Ida Lupino, Director

Therese Grisham taught in the film and media studies program and in the departments of humanities and philosophy at Oakton College in Des Plaines, Illinois.Julie Grossman is a professor of English and communication at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. Her publications include Penny Dreadful and Adaptation: Reanimating and Transforming the Monster and The Femme Fatale (Rutgers University Press).

• Foreword to the Second Edition by Imogen Sara Smith viiPreface xiNote on Quotations xvPART ONEIntroducing Ida Lupino, Director and Feminist Auteur 1A Rejection of Hollywood 3Lupino Directs 6Director Lupino and Colleagues 11The Filmakers' Films 13Lupino and the Censors 20Lupino as Feminist Auteur 30Postwar Hollywood, American Society and Culture 41Close-Up on Outrage 46Empathy and a Cinema of Engagement 58Italian Neorealism or American Realisms? 61Looking Backward? 64PART TWOLupino's Ingenious Genres: Early Films and The Trouble with Angels (1966) 73The Social Problem Film and Film Noir 75Home Noir 94Home Is Where the Noir Is 98Doubled Dreams in Hard, Fast and Beautiful 102Doubled Domesticity in The Bigamist 109Doubled Trauma: Outrage 113A Mighty Girl: Lupino and The Trouble with Angels 123PART THREELupino Moves to Television 133Industrial Contexts: Film to Television 133Directing for Television 137"No. 5 Checked Out" 140Ida Lupino, Television Director 148On Close Readings of 1950s and 1960s Television 150"The Return": Norma Desmond and Ida Lupino Haunt the Small Screen 153Mr. Adams and Eve 163Directed Episodes, 1956–1968 176Comedies 181Action, Thrillers, Mysteries 189Westerns 206Epilogue 215Acknowledgments 221Appendix: TV Episodes Directed by Ida Lupino 223Notes 233Works Cited 249Index 263

"[A] landmark study of this underrecognized director. . . . Grisham and Grossman do not consider their subject narrowly as a woman filmmaker. They present Lupino broadly as a pioneer independent moviemaker and director." - Film Quarterly"A detailed and readable account of Lupino as a filmmaker whose work and contributions deserve greater attention in an industry still overly dominated by the male gaze. This volume should encourage further scholarship on the life and work of a pioneering filmmaker." - The Journal of American Culture"Groundbreaking and judiciously comprehensive." - South Atlantic Review"Recommended." - Choice"Ida Lupino, Director fulfils a grand job in keeping her achievements in the public eye."- Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television"An intelligent, thorough, and engaging book that expands our understanding of Ida Lupino's career as a director, from a frequently simplistic view of her as 'a woman in a man's profession' to her as a unique artist in her own right. Lupino's socially conscious themes (which often required tricky dealings with the Breen Office) and savvy grasp of Hollywood economics are given due credit. Grisham and Grossman examine Lupino's directing within the context of classic Hollywood, of feminism, and of auteurism, showing her vital importance to all of them." - Farran Smith Nehme, film critic and historian"Exactly the serious study Ida Lupino deserves, this superb book sketches her directing career against larger developments in postwar Hollywood, demonstrating her feminist impact on a changing industry." - Shelley Stamp, author of Lois Weber in Early Hollywood"Lupino's work has never received its full due. Grisham and Grossman's sensitive study, informed by thorough research and new paradigms, provides a welcome corrective." - Sarah Kozloff, author of Overhearing Film Dialogue"One of Hollywood's few female directors, Ida Lupino was a true maverick, making movies with the same steely determination and emotional sensitivity that characterized her work as an actor. Grisham and Grossman's thoughtful study sheds a welcome light on an oeuvre that has been too long obscured." - J. Hoberman, author of Film After Film: Or, What Became Of 21st Century Cinema?"An urgently needed and long overdue reclamation of the directorial work of Ida Lupino, one of the most significant auteurs of the twentieth century. Cineastes will be delighted by this dazzling, well written, and comprehensive book." - Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, coauthor of A Short History of Film