Posted on 02/11/2018 2:53:29 PM PST by Rummyfan
Ida Lupino was born one hundred years ago this month - February 4th 1918, in Herne Hill, south London - and, insofar as she's remembered in today's Hollywood, it's in a kind of special-pleading way: She was "the first female director". Wow! Awesome! So she, like, shattered the glass ceiling? Well, yes, she did: The Hitch-Hiker (1953) is regarded as the first "mainstream" female-helmed movie; when television took off, she was the only woman asked to direct episodes of "The Twilight Zone". On set her director's chair bore the designation "MOTHER OF US ALL", and the transcript of her off-camera directorial instructions from a Sixties TV western captures the maternal encouragement:
Any rocks up there to give you a problem, darlin'? Now, Walter baby, while we're here... You read my mind, love... That's it, sweetheart... Are we lathering the horses in this sequence, sweetie..? That's divine, love. Okay, follow Mother, here we go, kiddies!
Of course, post-Weinstein, any male director would be ill-advised to try any of that darling/baby/love/sweetheart/sweetie stuff. But it's somehow right for a woman in a man's world - which was a role she played on-screen long before pulling it off so successfully off-screen. Still, my favorites of her own films are those like The Bigamist, in which she also acted.
(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...
I’m weird, but I think this number from Thank Your Lucky Stars is Hollywood gold. So funny and warm, shows Ida Lupino and Olivia de Havilland in such a fun light.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu-3i3RPJc
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