Ida Lupino Movies

Daniel Mainwaring took this story right out of the headlines of the day, penning this true story of a mass murderer who was eventually executed in San Quentin's gas chamber. Released during McCarthy's witch-hunt, Mainwaring was not given credit because Howard R. Hughes, who produced it under RKO, refused to give credit to any "radicals." The story is that of two men on a fishing trip who pick up a hitchhiker. He turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who has committed multiple murders, a sociopath who hates humanity because of his own abuse as a child. He also has an affliction which terrifies these two men: an eye which is permanently open, thereby never allowing them to know if he is really asleep or just faking it--something which he does with regularity to scare them...letting them take off and then meeting up with them just as they feel they have escaped from him. A tense thriller skillfully directed by the only female director of the time, Ida Lupino, it is a suspenseful tale of terror on the highways. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the stage thriller The Man (itself based upon a half-hour radio drama), Beware My Lovely is a taut suspenser tailor-made for the talents of Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan. Lupino plays a pretty widow who impulsively hires handyman Ryan to look after her house. She soon learns Ryan is a dangerous schizophrenic, but by the time she comes to this realization she is unable to escape her house. The tension mounts apace, leading to an unexpected but quite logical finale. Produced by Lupino's then-husband Collier Young, Beware My Lovely was released by RKO Radio. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ida Lupino, one of the few major Hollywood actresses to move from the sound stage to the director's chair in the 1940s and 1950s, helmed this story about a mother's obsessive drive to see her daughter succeed. Florence Farley (Sally Forrest) is a young woman with a tremendous gift as a tennis player, and her mother Milly (Claire Trevor) is determined to see Florence make the most of her talents. However, Milly's greatest concern isn't with her daughter's happiness or well-being, but with her own financial success, and when Milly begins interfering with Florence's romance with Gordon McKay (Robert Clarke), the daughter begins to rebel against her mother. Director Lupino and actor Robert Ryan both make cameo appearances as spectators at a tennis match. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Young Lovers is the more familiar title of a 1950 drama originally released as Never Fear. Sally Forrest plays a beautiful young dancer who is crippled with polio. Forrest's dance partner Keefe Brasselle wants to see her through her illness, but the embittered Forrest prefers to be alone. Only by allowing others to share her grief is Forrest able to pull herself together and go on with her life. Though The Young Lovers is listed as Ida Lupino's directorial debut, she'd previously helmed Not Wanted (49) (also starring Forrest and Brasselle) when official director Elmer Clifton fell ill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer/director S. Sylvan Simon, a man usually associated with comedies and musicals, turned out a rip-roaring western melodrama when he aimed his sights at Lust for Gold. Most of the film is told in flashback, relating the exploits of Jacob Walz (Glenn Ford), the greedy, homicidal owner of the legendary Lost Dutchman Mine. After conniving and killing his way to success, Walz is destroyed when he falls in love with equally mercenary Julia Thomas (Ida Lupino at her nasty best). The film returns to the Present, as a descendant of Walz tries to locate the mine--and endangers his own life in the process. Most of the action highlights in Lust for Gold would turn up as stock footage in future Columbia productions, including an episode of TV's Captain Midnight. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Widmark plays the borderline-psycho owner of a combination road house and bowling alley. Widmark's singer, Ida Lupino, begins exhibiting an interest in his manager, Cornel Wilde. To get even with Wilde, Widmark frames him on a robbery charge, then has the unlucky fellow released in his custody. The sadistic Widmark takes every opportunity to flaunt his control over Conte, but this only serves to deepen the relationship between Wilde and Lupino. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play and novel by Margaret Kennedy, Escape Me Never is a remake of the same-named 1935 British film. Largely set in Italy, the story concerns the relationship between poverty-stricken musician Sebastian Dunbrok (Errol Flynn) and unwed mother Gemma Smith (Ida Lupino). Suspecting that her fiancé, Caryl (Gig Young), Sebastian's brother, is the father of Gemma's child, young heiress Fennella McLean (Eleanor Parker) retreats to the Italian Alps. Attempting to straighten out the situation, Sebastian finds himself falling in love with Fennella. For his brother's sake, Sebastian breaks off the relationship and marries Gemma, but while awaiting the birth of her child, he writes a heartfelt ballet score dedicated to Fennella. However, when Gemma's baby dies, the conscience-stricken Sebastian changes the dedication to his wife, whom he has learned to genuinely love. The main redeeming feature of this treacly soap opera is the stirring musical score by Erich Wolfgang Korngold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Yes, even Ida Lupino occasionally starred in screwball comedies during the 1930s and 1940s. Pillow to Post casts Lupino as free-spirited travelling saleswoman Jane Howard, who has trouble finding suitable lodgings during the wartime housing shortage. In order to secure a room at a motor camp catering exclusively to married servicemen, Jane pretends to be the wife of hapless young lieutenant Don Mallory (William Prince). Misunderstanding piles upon misunderstanding, and before long poor Mallory is facing a general court-martial. While Lupino pushes the envelope a bit in the leading role, the film's comedy content is also in the capable hands of Sidney Greenstreet, Stu Erwin and Willie Best. Pillow to Post is adapted from a stage play by Rose Simon Kohn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

More a romantic melodrama than the uplifting propaganda piece the producers perhaps envisioned, In Our Time stars Ida Lupino as Jennifer Whittredge, a young antique buyer marrying a Polish count, Stephan Orvid (Paul Henried), after a whirlwind romance in a Warsaw at the brink of World War II. The count's old-fashioned family in general and his aristocratic uncle (Victor Francen) in particular resist the union, but Jennifer brings a breath of fresh air and a sense of good Anglo-Saxon values into the stagnant rooms of the Orvid estate and soon the farm is prosperous once again. When the German military might finally enters Poland, Jennifer and Stephan join the country's scorched earth defense by burning both their property and are soon among the refugees waiting for the day when Poland is once again free from Fascism. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Practically everybody on the Warner Bros. lot shows up in the wartime morale-boosting musical extravaganza Thank Your Lucky Stars. Believe it or not, this one has a wisp of a plot. A pair of enterprising producers, played by S.Z. Sakall and Edward Everett Horton, want to hire singer Dinah Shore for their upcoming Cavalcade of Stars. Unfortunately, this means they must deal with Shore's boss, radio comedian Eddie Cantor. The egotistical Cantor insists upon joining the show himself, driving everyone crazy with his take-charge attitude. Meanwhile, singer Dennis Morgan, hoodwinked by a crooked agent into thinking he's signed a contract with Cantor, shows up backstage at Sakall and Horton's rehearsal, only to be given the boot. While all this is going on, aspiring actress Joan Leslie has befriended a bus driver named Joe Simpson--who happens to be a dead ringer for Eddie Cantor (and why not? Ol' "Banjo Eyes" plays both parts). Turns out that Joe is another showbiz wannabe, but he has been denied a break because he looks too much like Cantor. You see what's comin' now, right, folks? Morgan and Leslie will get their big breaks when Joe Simpson impersonates Eddie Cantor, who's been kidnapped by Indians (bet you didn't see that one coming!) All of this expository nonsense is merely an excuse to show off Warners' talent roster in a series of engaging specialty numbers: John Garfield talk-sings Blues in the Night, Jack Carson and Alan Hale do a buck-and-wing, a jitterbug number is performed by Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland and George Tobias, Hattie McDaniel and Willie Best strut their stuff in Ice Cold Katie, and so on. Highlights include Errol Flynn's That's What You Jolly Well Get, an English music hall-style sendup of Flynn's movie heroics, and Bette Davis' peerless (and endearingly off-key) rendition of They're Either too Young or Too Old. As a bonus, Humphrey Bogart shows up long enough to be browbeaten and intimidated by S.Z. Sakall ("Gee, I hope none of my movie fans see this!" moans Bogart as the soundtrack plays a mocking rendition of Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?) Subtle and sophisticated it isn't, but Thank Your Lucky Stars is so entertaining that you'll forget all about its multitude of flaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this dark drama an iron-willed older sister forcibly thrusts her only modestly talented younger sister into a Broadway career. She does this to desperately try to keep her little sis from falling into the same small-town trap of marriage to a dull working-stiff and endless hours of taking care of babies and household drudgery. The bigger sister gets her chance when two handsome vaudevillians come to town. Seeing that one of the fellows eyes her younger sibling, the elder connives to get the two together. The scheme works and the smitten performer dumps his long-time partner in exchange for a career with his new love. That might have been hunky dory, but the ambitious big sister wants more for her sister and convinces her to become a solo act. So upset is the jilted partner that he commits suicide. Still the big sister refuses to stop pushing until finally the younger girl gets fed up and rebels in a bitter confrontation that only results in more tragedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a has-been stage thespian finds that his alcoholism is ruining his life. When his daughter, a cripple, attempts to show her concern, he rebuffs her with his cruel, razor sharp witticism. His drinking and cynicism continue to increase, but, through it all, his daughter stands steadfastly beside him until her heart is stolen away by a handsome composer. He begins helping her to convince the theatrical community that her father is still a talented actor. Meanwhile, the father, thinking the composer will take his daughter away, remains suspicious of the young man's motives. Finally, after working in a series of odd jobs, the old man lands the lead in King Lear where he is a smash. He then renews a relationship with a wealthy old girlfriend. Meanwhile, the young couple also begin their relationship in earnest. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The fifth film version of Jack London's The Sea Wolf stars Edward G. Robinson as "premature fascist" Wolf Larsen. The captain of the scavenger ship Ghost, Larsen is a heartless tyrant who can tolerate no sign of weakness in anyone. "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" is Larsen's philosophy (borrowed from the character of Satan in Milton's Paradise Lost), and accordingly he reigns over his hellish vessel in true satanic fashion. Idealistic writer Humphrey Van Weyden (Alexander Knox) and fugitive from justice Ruth Webster (Ida Lupino) are picked up by the Ghost when their ferryboat capsizes. Realizing that their chances of getting off the boat alive are nil, Van Weyden and Ruth conspire with embittered cabin boy Leach (John Garfield) to escape. They drift in a small open boat for days, only to return to the Ghost, which has apparently been scuttled by the mutinous crew. Larsen has gone blind, but refuses to allow his crew to learn this fact, forcing Van Weyden at gunpoint to perpetuate the illusion that Larsen can still see. Ultimately, the Ghost sinks beneath the waves, carrying Larsen and Van Weyden to their doom ("This is the end of Superman!" cries Van Weyden as the ocean envelops him); Ruth and Leach manage to save themselves, rowing toward the safety of a nearby island -- and hopefully escaping to a new life. The 1941 Sea Wolf would not be the last cinematic adaptation of London's novel; multiple versions have since been produced for both film and television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide