The father of the modern horror film, Dan Curtis directed Curse of the Black Widow with a fairly interesting 1970's cast which included, Patty Duke, Donna Mills, Vic Morrow, June Allyson, Sid Caesar, June Lockhart, Roz (Pinky Tuscadaro) Kelly and TV stalwart Anthony Franciosa.
Franciosa's private detective Mark Higbie is on the trail of some mysterious murders that appear to be the work of a giant black widow spider. This is the kind of stuff Dan Curtis could pump out in his sleep, but the script is pretty lacking even for one of his productions. Franciosa is basically playing Carl Kolchak from The Night Stalker. I guess Darrin McGavin wasn't available when they filmed this.
It appears that Curtis was trying to do a horror film and cross it with a psychological study of a person suffering from multiple personality disorder, but the whole thing comes off as a poor man's version of Val Lewton's Cat People.
Curtis does know how to do the creepy mood thing pretty well. He had lots of time on his TV serial Dark Shadows to practice. Curse of the Black Widow is entertaining but a little disappointing.
100 minutes.
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