Ida Lupino, forgotten auteur

Ida Lupino, forgotten auteur From film noir to the director's chair

Alexandra Seros

Book - 2024

"The acting career of legendary star Ida Lupino is well known, but there has been little analysis of her directorial career. She was one of the few female directors in Classical Hollywood and the only one with membership in the Directors Guild of America between 1948 and 1971. Like Orson Welles, her career was notable in transitioning from acting to directing first in film and then in television, in addition to helping to create and run the production company The Filmakers [sic]. Her films were notably about women navigating difficult positions in society, dealing with controversial issues such as rape and bigamy. Nevertheless, she was the first female director of a noir film, The Hitch-Hiker, which is a suspenseful tale of two motoris...ts taken hostage by a serial killer in the Southwest. Alexandra Seros, a filmmaker herself, examines Lupino's career with a focus on her directorial roles and how she navigated this as a woman, as well as a wife and mother, in male-dominated Hollywood. She explains how Lupino began directing and formed The Filmakers before providing a close analysis of three of her films (Not Wanted, Never Fear, and the aforementioned The Hitch-Hiker) and examining how she navigated the shooting and negotiated with the censors to be able to tell the stories she wanted to tell. Seros then details Lupino's transition to television and her taking the director's reins in that medium as well. Lupino directed episodes in a wide variety of genres, but specialized in Westerns and thrillers. Even as the press and the studios tried to focus on her femininity as a dutiful wife and loving mother, she often refused to play along and be coded as feminine in this way. Seros analyzes three of Lupino's directed episodes, comparing them with similar work done by noted male directors Nicholas Ray, Robert Aldrich, and Alfred Hitchcock, stressing Lupino's efficient, effective work in finishing the shows on time and within budget. She finishes by arguing that Lupino was a new kind or auteur, whose collaborative "family" approach to filmmaking was far ahead of its time"--

Saved in:
Place a Hold Save to List Email this

2nd Floor New Shelf Show me where

791.43028092/Lupino
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor New Shelf 791.43028092/Lupino (NEW SHELF) Checked In
Subjects
Lupino, Ida, > 1918-1995.
Filmakers, Inc. (Hollywood, Calif.)
Women motion picture producers and directors > United States > Biography.
Women television producers and directors > United States > Biography.
Motion picture actors and actresses > United States > Biography.
Film noir > Production and direction > Case studies.
Thrillers (Television programs) > Production and direction > Case studies.
Productrices et réalisatrices de cinéma > États-Unis > Biographies.
Biographies.
Genres
Biographies
Published
Austin : University of Texas Press 2024.
Language
English
Main Author
Alexandra Seros (author)
Edition
First edition
Physical Description
xvi, 240 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-225) and index.
ISBN
9781477330654
  • Preface. The Authenticity of a Fragment
  • Introduction. Ambiguity and Paradox in Ida Lupino
  • Part I. Auteur-in-Waiting
  • Chapter 1. A Star Study
  • Chapter 2. Certain Women of Post-World War II
  • Chapter 3. Six Movies, Five Years
  • Part II. Case Studies: Three Independent Films
  • Chapter 4. Not Wanted
  • Chapter 5. Never Fear
  • Chapter 6. The Hitch-Hiker
  • Part III. Television
  • Chapter 7. Lupino and Early Television
  • Chapter 8. Across Media with Ray, Aldrich, and Hitchcock
  • Chapter 9. Patterns and Strategies in Lupino's Television Directing
  • Conclusion. Lupinian Collaboration, the New Auteurism
  • Acknowledgments
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Illustration Credits
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Seros (independent scholar) analyzes creative work and archival material to develop a complex portrait of Ida Lupino, an actor, director, writer, and producer. Part 1 details the case for Lupino as an auteur, considering her directing style, common themes in her films, her work with other Hollywood figures, and the movies produced at her production company. Part 2 presents both an overarching view and nuanced considerations of Lupino's directing by assessing three of her films: Not Wanted (1949), Never Fear (1949), and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Each of these films highlights Lupino's choice to center complicated social issues and questions in her narratives. Part 3 turns to Lupino's work in television; her broadcast collaborations with Nicholas Ray, Robert Aldrich, and Alfred Hitchcock; and the expression of her episodic directing style. Seros argues that Lupino's steadfast style, skill, and collaborations across her career define her as a true film auteur, though one who has been criminally overlooked in cinema history. Seros also excellently frames Lupino and her work within the larger context of feminist criticism and a historically male-dominated Hollywood studio system. This book would mostly be of interest to faculty or students in film studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates through faculty. --Eric Jeitner, Stockton University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Screenwriter Seros debuts with a discerning reevaluation of the directorial career of Ida Lupino (1918--1995), an actor known for her femme fatale roles before she stepped behind the camera in the late 1940s. Seros presents Lupino as an underappreciated pioneer, arguing that her founding of the independent production company the Filmakers, which backed the six movies she directed between 1948 and 1953, put her "at the heart of the independent film movement." Those six films were daring for tackling taboo issues affecting women, Seros contends, discussing how Lupino had to "tone down the melodrama" to secure the Production Code Administration's approval for Outrage, about a young woman's rape. Pushing back against feminist critics who have faulted Lupino's movies for their conservative endings, Seros posits that the films actually contain overlooked subtleties, pointing out that though Hard, Fast and Beautiful concludes with teenage tennis phenom Florence Farley happily forgoing a sports career for marriage, the final shot of Florence's mother--who sacrificed so that her daughter might enjoy the financial independence from men she never did--sitting alone with Florence's trophy sounds a bittersweet note. Seros's nuanced takes on Lupino's films and legacy reveal the frustrating strictures of the male-dominated mid-century film industry while making a strong case that her oeuvre deserves critical reappraisal. It's an overdue celebration of an overlooked trailblazer. (Dec.)

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review

Screenwriter Seros focuses her on the directorial career of actor Lupino (1918--95), whose output was too frequently overlooked in an industry dominated by men in the postwar U.S. Using themes that combatted stereotypes and anticipated feminism (and also concerned with the parallel plights of marginalized men and women), Lupino's own company produced films with ambiguous rather than uplifting conclusions. A self-reliant, pioneering director, writer, and producer, the estimable Lupino chose to work on socially conscious topics within the confines of the Production Code Administration, often using low-budget Hollywood "Poverty Row" films to do so. Among the movies she directed are Unwanted (1949), about unwed pregnancy; Never Fear (1950), about polio; Outrage (1950), about rape; and the noirish The Hitch-Hiker (1953), her most successful and her personal favorite. Lupino also directed TV, which allowed the mother and wife a better work-home balance. She produced episodes of Western, comedy, mystery, suspense, and gangster series (including the only woman-directed episode of The Twilight Zone). She was quick to acknowledge the directors who influenced her, like Hitchcock, and she influenced others in turn: Clint Eastwood said it was Lupino who showed him that an actor could also direct. VERDICT This academically written and accessible contribution to film history should please a wide range of readers.--Frederick J. Augustyn Jr.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Similar Items