Ida Lupino

Actresses/Filmmakers

Ida Lupino (February, 4 1918 – August 3, 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, and producer. She is widely regarded as one of the most prominent female filmmakers working during the 1950s in the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir with The Hitch-Hiker (1953), with Edmond O’Brien, Frank Lovejoy, and William Talman. Among her other directed films the best known are Outrage (1950), with Mala Powers, Tod Andrews, Robert Clarke; Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951), with Claire Trevor; The Bigamist (1953) with Joan Fontaine, Edmund Gwenn, and Edmond O’Brien; and The Trouble with Angels (1966), with Hayley Mills, Rosalind Russell and June Harding.

Throughout her 48-year career, she made acting appearances in 59 films and directed eight others, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. Early films include The Ghost Camera (1933), with Henry Kendall and John Mills; Henry Hathaway‘s Peter Ibbetson (1935), with Gary Cooper and Ann Harding; Lewis Milestone’s Anything Goes (1936), with Bing Crosby, Ethel Merman, and Charles Ruggles; and Yours for the Asking (1936), with George Raft and Dolores Costello.

Among her best known films are The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, George Zucco, and and Alan Marshal; Raoul Walsh’s They Drive by Night (1940), with George Raft, Ann Sheridan, and Humphrey Bogart; High Sierra (1941), with Bogart, Alan Curtis, and Arthur Kennedy; Michael Curtiz‘s The Sea Wolf (1941), with Edward G. Robinson, John Garfield, and Alexander Knox; Charles Vidor‘s Ladies in Retirement (1941), with Louis Hayward; Archie Mayo’s Moontide (1942), with Jean Gabin, Thomas Mitchell, and Claude Rains; Vincent Sherman’s The Hard Way (1943), with Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie; Jean Negulesco‘s Deep Valley (1947), with Dane Clark; Road House (1948), with Cornel Wilde, Celeste Holm, and Richard Widmark; Robert Aldrich‘s The Big Knife (1955), with Jack Palance, Wendell Corey, Jean Hagen, Rod Steiger, Shelley Winters, Ilka Chase, and Everett Sloane; and Fritz Lang‘s While the City Sleeps (1956), with Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Howard Duff, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, and John Drew Barrymore.

Later film roles include Sam Peckinpah‘s Junior Bonner (1972), with Steve McQueen, Joe Don Baker, and Robert Preston; The Devil’s Rain (1975), with William Shatner, Tom Skerritt, Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Keenan Wynn, and John Travolta; Bert I. Gordon’s The Food of the Gods (1976), with Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, and Jon Cypher; and My Boys Are Good Boys (1978), with Meeker, Lloyd Nolan, and David Doyle. TV movies in the 70s include Women in Chains (1972), with Belinda Montgomery, Lois Nettleton, and Jessica Walter; The Strangers in 7A (1972), with Andy Griffith and Michael Brandon; and The Letters (1973), with John Forsythe, Jane Powell, Dina Merrill, Leslie Nielsen, Pamela Franklin, and Barbara Stanwyck.

She also directed more than 100 episodes of television productions in a variety of genres including westerns (The Rifleman, Daniel Boone, Have Gun – Will Travel), supernatural tales (The Ghost & Mrs. Muir), situation comedies (Gilligan’s Island Bewitched), murder mysteries (Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Honey West), and gangster stories (The Untouchables). She was the only woman to direct an episode of the original The Twilight Zone series (The Masks), as well as the only director to have starred in the show (The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine).

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

The Love Race (1931) – directed by Lupino Lane – uncredited
Her First Affaire (1932) – directed by Allan Dwan
Money for Speed (1933) – directed by Bernard Vorhaus
I Lived with You (1933) – directed by Maurice Elvey
Prince of Arcadia (1933) – directed by Hanns Schwarz
The Ghost Camera (1933) – directed by Bernard Vorhaus
High Finance (1933) – directed by George King
Search for Beauty (1934) – directed by Erle C. Kenton
Come On, Marines! (1934) – directed by Henry Hathaway
Ready for Love (1934) – directed by Marion Gering
Paris in Spring (1935) – directed by Lewis Milestone
Smart Girl (1935) – directed by Aubrey Scotto
Peter Ibbetson (1935) – directed by Henry Hathaway
La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935) – directed by Louis Lewyn – short film made in Technicolor, with several celebrities appearing as themselves
Anything Goes (1936) – directed by Lewis Milestone
One Rainy Afternoon (1936) – directed by Rowland V. Lee
Yours for the Asking (1936) – directed by Alexander Hall
The Gay Desperado (1936) – directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Sea Devils (1937) – directed by Benjamin Stoloff
Let’s Get Married (1937) – directed by Alfred E. Green
Artists and Models (1937) – directed by Raoul Walsh
Fight for Your Lady (1937) – directed by Benjamin Stoloff
The Lone Wolf Spy Hunt (1939) – directed by Peter Godfrey
The Lady and the Mob (1939) – directed by Benjamin Stoloff
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939) – directed by Alfred L. Werker
The Light That Failed (1939) – directed by
William A. Wellman
Screen Snapshots Series 18, No. 6 (1939) – directed by Ralph Staub – herself – promotional short film
They Drive by Night (1940) – directed by Raoul Walsh
High Sierra (1941) – directed by Raoul Walsh
The Sea Wolf (1941) – directed by Michael Curtiz
Out of the Fog (1941) – directed by Anatole Litvak
Ladies in Retirement (1941) – directed by Charles Vidor
Moontide (1942) – directed by Archie Mayo
Life Begins at Eight-Thirty (1942) – directed by Irving Pichel
The Hard Way (1943) – directed by Vincent Sherman
Forever and a Day (1943) – directed by Herbert Wilcox, Robert Stevenson, Victor Saville, René Clair, & Frank Lloyd – anthology
Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943) – directed by David Butler – cameo as herself
In Our Time (1944) – directed by
Vincent Sherman
Hollywood Canteen (1944) – directed by Delmer Daves – cameo as herself
Pillow to Post (1945) – directed by Vincent Sherman
Devotion (1946) – directed by Curtis Bernhardt
The Man I Love (1947) – directed by Raoul Walsh
Deep Valley (1947) – directed by Jean Negulesco
Escape Me Never (1947) – directed by Peter Godfrey
Road House (1948) – directed by Jean Negulesco
Lust for Gold (1949) – directed by S. Sylvan Simon
Not Wanted (1949) – directed by Elmer Clifton – uncredited co-director, co-writer only
Never Fear (1949) – director, co-writer only
Woman in Hiding (1950) – directed by Michael Gordon
Outrage (1950) – director, co-writer, uncredited actress
Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) – director, uncredited actress
On the Loose (1951) – directed by Charles Lederer – uncredited narrator
On Dangerous Ground (1952) – directed by Nicholas Ray
Beware, My Lovely (1952) – directed by Harry Horner
The Hitch-Hiker (1953) – director, co-writer only
Jennifer (1953) – directed by Joel Newton
The Bigamist (1953) – also director
Private Hell 36 (1954) – directed by Don Siegel – also co-writer
Women’s Prison (1955) – directed by Lewis Seiler
The Big Knife (1955) – directed by Robert Aldrich
While the City Sleeps (1956) – directed by Fritz Lang
Strange Intruder (1956) – directed by Irving Rapper
Teenage Idol (1958) – also director – TV movie
The Trouble with Angels (1966) – director only
Women in Chains (1972) – directed by Bernard L. Kowalski – TV movie
Deadhead Miles (1972) – directed by Vernon Zimmerman – cameo as herself
Junior Bonner (1972) – directed by Sam Peckinpah
The Strangers in 7A (1972) – directed by Paul Wendkos – TV movie
Female Artillery (1973) – directed by Marvin J. Chomsky – TV movie
I Love a Mystery (1973) – directed by Leslie Stevens – TV movie
The Letters (1973) – directed by Paul Krasny & Gene Nelson – TV movie anthology
The Devil’s Rain (1975) – directed by Robert Fuest
The Food of the Gods (1976) – directed by Bert I. Gordon
My Boys Are Good Boys (1978) – directed by Bethel Buckalew

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