Black Widow

Peter Denver (Van Heflin), a renowned Broadway producer, is attending a cocktail party hosted by the viciously haughty and celebrated actress Carlotta "Lottie" Marin (Ginger Rogers) and her quiet husband Brian Mullen (Reginald Gardiner) when he meets Nancy "Nanny" Ordway (Peggy Ann Garner). The seemingly naïve Nanny, a 20-year-old aspiring writer, says she hopes to make it big in New York. She convinces a reluctant Peter to persuade his wife, Iris (Gene Tierney) - another famous actress, who is temporarily out of town-to agree to Nanny's use of the couple's apartment to write in during the day. After the Denvers return from the airport and find Nanny hanging dead in their bathroom, a variety of people Nanny has recently met in New York begin to reveal deeper and darker connections with her. At first, all blame seems to point to Peter, and many lies are told, supposedly implicating him as her seducer. Her former roommate claimed Peter had seduced Nanny, declared love and would divorce his wife for her. Neighbor Lottie supports this, advising Peter's wife Iris to move out immediately, which she does. The case shifts when Lt. Bruce (George Raft), the detective assigned to the case, soon discovers that this apparent suicide was in fact a homicide. To complicate Peter's life further, Lt. Bruce believes that Peter, who is suspected of having had an affair with Nanny, is the murderer. At his office, Peter evades arrest and seeks clues to discover the real murderer. The police put out a wanted notice on police radio. The case becomes further complicated when he and Lt. Bruce independently realize that Nanny's dealings in New York belie her apparent innocence. She seemed to be some sort of social climber or gold digger. Nanny framed Peter for infidelity but this "affair" predated their first meeting at his neighbor's cocktail party. Nanny had recently stayed for a time with her uncle and then moved in with a woman roommate, whose brother she evidently had agreed to marry. A series of flashbacks reveal that Nanny was craftily piecing together a scheme that would help her both to climb the social ladder and to later conceal the identity of her secret lover by falsely implicating Peter. This mysterious romance is confirmed by an autopsy, which reveals that Nanny was pregnant at the time of her death. Everyone Nanny knows is suddenly a suspect in the murder case, including Lottie and Brian, who live in the same apartment building as the Denvers. In the end, Brian can no longer keep silent and reveals to his friend Peter that he was Nanny's secret lover, but swears that he did not kill her. He says Nanny intended to blackmail Peter about her pregnancy in order to support her and her lover Brian. Brian can't believe she had developed such an evil plan, supported only by innuendo and gossip. Nanny excuses it by saying they are rich and won't miss the money. In the middle of Brian's story, having bugged his apartment, Lt. Bruce barges in and charges Brian with the homicide. Lottie objects to this, and Lt. Bruce guesses perhaps Lottie overheard Nanny and Brian talking on the phone, discovers their affair and then confronted Nanny in the downstairs apartment. Lottie finally admits she murdered Nanny for having had the affair with her husband, and then staged the death as a suicide.