The Black Widow

The Black Widow is a 13-Chapter serial from Republic in 1947: An Asian mastermind hopes to take over the world. He’s using his daughter Sombra (Carol Forman) to act as his agent in America. She uses a gimmick in her spiritual parlor to force men to give her secrets or she kills them with the bite of a black widow spider. A chair is fixed up with a fake spider that comes out of the back to inject spider venom into her victims. The Daily Clarion publisher, Walker (Gene Stutenroth), is hot on the news, and calls in author and criminologist, Steve Colt (Bruce Edwards) to investigate. Walker assigns his top reporter, Joyce (Virginia Lindley) to assist him. Now, I can’t be positive that it was the first serial I ever saw, but it was close, if not. It was playing at the Gem Theater in Wichita Falls when we moved across the street from the theater in 1947, so it could have been. I’m not sure if my VHS copy has the complete serial, as I remember some things different from the copy I have. For one thing, these chapters are all very short. One thing that I’m sure is missing, is the lead in to each chapter. I remember the scene of the spider coming out of the chair at each beginning, but that wasn’t on my VHS copy. In fact, the scene is played in Chapter One when Sombra kills a victim, and then is used again in Chapter 13, as she attempts to kill Steve Colt. It is only twice in the whole serial. One other thing that is curious is the newspaper, the Daily Clarion. All pulp fans know that Frank Havens owned the Clarion (also called the Daily Clarion in many novels), not someone named Walker. And the idea of the newspaper owner calling in a special detective to solve the case sure sounds like The Phantom Detective doesn’t it? Sadly, Steve Colt doesn’t wear a domino mask, but I’ve heard The Phantom Detective was being considered for the movies around this period. I can’t help but wonder if The Black Widow was what ended up instead. Overall, this is not a bad serial. Carol Forman is good in anything – she’s a master of disguise in this, taking over the identity of three different women. Of course, three different women play the part, but we’re supposed to think that it’s Sombra.