The Ida Lupino film, The Bigamist (1953), turns Edmond O’Brien into a romantic. Director Lupino co-stars in the piece and, like scriptwriter Collier Young, is in a romantic mood; albeit, to be sure, O’Brien’s character is a bigamist. He is married to both Lupino and Joan Fontaine (unknown to each other), but is almost an angel in his liaisons with them. A true lover of both.
Lupino once remarked that as a director she was “the poor man’s Don Siegel.” (Remember The Hitchhiker?) Not exactly. Not with a film like The Bigamist, which is sober and character-driven. In the 1950s Europeans were making movies meant for adults not youngsters, but few Hollywood products had such an aim. Lupino’s film, although it’s no Le Amiche, is rather different. It won’t offend anybody but it will bore the kids. It has a grown-up gravity. I like it.
