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(aka "Black Widow: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story " )

 

directed by Alan Metzger
USA 1993

Blanche Taylor Moore was pretty, vivacious, and sexy. Men loved her, and she appeared to love them. Too bad she was so unlucky in love. Man after man fell ill and died, in spite of her devoted nursing. Schutze draws a compelling, chilling portrait of a woman spoon-feeding poison to husbands and lovers who were dying in agony. The book is not only a fine portrait of a madwoman, it is an indictment of the hospitals where the truth was routinely ignored. There are heroes, though, in the detectives who doggedly uncovered the truth and the lawyers who fought to see Blanche convicted.

***

Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) stars as Blanche Taylor Moore; grandmother, churchgoing pillar of her North Carolina small town, and serial murderer, in this riveting true story that leads to the gas chamber. Childhood memories of her womanizing and abusive father fill Moore with a hidden rage towards all men. Her former boyfriend, first husband and father all died of arsenic poisoning. Now her fiancé, the town's minister, is stricken the same way. Based on the book Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore, and buoyed by Montgomery's startling performance, Black Widow Murders will keep you on the edge of your seat till its final moments.

***

In 1989, police began investigating Moore after her second husband, Rev. Dwight Moore, became ill with suspicious symptoms. A doctor ordered toxic testing and determined his illness was from arsenic poisoning. He somehow survived the ingestion of large amount of poison over a week’s time.

The police became suspicious of Moore, and asked that the bodies of Moore's former boyfriend, Raymond Reid, and James N. Taylor, her first husband, who died 1973, be exhumed. It was determined that both men died of arsenic poisoning. Moore's father, P.D. Kiser, also died of symptoms similar to those that occur with arsenic poisoning.

Elizabeth Montgomery/ Bewitched Promo

Television Premiere: May  3rd, 1993

 

Reviews                                                               More Reviews                                                       DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Warner Home Video (Warner Archive Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC
DVD Box Cover

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Distribution

Warner Home Video

Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime 1:31:24
Video

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.29 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate

Audio Dolby Digital 1.0 (English)
Subtitles None
Features Release Information:
Studio: Warner Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Original - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• None

DVD Release Date: January 4th, 2012
Keep Case

Chapters 10

 

 

 

Comments

Black Widow Murders: The Blanche Taylor Moore Story is a decent murderess-cum-biopic not dissimilar, in that respect to, another strong made-for-TV movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden - also starring Elizabeth Montgomery. It was made almost 20-years earlier. She was most famous for the television show Bewitched and her remarkable beauty. Her parents were screen actor Robert Montgomery and Broadway actress Elizabeth Allen. Unfortunately, she died fairly young (at 62) two years after this film was made.

It's standard single-layered MoD (Made-on-Demand) disc but progressive in the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio and looks predictably acceptable. It is probably a shade better-than-average although contrast seems 'light'. This is labeled under Warner's "Archive Collection" and the SD transfer shows some depth and is consistent. Detail is adept helping supply a watchable transfer to DVD. 

The mono sound is decent supporting the David Michael Frank score and there are no subtitles offered. No supplements at all.

Keeping my expectations in-check, I enjoyed this little, 'true-to-life', murderess story. A lot of the value is Elizabeth Montgomery - who really nails the role. It's a bit disjointed rushing the conclusion. This is, still, a very good made-for-TV movie - I actually wish it was longer. You could do a lot worse for $15.  

  - Gary Tooze

 


 

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DVD Box Cover

CLICK to order from:

Distribution

Warner Home Video

Region 0 - NTSC

 



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