Ida Lupino, Forgotten Auteur: From Film Noir to the Director's Chair

by Alexandra Seros

An archival study of Ida Lupino’s work in film and television directing, writing, producing, and acting from the 1940s to the 1970s.

Though her acting career is well known, Ida Lupino was, until very recently, either unknown or overlooked as an influential director. One of the few female directors in Classical Hollywood, Lupino was the only woman with membership in the Directors Guild of America between 1948 and 1971. Her films were about women without power in society and engaged with highly controversial topics despite Hollywood’s strict production code. Working in a male-dominated field, Lupino was forced to manage her public persona carefully, resisting attempts by the press to paint her solely as a dutiful wife and mother—a continual feminization—just so that she could continue directing.

Filmmaker Alexandra Seros retells the story of Ida Lupino’s career, from actor to director, first in film, then in television, using archival materials from collections housed around the world. The result provides rich insights into three of Lupino’s independently directed films and a number of episodes from her vast television oeuvre. Seros contextualizes this analysis with discussions of gendered labor in the film industry, the rise of consumerism in the United States after World War II, and the expectations put on women in their family lives during the postwar era. Seros’s portrait of Lupino ultimately paints her life and career as an exemplar of collaborative auteurship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film, Biography, Biography Memoir, Media Tie In, History

240 pages, Hardcover

Published January 14, 2025

Reviews

[Fern · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography with a focus more on Lupino’s career and influence than her personal life.

[John Schorg · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is no doubt that Ida Lupino's career deserves more critical appreciation. Good grief, this is the only woman who directed Hollywood films through a good chunk of the middle part of the 20th century. So, a study of her work is certainly welcome. That said, this particular book is woefully incomplete. Her acting career gets scant attention, and several of the movies she directed are similarly neglected, especially Outrage and The Bigamist. Since the author does go into good detail on other efforts, such as The Hitch-Hiker and several TV episodes, this might be one of those books where a little more would have been way better.

[Hayden Demerest · Rating 5 out of 5]

“As mother to all her film and television families, Lupino was the face of a new, collaborative auteurism” (178). Seros does an excellent job of positioning Lupino’s career as something that is important to not only remember, but to revisit and study! I don’t agree with some of the reviews written about this book; this isn’t a text to understand just her films. Instead, through the use of Lupino’s career and lifestylr, Seros brings light to Lupino as a person, with their experience informing their art.
It’s also an approachable (though extremely well researched) read! All Lupino fans are welcomed.

[Liz Locke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful read, even for non-scholars. It definitely makes me want to revisit more of Lupino's filmography, and kudos to the author for her continued restoration efforts! Modern audiences will find a lot to love in these classic films.