Bigamie

Ida Lupino, the trail blazing female director, both stars and directs in this extraordinary 1953 film "The Bigamist".

Ms. Lupino made interesting films and tackled some difficult subject matter. This being one of them, the plot conveyed in the title. However, Ms. Lupino, brings sympathy and understanding to all 3 main characters, herself playing Phyllis, Joan Fontaine playing Eve, the barren wife and the travelling tortured salesman played by Edmond O'Brien. Twee in-jokes aside and a few groan-worthy melodramatic moments, the film has aged well.

Eve plays the business woman extremely well. Everything starts to turn on its head when she decides she does want a child after all and they proceed with the adoption process.

Lupino plays the tough farm girl, working at menial jobs in the city and all too ready to have a romance. Her vulnerability is beautifully portrayed. Her pregnancy is handled with subtlety.

Edmund Gwenn plays the adoption agency investigator and does an admirable job.

The climax comes in the courtroom scene and this is where some melodrama comes into play but it does not affect the restraint shown by the director in letting the audience decide the moral outcome.

8 out of 10. Recommended.

This film is centred on freezer salesman Harry Graham. He and his wife, Eve, are hoping to adopt a baby. Before this can be done adoption agent Mr Jordon must do a background check on each of them. His checks take him to Los Angeles where Harry spends much of his time. Here he meets Harry again and makes a shocking discovery... he has another wife, Phyllis, and a baby son. He is horrified but listens as Harry tells the story of how he came to meet, fall in love with, and finally marry Phyllis.

I found this to be an interesting film; it certainly wasn't the sort of topic I expected to be explored in a film of this era... especially given its sympathetic portrayal of Harry. While he is clearly misleading the two women the way his second relationship starts feels almost accidental and more than once he plans to do the 'right thing' but then something happens to stop him. Edmond O'Brien does an impressive job as Harry and gets fine support from Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupino as Eve and Phyllis. Ida Lupino also does an impressive directing job at a time when women directors were incredibly rare. The story is told in a way that makes it easy to believe Harry's behaviour and the fact that he got away with it for so long. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of older films looking for something rather different.

One of a handful of low budget films from pioneering woman film-maker Ida Lupino. Known mainly for her soulful screen portrayals in the 1940's of downtrodden women, she managed this career turn in the early 50's, a remarkable feat given a production industry so thoroughly dominated by men.

Her best known feature is the chilling and critically acclaimed account of serial killer Emmet Myers, called "The Hitchhiker". But all her films are marked by an earnest concern for the lives of ordinary people, whether menaced in extreme circumstance or in more ordinary circumstance by the unwed pregnancy of "The Outrage". Moreover, at a time when studios were fending off small screen television with big budget Technicolor, she gamely persisted with the small, the intimate and the unglamorous.

"The Bigamist" remains an oddity, very much an artifact of its time, but worth viewing for its sensitive handling of male loneliness, a topic for which macho Hollywood has never had much time. The acting is first-rate from a trio of de-glamorized Hollywood professionals, including the poignant Lupino; there's also Edmond O'Brien in a low-key, nuanced portrayal of a man trapped by emotions, showing once again what a fine, intelligent performer he was. Notice how elliptically the pregnancy is presented, and how subtly Fontaine's career woman is projected into the breakup. Both are very much signs of that time. Although the subject matter may have tempted, the results never descend into bathos or soap-opera, even if final courtroom scene appears stagy and anti-climatic. All in all, it's a very well wrought balancing act.

Lupino's reputation should not rest on gender. This film as well as so many of her others demonstrate what a versatile and unusual talent she was, whether in front of the camera or behind. Too bad, she never got the recognition from an industry to which she contributed so much.

Always enjoy a film in which Ida Lupino directs and stars in the same film. This story has a twisted tale about a guy named Harry Graham, (Edmond O'Brien) who is married to a very successful woman, Eve Graham, (Joan Fontaine), who devotes her entire life to her business along with her husband who is a traveling salesman for their company. When Eve found out she could not have any children, she unknowingly neglected her husband and they went their separate ways, only seeing each other maybe once or twice a month. Harry meets up with a young woman, Phyllis Martin, ( Ida Lupino ) on a tour bus in Los Angeles and they both get interested in each other. One day, out of the blue Eve Graham asks Harry if he would like to adopt a child and so they engage the help of Mr. Jordan, (Edmund Gwenn) who works for a child adoption agency. Mr. Jordan explains that he will have to investigate both of their backgrounds and Mr. Jordan begins to have his doubts about Harry. It is at this point in the film when it gets very interesting. This is truly a great 1953 film Classic; I was surprised to learn that Joan Fontaine and Ida Lupino were both married to Collier Young who wrote the screenplay for this film.

An interesting drama with some thoughtful moments, "The Bigamist" succeeds in offering a sympathetic look at everyone involved in an emotionally trying situation, and in maintaining drama and tension for the entire running time. Ida Lupino does a good job both in acting and in directing, playing one of the key characters while telling the story in a careful fashion that does not oversimplify the issues involved.

As the three main characters, Lupino, Edmond O'Brien, and Joan Fontaine all give believable and effective performances. All of them make their share of mistakes, and yet all three characters are worth caring for, and their mistakes are understandable ones. The double-life situation and its consequences for all concerned is set up so as to go against some of the usual preconceptions. O'Brien's character is lonely, but by no means ill-intentioned, and the situation is sad, never sordid.

The tone is somber almost from the beginning, and except for a couple of amusing references to Edmund Gwenn's earlier role in "Miracle on 34th Street", there are few or no moments of humor to break the tension. Thus you can feel the unending sense of foreboding that O'Brien's character feels in regard to the complications he has caused.

Lupino and the script also manage to provide an honest look at the situation with few hindrances from the strict production code of the era. Only at a couple of odd moments can you tell that they had to shift gears slightly so as to placate the censors. Although the movie is low-key and straightforward, it's a commendable effort, and it makes for good drama.