Ida Lupino

1918  -  1995
         

Search for Beauty 1934 
Directed by Erle C. Kenton
Paramount              B/W

Lupino and Crabbe

This was definitely pre-Code. Based on a play called “Love You, Baby”, one scene took place in a gym full of naked men (sorry, we couldn't use that picture here). It was certainly to promote Paramount's plan to make Ida another Jean Harlow. Paramount actually conducted a real “Search for Beauty” contest promising winners a small part in the film. See if you can spot Lynn Bari (a contest entrant) and Ann Sheridan as the Dallas, Texas beauty winner. Maurice Costello is also one of the resort guests.

The story:
 
A couple of con men (Robert Armstrong, James Gleason) and their female consort (Gertrude Michael) salvage a failing fitness magazine for a pittance and also get the resort hotel that goes with it. The trio have grandiose plans to sell “sex” for a profit and scam two Olympic stars (Lupino and Buster Crabbe) to lend their names. But the two soon get wise and put their heads (and hearts) together to foil the scum bunch.

Ready for Love   1934      
Directed by Henry Hathaway
Paramount            B/W

Lupino and Arlen

Ida was a few weeks late to this party due to her battle with polio. The story, based on “The Whipping” a play by Eulalie Spence and a novel by Roy Flanagan, is about a girl, a guy , a town and a very dead playboy.

The story:

Marigold Tate (Lupino) arrives in a small New England town on the same train as the remains of the late playboy, Nathaniel Burke. When Marigold exits the train crying (she couldn't find her dog) the townspeople immediately put two and two together and came up with the idea she must be the mistress of the late Mr. Burke. The young editor Julian Peters (Richard Arlen), never one to miss a good story, hurries off to print it. So Marigold is scorned by the women of the town, the Burke family sue the editor, and the men, married or single, pursue her including Joey, the nephew of....the late Mr. Burke. So, when she peeled down to her underwear to save Joey from drowning in the lake, the women had enough. They tied her to an old dunking stool and gave her a taste of Puritan punishment. Enter Marigold's mama, Goldie Tate (Marjorie Rambeau), a vaudeville actress, who thought this was just the kind of publicity she could use. Marigold, now in love with Julian, knew she had to get out of this mess and follow her heart.

The Light That Failed  1939 
Directed by William A. Wellman
Paramount     B/W

Lupino and Colman

When the film opened in New York on Christmas Eve, 1939 it was called a “letter perfect” and “uncompromising” version of Rudyard Kipling's novel. Unlike the other two films made from the same story this movie made no effort to soften either the characters or the ending.

The story:

An artist is slowly going blind and needs to finish his masterpiece before the darkness comes. Dick Heldar (Ronald Colman) is now suffering the final consequences of a war injury suffered while fighting in the Sudan. He finds a callous cockney prostitute, Bessie Burke (Lupino), in the the streets of London and wants her as his model for the painting he calls “Melancholia”. But Bessie is unstable and, as his blindness increases, it becomes harder and harder to paint her. Finally, when the painting is almost finished, he tries to send her on her way. In a fit of jealousy, Bessie slashes the canvas. When he realizes the painting is ruined, Heldar goes back to the Sudan and imminent death.

They Drive by Night    1940
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Warner Bros./ First National   B/W

Lupino and Bogart

This was Mark Hellinger's baby and he made sure he had Ida Lupino! It was a solid screenplay based on A.J. Bezzerides's novel “The Long Haul”. It was shot in sequence to get the “full-bodied” characterizations, something unusual even today for film makers.

The story:

Two brothers are trying to find work as independent truckers. Joe Fabrini (George Raft) would like to own his own fleet of trucks someday while Paul (Humphrey Bogart) would rather work locally and be at home more with his wife Pearl (Gale Page). When Paul loses an arm in an accident, Joe gives up his dream and goes to work for Ed Carlson (Alan Hale). Carlsen's gorgeous wife (Lana) is restless and sets her cap for Joe even though he is obviously not interested. When she learns he plans to marry Cassie (Ann Sheridan) she goes off the deep end and kills Ed, blaming the murder on Joe.  But, in the courtroom, she becomes unhinged and the case is dismissed.

High Sierra  1941  
Directed by Raoul Walsh
Warner Bros./First National      B/W

Lupino and Bogart together again

Another Mark Hellinger co-production and, of course, Ida Lupino was his choice for the role of Marie Gershon.  But, even though Warners paid $25,000 for this story, the role of Roy Earle was turned down by all of their top male stars....James Cagney, George Raft, Paul Muni, and Edward G. Robinson. However, there was one player on the lot who wanted it badly. So badly he sent a telegram to Hal Wallis asking to be considered. Humphrey Bogart, still getting third-billed character parts, got his wish and hit the big time.

The story:

Roy Earle was looking at life behind bars when an old gangland pal, Big Mac (Donald MacBride) bought him a ticket out of an Indiana prison to engineer a robbery at a chic resort hotel in California. After driving cross-country to the Sierra Nevada mountains, he met up with the three men who were also in on the heist. Louis Mendoza (Cornel Wilde) worked at the hotel. Red (Arthur Kennedy) and Babe (Alan Curtis) were thugs along to do the dirty work. Unfortunately, Babe had brought along a woman, Marie Gershon  who made Roy uneasy but he lets her stay. He also finds himself adopted by a little dog, Pard. On the way to meet Big Mac, Roy meets up with Velma and her family stranded by an auto accident. Velma is crippled and needs an operation. Roy falls for her and pays for her operation only to have her hometown sweetheart turn up.  Hurt, Roy turns to Marie. But the heist goes terribly wrong, Babe and Red are killed and Mendoza talks to the cops. There is a dragnet out for Roy now referred to as “Mad Dog” Earle,  so the two separate to protect Marie. After trading shots with the police, he hears a dog barking , and, thinking it is Pard, comes out to find him and dies.

Lupino and Garfield

Ida wanted the role of Stella in this picture and was ecstatic when Barbara Stanwyck turned it down. She also wanted her good pal John Garfield to play the arrogant extortionist Harold Goff and it seemed at the time what Ida wanted, Ida managed to get that year. The screenplay was based on Irwin Shaw's successful drama “The Gentle People” by the Group Theater in New York City with Franchot Tone and Sylvia Sidney. But before the ink was hardly dry on the script the Breen Office weighed in with 5 pages of violations. Sliced and diced, the film never came up to the success of the original drama. However Arthur Lyons and Lupino went over the castrated storyline and rewrote many of the scenes to make them stronger within the preset boundaries. James Wong Howe's great cinematography also helped float the boat. 

The story:

Jonah (Thomas Mitchell) and Olaf (John Qualen) always found fishing relaxing after  work hours from their small boat. They dreamed of better days and bigger boats but their Brooklyn pier was held hostage by petty gangster Goff who demanded protection money from all the fishermen. To make matters worse, Jonah's daughter Stella had fallen in love with Goff without knowing that he was extorting money from her father. Jonah promises to send Stella on a cruise to Cuba with the money they have been saving for a boat. Goff learns about it and demands the money. He makes the men sign a paper claiming that the money was in payment of a debt. Jonah and Olaf decide to murder Goff but after they lure him on their boat they lose their nerve. Then fate takes a hand. Goff falls overboard and drowns leaving his wallet and the money on the boat. Jonah, Olaf and Stella plan a big fishing trip in the Gulf Stream.

Ladies in Retirement   1941
Directed by Charles Vidor
Columbia             B/W  

Lupino and Hayward

Producer Lester Cowan was about to go out on a limb. He decided to give the plum role of murderess Ellen Creed to twenty-three year old Ida Lupino. This taut, psychological thriller had won acclaim on Broadway with Flora Robson playing Ellen as a sixty year old woman. Studio head Harry Cohn exploded. “You are out of your mind choosing this child to play that role.” But director Charles Vidor thought that Ida could look forty-ish with a few little tweaks. Ida pulled her hair back severely and wore very little makeup while cinematographer Charles Barnes brushed her with a high light to wash out the softness. But Ida's performance was the key to making it all work.

The story:

Miss Leonora Fiske (Isobel Elsom), a retired British music hall actress, lived quietly in the country's outback with her housekeeper Ellen (Lupino) and her maid Lucy (Evelyn Keyes). But the quiet didn't last long after the arrival of Ellen's two mentally disturbed sisters (Elsa Lancaster and Edith Barrett) who have been evicted from their London flat.  Ellen begged Miss Fiske to let them stay until she can find lodging for them but after a few days of mayhem, Fiske told them to go and Ellen with them. While Fiske sits at her piano playing “Tit Willow” Ellen creeps up behind her and strangles her. She puts the body in the oven where Fiske usually hides all her valuables and bricks it up. When Fiske's black sheep nephew Albert Feather (Louis Hayward)  shows up looking for another handout,  Ellen tells him that the old lady is gone on a trip. She also tells Lucy the same story. Albert and Lucy are both suspicious. When Albert finds the oven bricked up, he plots with Lucy to frighten Ellen into confessing she murdered her employer.

Lupino and Woolley

Stanley Lupino always dreamed of Ida doing a play with him in London. The one he had in mind was “The Light of Heart” by Emlyn Williams. But that dream had passed and  now she was doing it on the screen with the marvelous actor, Monty Woolley.  Ida felt very comfortable at Fox and was there a month before the cameras rolled to get used to walking in the orthopedic boot she would use to simulate the lame foot the role required.

She would need to walk confidentally as though she had done it all her life.

The Story:

Kathy Thomas (Lupino) lived in a New York City walk-up with her alcoholic father Madden Thomas (Woolley). Once a brilliant actor, Thomas was now reduced to playing Santa Claus in a department store. Kathy, crippled since birth, is devoted to her father despite his faults and sarcasm. Then love walked in one day and brought trouble with it. Kathy met her new neighbor, composer Robert Carter (Cornel Wilde) whose rich aunt Alma (Sara Allgood)  was one of Madden Thomas's biggest fans. The blossoming romance between Kathy and Robert create a problem for Madden who now fears losing his daughter.  When Madden  is given a chance to star in a new production of “King Lear” he also fears failure. Kathy works to get him in shape so that she can get on with her own life with Robert who has asked her to marry him and go with him to Hollywood. He also tracks down the doctor present at Kathy's birth to determine the nature of Kathy's “congenital” deformity, only to find that she had been dropped by her drunken father as an infant. Madden finds out, gets drunk opening night and Kathy, angry, blurts out the truth. A shamed Madden leaves a note telling Kathy to go with Robert then accepts a smitten Alma's proposal of marriage. 

Lupino with Joan Leslie and Dennis Morgan

Rumors were rampant that this story was loosely based on the life of a famous actress but producer/writer Jerry Wald wasn't talking. He chose Irwin Shaw to write the screenplay. Ida got the script in December, 1941 but problems with her health and her father's terminal illness kept delaying production. When filming began on March 5, 1942 the Breen office suddenly stepped in forcing rewrites making Irwin Shaw so furious he asked that his name be removed from the credits. By the time production was finally over on June 27th (19 days over schedule) Ida and Sherman had to talk through intermediaries.

The story:

A woman walked out on the pier, took her expensive from her shoulders, threw it in the water and then jumped in herself. The police fished her out but now want to know why she did it.  Helen Chernen (Lupino) couldn't  tell them. As she lay there dying, her mind raced back to the life she led and the life she forced her younger sister to live. Helen took over the care of her sister, Katherine Blaine (Joan Leslie) when their mother died. She wanted the world for her and was willing to manipulate or destroy anything or anyone who got in the way. After hearing a song and dance team do their act,  Katie   decided right there she wanted to be an actress. Paul Collins (Dennis Morgan) and Albert Runkel (Jack Carson) agreed after watching her version of their act. Katie falls hard for Albert and, although Helen has doubts, they get married. But when Paul, Albert and Katie leave town Helen goes along to make sure Katie gets a bigger slice of the act. The pressure on both Albert and Paul causes Paul to leave. Finally, Katie becomes such a big success,  Helen convinces her that Albert is keeping her back. Albert leaves but when his solo act tanks, he kills himself. His death sends Katie off  the edge and she starts drinking heavily. Disgusted, the play's producer decides to find another actress so Helen takes all her savings and buys the show for Katie. Suddenly Paul, now a successful band leader, comes back into their lives. Helen realizes she loves him but he proposes to Katie and wants her to leave before Helen destroys her. At first Katie refuses to leave her sister but later quarrels with Helen and runs out to find Paul. Helen is now alone and penniless. She dies on the riverbank without ever telling the police what made her do it.

Devotion   1946
Directed by Curtis Bernhardt
Warner Bros./First National   B/W

Lupino with Olivia De Havilland and Nancy Coleman

This picture was made before “In Our Time” but released much later so it is actually Ida's first film with actor Paul Henreid. Ida and Olivia de Havilland were very anxious to do this story so they painstakingly researched the history of the Brontes even before the script was finished. When the script arrived, both of them were very disappointed. Facts were thrown out in favor of a concocted tale of a romance that came between Charlotte and Emily, both in love with the same man. The two actresses even marched together to the front office with their complaints to no avail. But, since neither Ida and Olivia could be considered quiet or subtle, the discontent soon spread and they became known as “the de Havilland -Lupino underground movement'. The cast of fine actors assembled for this film struggled to make it memorable but they didn't have a ghost of a chance.

The story:

Novice writers Charlotte (Olivia De Havilland) and Anne Bronte (Nancy Coleman) take positions as governesses to get life experience and to earn money to send their artist brother Branwell (Arthur Kennedy) to London to study. Sister Emily (Ida Lupino) stays home to coddle her brother and take care of their vicar father and aunt. While the sisters are away, their father's new curate,Arthur Nicholls (Paul Henreid) arrives just in time to escort a drunken Branwell home from the tavern. Arthur is met with scorn at the door by sister Emily who embarrassed the next day when he comes back to meet her father. Branwell's sojourn in London proves to be very short and he comes back home blaming his sisters for his failure as a painter. When Charlotte and Anne return, it is Charlotte  who steals Arthur's heart but Emily has already fallen in love with him. When Arthur hears that Charlotte wants to take Emily to Brussels, he secretly buys one of Branwell's paintings so they have the money. It's while the sisters are in Brussels that Emily gets word that Branwell is ill and heads for home. Charlotte and Emily write their books  and when  Branwell reads them he realizes they are in love with the same man. Branwell dies before the novels are published, both under pseudonyms. While Charlotte's book “Jane Eyre” is the most popular, noted author William Makepeace Thackeray (Sydney Greenstreet) thinks Emily's work “Wuthering Heights” is the best piece of literature. Cahrlotte reconnects with Arthur in London but hurries home to find Emily at death's door. Arthur follows her.

Woman in Hiding  1949
Directed by Michael Gordon
Universal              B/W

Lupino with Irving Bacon

It was the right script at the right time and for the right price. With Filmakers in need of a financial stimulus, both Ida and hubby Collier Young agreed this film at $75,000 was a shot in the arm. The screenplay was based on James R. Webb's story “Fugitive from Terror” about a woman who's new husband plans to kill her on their honeymoon. The actor chosen to play the sympathetic stranger she turns to for help was her good friend Ronald Reagan. At that time Ida and Reagan were both liberal Democrats, staunch supporters of FDR and pals socially. But times, politics and casting calls are apt to change. Reagan, who later became Republican Governor of California and then President of the United States, didn't get the part. He had injured his thigh in a charity baseball game. So the actor who originally signed to do the murderous husband role, became the sympathetic friend instead. His name was Howard Duff.

The story:

A car plunges into the river off a bridge near Clarkville, NC but the driver decided not to go along. Deborah Chandler Clark (Lupino) is watching from the trees as her husband Seldon Clark (Stephen McNally) searches for her body. She wished now she had listened to her father, John Chandler (John Litel) when he had warned her Clark was up to no good. But John Chandler was dead, injured fatally in an accident at the mill. After his death, Deborah accepted Clark's proposal. It was at their honeymoon cabin that she realized her mistake. Waiting there was Clark's ex-girlfriend, Patricia Monahan (Peggy Dow) who told her that Clark just wanted her money. He planned to dispose of Deborah just like he disposed of her father. Deborah escapes from the cabin in her car only to find  it has no brakes. She  also knows that no one will believe her story unless she has Patricia Monahan to back her up. She takes a bus to Raleigh, SC  only to find that Patricia is out of town. So she takes a job as a waitress under the alias Ann Carter. With no body, Seldon offers a $5,000 reward for information and Deborah finds her face looking out from the newspaper. So does Keith Ramsay (Duff) and he calls Seldon.  He likes Deborah and asks her out thinking she is mentally unstable and needs his help.  But Deborah finds Patricia who turns her over to Seldon. At the mill he mistakes Patricia for Deborah and kills her instead. When Keith arrives, finally realizing the truth and that he loves Deborah, there's a fight and Seldon is killed.

The Bigamist  1953
Directed by Ida Lupino
Filmakers        B/W

Lupino and O'Brien

It was the casting of this film that raised eyebrows in Hollywood. Producer Collier Young (who also wrote the screenplay) cast his third wife Joan Fontaine in the lead role while his second wife Ida Lupino directed and costarred and his mother-in-law, Lillian Fontaine played a small role. Joan said they tried to get Louis Hayward, Ida's first husband, to play the bus driver but he refused. With this film Ida Lupino became the first woman to ever direct herself in a feature film.

The story:

Mr. Jordan smelled a rat..or at least a small mouse. The adoption agency investigator could feel the tension as he interviewed Harry Graham (Edmund O'Brien) and his wife Eve (Joan Fontaine) at their home in San Francisco. It was the expression on Harry's face that made him suspicious. The next day Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) checked Harry's other office in Los Angeles where he also does business and finds that none of the hotels list him as a guest.  At the LA sales office Jordan notices a letter opener with the name “Harrison Graham” so he  looks up the name and address in the phone book. At the address listed he finds Harry with another wife and baby. Jordan listened as Harry explained about his double life.  It all began when when Eve found out she couldn't have children and began to spend all her time with their home-freezer business. Then one Sunday night in LA while taking a bus tour of the movie stars homes he met Phyllis (Lupino) and they have dinner at the restaurant where she works. Back home, Harry reminds Eve they have had very little time together and they need a vacation away but Eve is too tired to listen. On his return to LA he meets up with Phyllis again and, on his birthday, they spend the night together. Unfortunately, now Harry is in love with two women. When he gets back home, he finds Eve packing to go to Florida where her father has had a heart attack. She tells him she's sorry for her behavior and when she gets back they can adopt a child. But when she is gone for longer than she planned, Harry goes back to Phyllis and, finding her pregnant, proposes marriage and she accepts. When he gets home, Harry finds out Eve has begun adoption proceedings. Jordan listens to the story but instead of calling the police, he leaves. Harry decides to come clean and leaves a note for each of his wives before turning himself in to the police. In the courtroom, the judge tells him he has probably lost both wives and, as they look on, Harry is led away.