Ida Lupino makes the threat of violence count and handles difficult subjects with restraint. We rate her economical suspense most highly; the social dramas can grow overwrought, but her television work is worth seeking out alongside the films.
Fi1m perspective
Violence need not be shown for Lupino to make it frightening. The Hitch-Hiker (1953) pares the road thriller down and keeps the tension running. We were unnerved by how long she holds the tension in such a spare film. That economy is where we find her most persuasive.
Her early independent work gave her difficult subjects to handle. With producer and co-writer Collier Young, she founded The Filmakers in 1949; Outrage (1950) approaches rape with restraint and realism. The more overwrought direction of Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) is the caveat: she can insist on an emotion when we would rather be allowed to reach it.
She began directing television in 1956, where her habit of planning shots and working efficiently had an obvious use. The Fugitive (1963), to which she contributed as a director, is a series we recommend for David Janssen’s tired, believable hero. Its mixture of crime, action and melodrama needs that human steadiness. The repeated predicament and sometimes over-insistent narration can wear, but the central performance keeps it worth following. Lupino’s contribution belongs within a larger achievement; we would not credit her alone for everything that works.
The Twilight Zone (1959) offers a closer match for her taste for implied danger. Its disciplined storytelling and careful craft earn our warm recommendation, with the reservation that weaker stories promise more than they deliver. Lupino’s episode, The Masks (1964), puts her handling of macabre suspense to use within that format. We would watch the anthology one story at a time, allowing its unease to settle rather than immediately asking the next episode to supply more.
Her final theatrical feature, The Trouble with Angels (1966), moved into ensemble comedy-drama. That is a useful reminder not to confine her to the thriller, even if suspense is the strongest reason to seek her out. Start with The Masks, then try The Hitch-Hiker if a spare road thriller appeals.
Biography
Ida Lupino was an English-American actress and director. Born in Camberwell, London, she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made her film debut in 1932. She appeared in numerous films, including High Sierra (1941), before turning to directing in the late 1940s.
Lupino directed feature films such as The Hitch-Hiker (1953) and The Bigamist (1953). She became a prolific television director, helming episodes of series including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bewitched and Gilligan's Island. She directed the Twilight Zone episode 'The Masks' (1964) and was the only woman to direct an episode of the series; she also acted in the episode 'The Sixteen-Millimeter Shrine' (1959).
She died in 1995.
