La maldición de la viuda negra

Take Patty Duke, Donna Mills, June Allyson and June Lockhart. Add schizophrenia, were-spiders (similar to -wolves, but with eight legs), 1977 Los Angeles and Dan Curtis. Sprinkle with a bit of nepotism (Tracy Curtis, daughter of director Dan, has 15 seconds showing off on a balance beam that's grafted on like a third arm), add a pinch of bad cinematography and annoying commercial fade-outs, and bake well for what seems like forever.

Garnish with stereotypical "Injuns", gay morgue directors and sassy streetwalkers, then soak in brine for two hours. Prop dialogue firmly on stilts and spit in its eye. That's this movie. I loved it.

Right down to the meaty, slappable smile of the implausible leading man, every detail seemed just a bit ... off. And happily so. If this one doesn't generate derisive howls of laughter at your next homocockail soiree, sweetie, you need to redecorate or something.

On one level, this ill-fated Dan Curtis production is a cornucopia of great TV actors(Patty Duke, June Lockhart, June Allison, Donna Mills)clearly hard-up; this flick is the proof. Duke and Mills are twins who are somehow connected to a series of bizarre murders. Seems the victims are dispatched by a gigantic spider. Coincidentally, the twins late parents were doing research with spiders before they died. Many questions are laid out, such as: why is the spider made of paper-mache? Why is Patty Duke running around in a brunette wig and black jumpsuit and speaking with a bad German accent? What was Dan Curtis on when he conceived this disaster? The cast members could have only been trying to pay down their morgages doing this one.

ABC produced some entertraining, fast paced monster movies in the late 70's. This movie wastes no time getting to the action. Since it was made for TV and premiered on a Friday night, it had to be action filled before every commercial break to keep you tuned in. The twist at the end was neat. It's also interesting to see some TV star veterans who you might recognize from popular shows of the 60's, 70's and 80's, like Donna Mills from Knots Landing, June Lockhart from Lost in Space, and Rob Kelly who was one of two actresses that played Pinky Tuscadero on Happy Days.

If you enjoyed this movie, a couple other hidden gems that were ABC made for TV films are The Bermuda Depths starring Carl Weathers and Connie Seleca, about a legendary woman who turns into a giant sea turtle, and Cruise into Terror starring Dirk Benedict and John Forsythe about a cursed Egyptian mummy sarcophagus being transported on a cruise ship. These films won't win any Emmys, and some of the stars were embarrassed to be in them, but nevertheless they are memorable because they were so schlocky and yet well-cast with TV all-stars, and broadcast in an age of television where there were only three networks to choose from.

Do you remember this movie from the 70's (1977)? It is about a woman who was bitten by many spiders as a youth, who can transform into a giant black spider. To this day, in my opinion, this movie is much better than a lot of the crap that Hollywood has recently manufactured.

Also, could tell me, or direct me to, where I could find the original T.V poster ad for this film? I remember that it was a picture of a spider with 8 human female legs, a spider's abdomen, and a human female face attached to it's body. The ad appeared in T.V. Guide.

This would be an awesome collectors item if I could find it.

Let me know.

Thanks

This movie was great! Patty Duke & Donna Mills as (fraternal) twins?!? Guess there have been stranger things...like a man-sized Black Widow spider terrorizing Los Angeles! I won't give away who the "spider woman" is but within the first 2 minutes all you have to do is hear her voice & you'll know instantly it is either her or her proper twin cousin from Brooklyn Heights! Fortunately the fx in this film are so realistic you too may even believe that 6ft spiders are made of paper mache. Of course we also get the creature-point-of-view, and since spiders have 8 eyes we see 8 victims at once. If you have the opportunity to see this, you must watch it.