Ida Lupino: Actress, Director, Producer, Writer & Hollywood Rebel

When Ida began directing the studio put a man's name in the credits. She was the 1st woman to direct a film noir. Stephen King says her episodes of THRILLER make that show the best horror TV show.

Ida Lupino's Twilight Zone: How a film pioneer became the TV show's only female director: 

   In the late 1940's through the 1950's there was only one female director. She raised the money herself to make films, becoming the only woman to direct a film noir THE HITCH HIKER and do subjects no major studio would dare do, OUTRAGE about a rape and what happens after from a woman’s perspective!

Like Orson Welles, she often did film and TV work as an actor to pay for her movies. So advanced was her work, that the first two films she directed the studio put a man's name on them as they just couldn't believe audiences and critics would accept a female director. 

Quote: There was no place for women directors in 1940s and 50s Hollywood, but that didn’t stop Ida Lupino. Long before John Cassavetes, Lupino – born in London 100 years ago – blazed a trail for fearless, independent filmmakers.

Part of an acting dynasty that could be traced back hundreds of years, she made her big-screen break courtesy of director Allan Dwan, who cast the 14-year-old actress in his 1932 film, Her First Affaire, made at Warner Bros’ British studios at Teddington.

'Guillotine' (Thriller S2 E2):

Her subsequent path to Hollywood stardom with the likes of High Sierra (1941) and On Dangerous Ground (1951) was hardly straightforward, with Lupino fighting all and sundry to break out of roles she thought beneath her considerable talents.

Suspended from studio contracts, Lupino turned her hand to directing, forming a production company known as The Filmakers [sic] with then-husband, writer-producer Collier Young.

The Hitch-Hiker (Lupino, 1953):

  It’s impossible to underestimate Lupino’s achievements as director in the four years The Filmakers was in business. The Senses of Cinema profile on Lupino notes that between 1943 and 1949 there wasn’t a single film directed by a woman in Hollywood.

Uncompromising in her vision “to make pictures of a sociological nature… to tackle serious themes and problem dramas,” Lupino would shoot on the streets of Los Angeles for a pittance, before making a break into self-distribution.

If ever there was a precursor to the independents who would emerge with John Cassavetes in the late 1950s, it was the movie star whose greatest contribution to film history lay behind the camera. Unquote. More at this link:

BFI On Ida Lupino

Four Star Playhouse | Ida Lupino in "The Stand-In:  

  'WHAT BECKONING GHOST?' (Thriller S02 E1):

  Quote: “I see myself, in the years ahead, directing or producing or both. I see myself developing new talent, which would be furiously interesting for me. For I love talent. Love to watch it. Love to help it. Am more genuinely interested in the talent of others than I am in my own.”

—Ida Lupino in a 1945 fan magazine interview

In a heartfelt 1995 New York Times tribute to Ida Lupino (1918–95), Martin Scorsese called her “a woman of extraordinary talents, and one of those talents was directing. Her tough, glowingly emotional work as an actress is well remembered, but her considerable accomplishments as a filmmaker are largely forgotten and they shouldn’t be. The five films she directed between 1949 and 1953 are remarkable chamber pieces that deal with challenging subjects in a clear, almost documentary fashion, and they represent a singular achievement in American cinema.” That singular achievement, realized by Lupino under the banner of her independent production company The Filmakers, has earned some appreciation since, thanks to restorations rescuing her two most acclaimed features from the dupe-print clutches of the public-domain netherworld: the spare, stinging noir The Hitch-Hiker (1953) was selected for preservation by the United States National Film Registry in 1998, while The Bigamist (1953) has been preserved by UCLA (and Scorsese’s Film Foundation). Now regarded as minor classics, these two were also Lupino’s personal favorites. Unquote. Read more here:

The mother of cinema: Ida Lupino

Outrage 1950:  

Outrage is a 1950 black-and-white B-movie starring Mala Powers. It was directed by Ida Lupino. Lupino also co-wrote the script, along with the producers Malvin Wald and Lupino's then-husband Collier Young.

Outrage, the first starring film role for Powers, was both controversial and remarkable for being only the second post-Code Hollywood film to deal with the issue of rape, after Johnny Belinda (1948).

In his review, Richard Brody of The New Yorker glowingly lauded the film and Lupino's direction saying,

Lupino turns prudish Hollywood conventions into a crucial part of the story: just as the word "rape" is never spoken in the movie, Ann is prevented from talking about her experience, and, spurred by the torment of her enforced silence and the trauma that shatters her sense of identity, she runs away from home. Lupino's drama blends Ann's story with an incisive view of the many societal failures that contribute to the crime—including the unwillingness of the legal system to face the prevalence of rape. Above all, Lupino depicts a culture of leers and wolf whistles and domineering boyfriends, and reveals the widespread and unquestioned aggression that women face in ostensibly consensual courtship and that's ultimately inseparable from the violence that Ann endures.

Screen Directors Playhouse s1e16 No 5 Checked Out, Colorized, Teresa Wright, Peter Lorre:  

  Ida Lupino - Documentary:  

Behind the paywall: THE BIGAMIST Ida Lupino becomes the first woman director to direct herself!

"The Bigamist" (1953) is a film noir drama that follows the story of Harry, a man leading a double life with two wives in different cities. As a salesman constantly on the road, he manages to keep his two families unaware of each other. The film unfolds as he faces the consequences of his actions when a private investigator becomes involved. Tension rises as the truth threatens to unravel his carefully constructed world, exploring themes of deception, identity, and the moral complexities of love and commitment.