The Bigamist

 

(1953)
Directed by Ida Lupino
Written by Collier Young, Lawrence B. Marcus, Lou Schor
Starring Edmond O'Brien, Ida Lupino, Joan Fontaine,  Edmund Gwenn
IMDB Entry

During the studio days, women were rarely allowed to direct. One of those who bucked the prejudice and who made several films was Ida Lupino. Lupino is best known today for her starring role opposite Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra, the film that made Bogart Bogart. But she liked the idea of being in charge of a film and thought directing was more interesting than acting. Eventually, she formed her own production company so she could do that and one of her better films was The Bigamist.

Harry and Eve Graham (Edmond O'Brien and Joan Fontaine) wish to adopt a child and apply to Mr. Jordan  (Edmund Gwenn) at an agency. Jordon investigates to see if they are truly fit parents. The Grahams run a business with branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and Harry often spends time in LA when Eve stays home. Jordan, who gets some odd vibes from Harry, goes to Los Angeles and tracks him down to an apartment. While talking outside, a baby cries. Jordon follows and finds that Harry has a son and is also married to Phyllis Martin (Ida Lupino).

Harry explains what happened. Lonely and bored in LA, he takes a bus tour of the stars' homes, where he meets Phyllis. They start to date and when she becomes pregnant, he marries her. His plan was to adopt a child with Eve and then divorce her, but Jordan will have nothing to do with it.

Edmond O'Brien plays the part very sympathetically. He is a decent man and want to do the right thing, but things spiral out of his control. Ida Lupino also makes Phyllis very sympathetically. She doesn't know that Harry is married, of course, but tries to do the right thing herself, refusing to trap Harry into marriage. Joan Fontaine is also strong as Eve, who dives into the business -- neglecting Harry -- when she learns she can't have children.

Edmund Gwenn is, of course, great. I've yet to find him in a bad movie, and he is representative of the law and of society, who understands Harry's behavior, even though he disapproves of it strongly.*

The film was produced by the Filmakers  Inc. Lupino formed it with her then-husband Collier Young,*  a special project to allow her to overcome  sexism and direct and produce her own films. They produced a dozen of them, with Lupino directing five.***

Lupino continued to direct and act as time went by, moving to television as movie gigs became hard to get. In The Bigamist, she became the only woman to director during the studio system years to direct herself. 

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*One minor joke is that, while touring the houses of the stars, the driver shows Edmund Gwenn's house and mentions his role in Miracle on 34th Street. It looks like the tour showed actual houses of stars of the time.

**Young later produced Ironside and Wild Wild West. 

***She also wrote and acted in some of them.