Black Widow (1987)

A federal investigator tracks down a gold digging woman who moves from husband to husband, kills them and collects the inheritance.

Director:

Bob Rafelson

Writer:

Ronald Bass

Stars:

Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, Sami Frey

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Debra Winger	...	Alexandra 'Alex' Barnes
Theresa Russell	...	Catharine Petersen
Sami Frey	...	Paul Nuytten
Dennis Hopper	...	Ben Dumers
Nicol Williamson	...	William McCrory
Terry O'Quinn	...	Bruce, Alex's Boss
James Hong	...	H. Shin - Honolulu private investigator
Diane Ladd	...	Etta
D.W. Moffett	...	Michael
Lois Smith	...	Sara
Leo Rossi	...	Detective Ricci
Danny Kamekona	...	FBI security
Rutanya Alda	...	Irene
Mary Woronov	...	Shelley
Wayne Heffley	...	Etta's husband

Storyline

Catherine is a black widow. "She mates and then she kills". Black Widow is the story of a lady (Catherine) who marries lonely millionaires, waits until they've changed their will to leave all to their beloved wives and then murders them to inherit the fortune. With each man Catherine marries, she changes her appearance to suit the mans personality. Only there's one problem. Alexandra is a smart cookie and has found a link between these unexplained mysterious deaths and the partners wives. But now her only problem is proving that a killer is on the loose and saving herself from the deadly Black Widow.

---

Plot Keywords:

widow | black widow | inheritance | murder | millionaire | 

---

Taglines:

She Mates and She kills. No Man Can Resist Her. Only One Woman Can Stop Her.

---

Genres:

Crime | Thriller

---

Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

6 February 1987 (USA)

Also Known As:

La veuve noire

Filming Locations:

Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$25,205,460 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Amercent Films, American Entertainment Partners L.P., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

David Mamet:  Playing poker with Debra Winger.

---

Goofs

Investigator in the last fifteen minutes of the movie refers to Jessica Bates as Jessica Barnes.

---

Quotes

[first lines]
Sara: When he didn't come to the office, 10:30, 11:00, I called the house. Catherine... he went in his sleep, peacefully. The doctor said if you'd been sleeping right next to him, you wouldn't have even known. You couldn't have done anything.

---

Connections

Referenced in NCIS: Leap of Faith (2007)

User Reviews

Guilty pleasure

Hilariously contrived and utterly compelling, Black Widow is always worth a re-viewing when the video shelves are dry. It's beautifully filmed, competently acted, and contains some of the most rousingly misguided plot twists known to this cinephile.

No spoilers here, but the ending is a knee-slapper, as is the otherwise quite capable Theresa Russell's foray into a southern belle accent. It's all very slick, but in a good way, with the considerable lily gilded by attempts at intellectualizing a movie which could be refilmed with startlingly few changes for a Cinemax Late Night soft-core extravaganza. Kudos to Russell, of course, Winger, James Hong and Mary Woronov just for being Mary Woronov for at least one scene; it's just a shame that a movie which makes a stab at well-rounded female characters (at the very least by making the male characters so weak [truth is, I can scarcely remember the names of any of the male characters] that one cannot help but invest all subjectivity with the female characters) operates under the notion that the Debra Winger character discovers her womanhood vicariously through the exploits of the sensuous, if surprisingly (in context) asexual, man-killer Russell, which is not exactly the most progressive notion. Essential viewing nonetheless.