Buttram-1 T. Buttram Mr. Matthews Reading the Movies- 4 th period 17 January 2014 Changing Hollywood Hollywood has been known as a man s world. This was especially true in the 1950 s. Most movies were made about men by men with only a few women in supporting roles. This does not have to be the way of Hollywood though. In 1950, an actress named Ida Lupino began trying to change Hollywood by directing her own movies. Though Ida Lupino was discriminated against due to gender and had little resources to produce films, she was still able to change Hollywood out of its male territory. Ida Lupino s personal life affected her directing career. Ida was born in 1918 in London, England. From the moment she was born she had show business coursing through her blood. Her father was a comedian and her mother was an actress. Along with her parent s generations before were known as traveling puppeteers and other backgrounds in show business (Flint). Due to her family inspirations, she started acting at a young age. She was thirteen when she moved to the United States and was in her first movie. She played minor roles in till she was in The Light That Failed in 1939 (Schuck). She continued being in movies in till she started directing in1950. Ida Lupino was married three times. Her second husband, Collier Young was a screenplay writer for most of her movies. Even after their divorce they still remained friends and business partners (Flint). This lifelong passion for show business made Ida an even better candidate to change
Buttram-2 Hollywood. Along with Ida s personal life, the time period played a role in her situation in Hollywood. The time period made success for Ida Lupino difficult. Ida s directing career first began in 1950. At this time in the United States gender roles were tightly defined. It was known that the man s job was to work and be the bread earner of the family. While it was the women s job to stay at home to cook and clean. This ideology is carried into the Hollywood world as well. Men were the main workers in Hollywood. Men seemed to be the main feature of the film and the only ones making the films. Even major producing companies seemed resistant to the idea that a women could successfully direct a movie and because of this turned down many of Ida s ideas (Schuck). Though most people probably would have given up, instead Ida persevered and decided she was going to change things around Hollywood. Ida Lupino first realized there was more to show business then acting in 1949.She received her first opportunity to a direct a film when she filled for an ill director, Elmer Clinton on the set of Not Wanted (Schuck). Ida learned from this experience that directing movies is what she wanted to do to further her entertaining career. From this she took matters into her own as she said, it wasn t enough be an actress, sitting around on set waiting for something to do (Schuck). From there she started her own directing company along with the help of her husband at the time, Collier Young. This company was known as Filmakers (Schuck). This company was on a very low budget and was only able to film in low budget studios. Even with an extremely low budget there still must be actors and actresses in the film. This is where Ida Lupino had an advantage that most low budget directors don t have. Since Ida had been an actress she had many friends in the business. So to have the best acting in her movies she got her friends to act in the movies for free if she would share some of her profit with them later(schuck). With all the
Buttram-3 aspects against her she stayed determined by saying, "I study and work hard. I take a script and mull over it and underline the bits I want to emphasize. When I go on the set, I know exactly what I want to do and how I want to do it" (Flint). Ida used all the factors against her and was still able to work hard and produce master pieces as the second women in Hollywood to ever direct a movie (Schuck).Ida Lupino s ability to overcome these obstacles can be seen in each of her movies. The Hitch-Hiker was a highly renowned Ida Lupino movie. The Hitch-Hiker starts out in an ominous fashion by flashing a few brief words such as, This is a true story of a man and a gun and a car. The gun belonged to the man. The car might have been yours -- or that young couple's across the aisle. What you will see in the next seventy minutes could have happened to you. For the facts are actual." (The Hitch-Hiker). The movie continues to be about two guys, Gilbert and Roy, good friends who are taking a fishing trip for the weekend. On the way they see a man whom they think is a stranded motorist. They decide to let him hitch a ride. This was a mistake due to the fact that this man is actually the serial killer, Emmett Myers. Emmett fits under the normal assumption of a serial killer seeing as he never lets his gun out of his hand. Lupino uses dark shadows throughout the movie to intensify the creepiness and the suspense of the killer and situation in general. This movie happened to be Ida Lupino s favorite out of the seven movies she directed (Schuck). Along with directing the hitch hiker she also directed shortly after The Bigamist. The Bigamist, another Ida Lupino movie with a different approach then The Hitch-Hiker. The Bigamist starts out with a man and his wife trying to adopt a child at an adoption center. When the agency worker starts to look into the man s life, Harry Graham, he realizes that everything is not quite right. Harry is a traveling business man who seems to be spending a lot of
Buttram-4 time in San Francisco. After the agent travels down to San Francisco and finds his address in the phone book.he shows up and learns the truth behind Harry Graham s life. Harry Graham is living a double life. His first wife, Eve is a busy business woman who became bitter after the discovery that she was barren. Her lifestyle made Harry feel so lonely that he looked for comfort in Phyllis, a waitress working in San Francisco. Harry and Phyllis start having an affair which leads to Phyllis becoming pregnant. Once Harry realizes this, he does what he thinks is honorable and marries Phyllis. He plans to divorce Eve but her father passes away right as he is going to and he doesn t want to break her heart anymore. This is how Harry Graham gets his double life and becomes the bigamist. In society of 1950 and even into today s society having multiple spouses is looked down upon especially when the spouses do not know of each other s existence. This movie does a good job of painting the picture of Harry Graham not as a villain but a man who simply made a mistake. As Harry tells the story of his lonely life has a traveling salesman, the audience can truly understand and feel for Harry. He had no family and is wife is extremely bitter and business like. Eve s bitterness and need to distract herself from her reality pushed Harry a way. He felt so lonely that he could not bear it so he made a mistake in having an affair with Phyllis. When Phyllis becomes pregnant instead of abandoning her, which many men would, he tries to be honorable and marry her and provide for her and the baby. This movie shows the bigamist more as a victim who honestly loved both women and just wanted to make everything right. This is a different point of view then most of society and it was successful in changing perspectives that people previously judged (Kalat). Both The Hitch-Hiker and The Bigamist covered serious issues while Ida Lupino s The Trouble with Angels is more relaxed. A more comical and laid back movie is the Trouble with Angels. This movie is about two high school girls, Mary and Rachel who are starting school and an all-girls Catholic boarding
Buttram-5 school. The girls meet on the first day of school and instantly become best friends. Together they come up with several pranks against the nuns or sisters of the school and are constantly getting them self s in some kind of trouble. Even though Mary is the main instigator she eventually sees the kindness behind the nuns and becomes more accepting to them and the rest of the school. This movie was a definite success and was according to a movie review, Ida Lupino's skillful direction confidently treads the dangerous path between farce and pious melodrama, and consistently draws the most from every key scene."(landazuri). This movie was the last movie Ida Lupino ever directed. It was filmed in 1966 which was thirteen years after her previous directed movie and was not made with the film studio founded by her and Collier Young. This movie was a funnier movie that did not have to deal with as serious topics has her previous movies had. This movie also has a cast of only girls. There are only a few brief scenes will males in them but all of the major characters in this film are female. Again most of Hollywood even to this day included majority male actors and directors. The fact that this movie is directed by a woman and is about women with all women actresses says something about Ida Lupino s work. Ida Lupino help to break down a wall in Hollywood and allow for more women to be included in the movie process. Ida Lupino faced many struggles in her directing career but was able to work through them and change Hollywood. Her early life and family background helped to get her into her acting career. From there she eventually became bored of just acting and made her own film company and start directing her own movies. She never let the facts of her gender or low budget stop her from making successful movies. Out of the seven movies she directed some these included The Hitch-Hiker, The Bigamist, and The Trouble with Angels. Each of these movies was created in their own way and specifically showed her style in them. Overall, Ida Lupino was able
Buttram-6 to leave her mark on Hollywood. This was not just a successful step for her but for women in general.
Buttram-7 Works Cited The Bigamist. Dir. Ida Lupino. Screenplay by Collier Young. Filmakers, 1953. Flint, Peter B. "Ida Lupino, Film Actress and Director, Is Dead at 77." The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Aug. 1995. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/1995/08/05/obituaries/ida-lupino-film-actress-and-director-is-dead-at- 77.html>. The Hitch-Hiker. Dir. Ida Lupino. Screenplay by Collier Young. Filmakers, 1953. Kalat, David. "The Bigamist (1953)." Turner Classic Movies. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/68744/the-bigamist/articles.html>. Landazuri, Margarita. "The Trouble With Angels." Turner Classic Movies. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article.html?ispreview=&id=161256 35942&name=The- Trouble-with-Angels>. Schuck, Brian. "There's No Such Thing as a Free Ride." Films From Beyond the Time Barrier: Hitch- Hiker ;( 1953). 30 May 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2014. <http://filmsfrombeyond.blogspot.com/search/label/hitch-hiker; The (1953)>. The Trouble with Angels. Dir. Ida Lupino. Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1966.