If Samuel Fuller has a female counterpart it would have been Ida Lupino. A pioneering female filmmaker, she carved out her own world out of a raw cinematic wilderness . She took instead of waiting to have someone or some male hand it to her. To me she was a stock actor in Hollywood and it was all that she was . But her own movies should not obscure Ida Lupino the actress. She knew how to play routine roles and play them well. But there are a few occasions when she had an out-of-the-ordinary part, and then she was riveting.
In the Hollywood of the forties and fifties, women directors (with the exception of Dorothy Arzner) did not exist. Ida Lupino, daughter of Birtish musical legend Stanley Lupino was the exception. On screen she consistently presented compelling performance in films like High Sierra and They Drive By Night. Bu in the late ’40s, as a result of a lull in her career as a result of a studio suspension director, she searched for what she called “interesting work” with her then husband Collier Young she formed “The Filmakers”, then she went to work making socially relevant exploitation fare.
She initially just produced films like , Young Widow and The Judge . The Filmakers Company began work on the film “Not Wanted” its director Elmer Clifton suffered a near fatal heart attack on the third day of filming. Ida Lupino lunged at the opportunity to take his place behind the camera took and in the golden Hollywood tradition of the show must go on the filming continued.
Between 1949 through 1953, Ida Lupino directed six movies, a noir-ish collection of morality tales of films. Made for small budgets Lupino transcended her budget limitation by giving the audience raw stories and transcendant camera movement. Lupino abandoned Hollywood glamour, for her subjects were common people—door to door salesmen, short order cooks and long shoremen. Her character brush revealed masterful direction of subjects that Hollywood often would ignore.
Lupino continued acting over the next here decades, and her directing efforts during these years were all her directorial efforts were on such wildly diverse TV shows as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Donna Reed Show, Gilligan’s Island, 77 Sunset Strip, The Investigators, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Rifleman, The Virginian, Batman, Sam Benedict, Bonanza, The Untouchables, The Fugitive, Columbo, Family Affair, and Bewitched.
Lupino often joked that if she had been the “poor man’s Bette Davis” as an actress, then she had become the “poor man’s Don Siegel” as a director
After battling cancer, Ida Lupino died on August 3, 1995, in Burbank, California.
A Lupino Timeline
1914:Born 4 February in London, UK, daughter of famed British comedian Stanley Lupino
1933:Supporting role in the British film Her First Affaire. Arrives in the US
1934:American debut in Search for Beauty
1938:Marries Louis Hayward
1939:Appears in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & The Light That Failed
1940:Appears in They Drive by Night
1942:Appears in Moontide
1944:Appears in In Our Time
1945:Divorces Hayward
1946:Appears in Devotion
1948: Appears in Road House. Marries Collier Young
1949: Makes her (uncredited) directing debut with Not Wanted
1951:Divorces Young. Marries Howard Duff. 1 daughter, Bridget Duff
1952: Works both behind and in front of the screen for TV, a regular on Four Star Playhouse
1953:Directs The Bigamist in which she plays support, the only time she directs herself. Directs her best movie, The Hitch-Hiker
1979:Retires from film and TV
1984:Divorces Duff
1995:Dies of a stroke while battling colon cancer on 3 August in Los Angeles

If you have some thoughts to share about this article or you’d like to discuss B movies with other B movie fans and filmmakers please visit our B Movie Nation Facebook group.