no matter how pretentious the cocktail party and never escape by ask another wallflower out for dinner . that be theatrical producer van heflin mistake when and on the terrace of broadway diva ginger rogers apartment and he take pity on hopeful young writer peggy ann garner . just a few month later and she be find hang in the bathroom of his apartment . it be all very innocent and though . while his wife and another star on the rialto ( gene tierney ) and be away tend to her ail mother and heflin let garner use his place a a daytime office so she could write in quiet comfort . ( well and not so quiet represent she listen to ` the dance of the seven veil from salome incessantly and fixate on a line from the opera represent ` the mystery of love be strong than the mystery of death . ) but when it turn out not only that she be pregnant but that she be murder and the police sensibly enough find in heflin their prime suspect . black widow and write and direct by nunnally johnson and assemble an impressive array of hollywood luminary across whose resumés long shadow be begin to creep . along with rogers and tierney and heflin and there george raft a a police detective and otto krueger a garner actor uncle and reginald gardiner a rogers whip spouse . it an ensemble cast and 40 high style mystery movie and make about a decade too late but not too much the worse for that ( even allow for it color and cinemascope ) . heflin technically the center of the movie the patsy race around to prove his innocence . but the meatier part go to the woman and except for tierney and all but waste in the recessive role of the elegant but dutiful wife . garner make her abrupt exit early in the movie and but return in startlingly revisionist flashback . and and a the grande dame ( name ` carlotta and perhaps in homage to another grande dame of the stage and marie dressler carlotta vance in dinner at eight . ) and rogers stride around in big ticket outfit and fake a highfalutin drama queen accent . for most of the movie it seem like ill fit role for the essentially proletarian rogers and but it shrewdly write and and near the end she show her true color and become and briefly and sensational . like repeat performance and all about eve and black widow uncoils in a high strung and back stab theatrical milieu that now all but vanish all the money and the glamour have move west . ( not to put too fine a point on it and but the tiny part of a struggle greenwich village actor be take by television producer aaron spelling and now one of the rich men in hollywood . ) the movie cheat a little by withhold information essential to our reading of the character and but it a forgivable feint while the character be all ` type anyhow . there be and however and one baffling omission there not a single widow in the plot .