For a film from the 80s, Black Widow sure does miss some major points in any film noir/neo noir story. With FBI agents even going as far as saying its highly unlikely that a woman could seduce and kill several men. The only voice of reason (and suspicion) come from the seemingly only FBI agent in the city who is hell bent on proving who the killer is. From the start we know that Catherine, in her many disguises and personas, is the killer. This isn’t a murder mystery after all and unlike other stereotypical neo noir-esque films, it becomes passive aggressive game of who can outwit who when Alex, the FBI agent, goes undercover and befriends Catherine as she hunts down her next victim.
Turning the tried-and-true formula of a male agent/cop tracking down the femme fatale or teaming up with her being corrupted by her, its Alex, the hot head agent who is actually on the right track to finding the femme fatale. She isn’t seduced by Catherine but she does get a little carried away when trying to convince the Hotel tycoon Catherine has set her sights on but this happens with any other film of its genre, the ‘hero’ always looses their head at some point. Catherine and Alex’s brief fake friendship is tense and awkward, neither convinced of the other in their fake identity. These two women can’t fool each other.
There is something delightful cheap and trashy about the entire film which makes it easy to forget when thinking of films that slip so well in the neo noir genre but the story and characters are what keeps it at the back of your mind. Catherine is fantastic as the absolute cold-hearted killer who very casually murders each husband, smoothly transitioning from each new person she becomes. Her method is cruel as well as rare, causing her husbands to die in their sleep from Ondine’s Curse, a very rare condition that is just about plausible and for some reason only rouses the suspicion of one FBI agent. But then again, it’s very rare for a woman to kill a man just for their money, right?
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