. We think almost to final seconds that Russell will herself get away with multiple murders and retire to island paradise like Kathleen Turner, so pervasive was relaxed morality by an 80’s sort of noir. Winger is the dogged Fed, frumpy beside Russell, or so they design, but like with Niagara where I found Jean Peters more alluring that MM, so too it’s Debra who rings the bell rather than more obvious glamor-puss Theresa. Fun is had with Winger clunking away on ancient twentieth-century computers and even a slide projector at one point (did we once use such hopeless devices?). Lush production moves from exotic location to a next exotic location, narrative barely keeping pace before the inevitable third act ennui, a bred-into problem with most movies by the 80’s, and virtually all of them since. Best way might be to enjoy till timer indicates final forty minutes ahead, then wave goodbye and figure out a better resolution for yourself. Chances are it will work where theirs won’t. This is not to say Black Widow bores, or annoys, or does anything other than mildly please. But let’s keep it at mildly and avoid letdowns. Concept of killing one husband after another can’t help but amuse, so like Charlotte Vale said, let’s not ask for the moon. Watched on Amazon in HD, looked good, never a sure thing with 80’s titles where sometimes you wonder what kind of shape original elements are in.
BLITZ (2011) --- Jason Statham a noir hero? Just pretend he’s Dana Andrews, only handier with fists. He operates not unlike Andrews dealing with criminal class in Where the Pavement Ends, an off-rail cop who figures ends might justify whatever means are needed to achieve them. Why must law enforcement exert self-control in a culture so out of control? Statham’s higher-up confesses to vigilante resort where a suspect would otherwise game the system, to which Statham nods approval. He is without a life outside friends in the department, each killed off for lacking his instinct at survival. Blitz was one I came to with doubts, all dispelled within opener scenes, action UK-set with benefit of tension and pace the Brits seem gifted at giving us. Streaming has made me ever more the Anglophile and dogged if I’m not picking up their slang (property that is “nicked” means stole, being nicked also is when they arrest you). Stamp my passport then, as I’m ready to head over and assimilate with these folks. Between TV series focus on crime and bushel of features along a same line, I’ve got to assume England has insatiable taste for rough and tumble of police vs. thuggery. Even “Doc Martin” Clunes does time in the squad room when he isn’t healing the sick at Cornwall. Jason Statham engages “action” as a genre all his own, more so far than I can watch without committing full time, and frankly, if they’re all as good as Blitz, then take me aboard. Noir label is for streets gone to anarchy as result of officers serial-killed in broad daylight and worse. Chases are over ground, roofs, anywhere camera operators can run with equipment sat on shoulders. Things achievable with portable gear do not cease to amaze me. Even if Blitz is familiar in context of current cop thrillers, then call me easy to impress, as indeed I am with this and so much else that is crossing the Atlantic. Streaming services, it seems, can’t get enough of such content. Blitz was a Blu-Ray I didn’t remember acquiring, but there it sat on the shelf, so maybe Santa was by.
