UCLA to show film series on pioneer director, actress Ida Lupino
By Azadeh Faramand
Oct. 17, 2002 9:00 p.m.
In a male dominated Hollywood, where women active on both sides
of the camera are still scarce in numbers, there was an Ida Lupino
who managed to act, direct, write, and produce films within the
Hollywood studio system as early as the ’40s.
The UCLA Film and Television Archive’s film series
“Ida Lupino:Â Hard, Fast and Beautiful” commences
Oct. 19 in the UCLA James Bridges Theater. The series
showcases a rare collection of cinematic features that Lupino
directed together with a number of films in which she gave star
performances under the direction of some of Hollywood’s best
talents.
Born in England, Lupino came to Hollywood as an actress in her
teens upon the invitation of Paramount Studios. She was only
18 when her performance in 1939’s “The Light that
Failed” brought her into the spotlight. Then followed a
number of starring roles that added to her delicate beauty a
no-nonsense, tough dame persona.
For Andrea Alsberg, the archive programming co-head and curator
of the series, the title of the series (also a Lupino film),
captures Lupino’s personality reflected both in her acting
and direction.
“She was small and petite, but she could do tough very
well,” Alsberg said.
The yin and yang of “hard” and
“beautiful” are complemented by “fast,”
which best describes her swift approach to directorial
work.Â
“She directed really quickly and under budget,”
Alsberg said. “It helped her reputation in terms of
getting other films to make because at that time she was the only
woman directing and people did not trust that she could
direct…”
Lupino was not credited for her directorial debut in “Not
Wanted” which she took over when the film’s credited
director suffered a mild heart attack three days before the start
of the shoot.
Made for only $153,000, “Not Wanted” grossed one
million dollars in its first year, thus boosting investor’s
confidence in Lupino’s direction and setting the stage for
“The Filmmakers,” a production company co-founded by
Lupino, Collier Young (her second husband), and producer and
screenwriter Malvin Wald.
With “Outrage” in 1949, Lupino directed one of the
first American films dealing with the issue of rape.Â
“In that time we were not even allowed to call it
“˜rape,’ it was called “˜criminal
assault,'” said Mala Powers, who was the star of
“Outrage.” “We had to be so careful with the
censorship department.”
In the films she directed, Lupino primarily explored socially or
physically afflicted characters whose surroundings she aimed to
create in a realistic manner. “Never Fear” featured a
character with polio, a stigmatized disease which Lupino herself
had contracted. She avoided rendering moral judgment on
characters normally condemned in the society. In “The
Bigamist,” the man with two wives was portrayed as unhappy
and confused rather than a villain to be indicted.
Lupino’s woks were later criticized as not being feminist
enough. For Alsberg, this is a retrospective interpretation of
Lupino’s works emerging with feminist criticism in the
’70s.
“She was the only woman directing at a time that was the
post-war period where women who had been working during the war
couldn’t work any more,” Alsberg said. “So my
sense is that you’ve got to applaud her for being able to do
anything, let alone (directing seven) very interesting
films.”
The effectiveness of Lupino’s directorial touch can also
be traced to her acting career.
“She was this enormous talent. She was very
perceptive,” Powers said. “Because she was an actress,
she was inwardly acting along with you, even from behind the
camera.”
The Archive will showcase films of another female director,
Dorothy Arzner, in January.
Sally Forrest, Malvin Wald and Mala Powers will be present at
various screenings. For more info log on to www.cinema.ucla.edu or
call 310-206-8013.
