Cast:
Sally Forrest (Carol Williams), Keefe Brasselle (Guy Richards), Hugh O'Brian (Len Randall), Eve Miller (Phyllis Townsend), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Middleton), Rita Lupino (Josie), Herb Butterfield (Walter Williams), Kevin O'Morrison (Red Dawson), Stanley Waxman (Dr. Taylor), Jerry Hausner (Mr. Brownlee), and John Franco (Carlos) Directed by Ida Lupino (#799 - The Hitch-Hiker)
Review:
When it comes to social message movies and the folks who directed them, one name that should come up with reverence is Ida Lupino. It is interesting to note her as a director considering her road to getting there from her first turn as an actress. She was the daughter of a comedian and an actress in an English family known for their theatrical roots. She was encouraged to act from a young age, and she would study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She would make her first venture into film in 1931 at the age of 13 and enter the stage three years after that; she would eventually be cast into lead roles while calling herself "the poor man's Bette Davis." Her arguments with Warner Bros over the quality of roles they favored for her lead to numerous suspensions that she used to observe the process of filming and editing films. Although she would do dozens of roles over the years, what she really wanted to do was take her creativity and use it to direct her own films, having found acting to be a "torturous profession", and she felt that directing was the more interesting work. Inspired, she would form with her husband Collier Young an independent company to produce and direct low-budget works called The Filmmakers. In 1949, she had her first chance to direct with Not Wanted, as Elmer Clifton had a heart attack during filming, with Lupino (who co-wrote and co-produced the feature) deciding to not take credit for the controversial film (involving the topic of unwanted pregnancy). Counting Not Wanted, Lupino directed eight films in the span of seventeen years (with her last film in The Trouble with Angels (1966) being the only one done after The Filmmakers closed up shop in 1955). Lupino, who once joked that her quality as a director was as a "poor man's Don Siegel" (although one of her influences was Roberto Rossellini), would persist in directing and acting in three decades (most notably The Twilight Zone, being the only person to direct an episode alongside star in an episode each) until retirement in 1978. Her films generally dealt with difficult subject matter that were not generally covered within mainstream material of the time, such as bigamy or rape, but she also directed film noir (being un-credited for On Dangerous Ground (1952) while also doing The Hitch-Hiker the following year). This film is also known as The Young Lovers, although it did not help when it came to audience appeal, since this was not a major success. Lupino co-wrote the film with Young, and they also each served as producer for the film, which was distributed by Eagle-Lion Films.
This certainly was a personal film for her, as Lupino had been diagnosed with polio in 1934. Although she would eventually recover without losing the ability to walk, it reinforced her desire to focus on her abilities on an intellectual level without such focus on physicality. In this case, Lupino is making a feature that feels like a documentary at times with its shots of recovery for folks with polio at the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa Monica, whether that means shots of treatment or shots of swimming or even square-dancing (in wheelchairs); ultimately, it is the tale of someone finding their place again in life and not dealing with it alone and become wrapped with self-pity. At the time, polio was a fairly prevalent health crisis across the world; two years after the release of the film, over 3,000 people alone would die of the disease in the United States, with the first safe vaccine for the disease coming out in 1955 by Jonas Salk (efforts to eradicate it worldwide have persisted since the 1980s). This was the second of three films that Forrest had done with Lupino (she made her formal debut in acting with Not Wanted). She does well with a tough role, because one has to convey an isolated tone without seeming too closed off in their arc for 82 minutes. She shows that degree of fear one would have if in that scenario without overplaying her hand. Brasselle matches her on the other side of life with polio - the person closest to her in adjustment, whether that involves trying to sell houses while waiting for someone to get better, or persisting in trying to get his girl on her feet. He does okay with that, seeming more suited for the cheesy number in the beginning or one scene spent with Miller involving regrets and an embrace. This was the first feature role for O'Brian, a former Marine who got into show business after being asked to take part in rehearsals for a play (directed by Lupino) after the lead failed to show that led to an agent wanting to sign him. He probably gives off the best performance, one with confidence and peace of mind for what needs to occur in perspective that never seems like someone doing it on one take. Miller has that fine little sequence with Brasselle as stated, while Dobkin rounds out the general focus decently enough. If it seems a bit off-kilter in its face of adversity in terms of physical and psychological trouble without being wrapped in too much inevitability. It is a closed-in type of movie, where one experiences the pain of the main character that ranges from closed-off despair to lingering doubt that makes its "you are there" segments work handily for what it needs. For me, it seems similiar to another film that would come out later in the year of 1950 with The Men, which dealt with a paralyzed veteran having to adjust with the loss of his legs while at a hospital that goes through a bout of isolation and self-pity. It isn't about what you assume is going to happen as it a film about what you feel about what is going to happen, where that doubt about one's health could apply beyond polio, particularly in recent years where isolation seems more rampant than ever when dealing with (or hearing about) illness. In that sense, Lupino has managed to make a fairly well-made feature that seems quite prescient, and when it comes to key female directors, Ida Lupino makes for a good start in terms of pressing the issue of perspective.
Next Time: Going across the pond with Muriel Box and Street Corner (1953).
Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.
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