A remarkable psychological drama that’s as tender as it is tragic
The supremely engrossing “The Bigamist” may be unfamiliar to many, but don’t let that fool you. Despite being a modest budget B movie, this haunting gem is masterfully crafted, brilliantly performed, and richly complex. With a remarkable sensitivity, it brings humanity to a controversial subject. Understated and utterly compelling, this film stands out not only as gripping entertainment, but also a rare and shining example of a Hollywood Studio Era film directed by a woman.
“The Bigamist” centers around “Harry Graham”. He and his wife “Eve” live in San Francisco and own an electrical appliance business where they share responsibilities – “Eve” covers the administrative work, and “Harry” is the salesman who often travels to Los Angeles where they hold a franchise. They have been happily married for eight years, and because “Eve” has been unable to have children, they’ve decided to adopt.
The film opens as the “Grahams” meet with “Mr. Jordan” at an adoption agency. As part of vetting them as parents, “Jordan” tells them he’ll have to investigate their private lives, which gives “Harry” pause – which “Jordan” notices. As “Jordan” says in his interview report: “From the preliminary interview, it’s my opinion they would make fit parents. But something bothers me about ‘Mr. Graham’... I’ll report further when I visit the ‘Grahams’’ home for the customary inspection next week”.
During his investigation, “Jordan” discovers that, in Los Angeles, “Harry” goes by “Harrison” and has another wife named “Phyllis”. This all unfolds within the first fifteen minutes of the film, and I’ll leave my plot details at that. What plays out are profound themes that touch upon loneliness, grief, shifting gender roles, alienation, societal expectations, and how even good people can make devastating choices. It’s a poignant exploration of the consequences we face for the mistakes we cannot undo.
The title alone is daring, even for today, and doesn't prepare you for how even-handedly and moving the subject matter is handled. What sets “The Bigamist” apart is its deep, underlying humanity, steering clear of all clichés you’d expect from a film about bigamy. “Eve” and “Phyllis” are portrayed with authenticity rather than sexualization, and “Harry” wrestles with palpable anxiety. They are flawed, complicated individuals doing good and bad things while navigating their lives, and the film touchingly follows their psychological and emotional travails without judgement, making us empathize and intimately understand them. A bittersweet objectiveness invites viewers to reflect on the situation, motivations, and consequences, turning the film into a haunting experience. Its distinctly delicate tone is unlike any other film I can think of, thanks to its masterful director, Ida Lupino.
Lupino’s restrained and natural directing style presents characters without judgement, while drawing us into their psychological states. The opening meeting with "Eve", "Harry", and “Jordan” is a perfect example. Lupino keeps her camera at an observational distance, coming closer to show a dumbstruck “Harry” and a happy “Eve” when they sign the permission forms, and even closer to show a questioning “Jordan” and a nervous “Harry”. We immediately sense the character’s inner turmoil and are eager to discover exactly what's going on in their minds. Lupino gets under the skin of her characters making us empathize with them, and as a result, “The Bigamist” lingers in the mind long after it's ended.
Though “The Bigamist" tackles a traumatic situation, the film is not heavy handed, avoids melodrama, and has no sentimentality whatsoever. Not an easy task, particularly with such a charged subject. It also plays with gender roles, as its three main characters — “Harry”, “Eve”, and “Phyllis” — don’t fit the societal norms of their day. “Harry” is the weak and conflicted one, “Eve” is unable to have children, and “Phyllis" is independent and sexually self-assured.
Stylistically, Lupino employs many long takes to objectively let us watch the action, visually strong compositions to keep us engaged (like the extended shot of “Harry’s” reflection as he walks past a department store window), and interesting framing to add emotion (like the beautifully composed shot of “Jordan” from behind standing on a hilly Los Angeles street not sure how to proceed).
There’s a fantastic integration of location shots in and around Los Angeles that include Union Station, Bunker Hill, Bullocks Wilshire, MacArthur Park, and many more. There's even a bus tour of movie star homes (I know Jimmy Stewart’s purported home in the film was his actual house, but don't know if all the others were also actual). The characters don’t really interact with their environment, reinforcing their feelings of alienation. This, combined with flashbacks, narration, and moody night scenes, lends the film a noir-like atmosphere, despite it not being film noir.
These touches may stem from Lupino’s deep connection to film noir, as she was also a movie star who starred in many noirs herself. And not only does she direct “The Bigamist”, but she is also one of its four principal actors. She had a great understanding of acting and actors, and was able to pull genuinely layered performances from her entire cast. But before diving deeper into Lupino, it’s important to consider the history of women in Hollywood to fully appreciate her significance.
Moving pictures quickly went from a novelty in the 1890s, to a profitable industry in the early 1900s, and those who had trouble entering the American workforce, such as women and immigrant Jews, could easily get jobs in this budding, free-for-all industry. As a result, at the start of cinema, women worked in all facets of movie making including directing, writing, acting, producing, editing, and even owning studios.
Just a few of the many notable women in the early days of film include French director Alice Guy-Blaché (who made the first narrative film in 1896), American director, writer, actress, and producer Lois Weber (directed 139 films between 1911 and 1927, was once the highest paid director in the world, and the first American woman to form and run her own movie studio), screenwriter Frances Marion (who penned over 325 scripts starting in 1912), German filmmaker Lotte Reiniger (who pioneered silhouette animation and directed one of the first feature-length animated films), and producer, mogul, and movie star Mary Pickford (an international icon known as "Queen of the Movies", who acted, produced, and cofounded the production and distribution company United Artists).
With the coming of sound in 1927, the film industry was becoming astronomically profitable. The 1929 stock market crash didn’t immediately affect the movie industry, so many out-of-work men scrambled for jobs in films, pushing women out of high-powered roles. There was only one female director left working in Hollywood in the early sound era, Dorothy Arzner (though Louis Weber did direct one sound film in 1943). Arzner retired in 1943, after which there were no female directors working in Hollywood. That’s where Lupino steps in.
Born in London into a dynasty of performers dating back to the seventieth century, Ida Lupino was the daughter of famous musical comedy performer Stanley Lupino and actress Connie Emerald. Expected to carry on the family name and trade, as a young child Lupino was taught Shakespeare and how to sing and dance. At boarding school with her sister while her parents were on the road, to ease her pain Lupino began writing and starring in school plays at the age of seven. When she was ten, her father built a professional theater for her and her sister to put on shows, and when Lupino was thirteen, she was enrolled into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. Her film debut came that same year as an extra in the 1931 British film "The Love Race". While accompanying her mother to an audition for the lead in the 1932 film "Her First Affair", the fourteen year old Lupino ended up getting the part instead. For it, her hair was dyed platinum blonde and her eyebrows plucked, ā la Jean Harlow.
Lupino continued acting in British films, and was noticed by Paramount Pictures, who called her to Hollywood with a short-term contract. Her first Hollywood film was 1934’s “Search for Beauty”, and her early Hollywood career consisted of B movies, mostly musicals and comedies. As she told John Kobal in his book “People Will Talk”: “They were very successful pictures, but again I was only playing the little round-faced blonde, you know, singing and dancing and carrying on. They really didn’t think of me in very serious terms. There was no variety to it at all, and boredom sets in, which is a bad thing”. In pursuit of better roles, Lupino left Paramount in 1937, got rid of her blonde locks and let her eyebrows grow back. She also married actor Louis Hayward in 1938. Hearing about the 1939 film “The Lights that Failed”, she demanded an audition, got the part, and her striking performance turned her into a respected actress.
“The Lights that Failed” also led Lupino to a major supporting role as a hard-boiled dame in the classic 1940 noir, “They Drive by Night”. Her stunning performance got her a contract at Warner Brothers, and she was top-billed in her next film, the 1941 classic “High Sierra” opposite Humphrey Bogart, which made stars of Lupino and Bogart. The rest of the 1940s saw Lupino giving standout performances in more great films (including "The Sea Wolf”, "Out of the Fog", and "The Hard Way” – which won her a Best Actress New York Film Critics Circle Award). She earned nine Best Performance of the Month Photoplay Award wins in that decade, portraying all types of women, and became known for her intensity, realism, and depth, establishing herself onscreen as a tough-edged woman with underlying vulnerability. But her time at Warners was marked by fighting for better roles, being famously put on suspension for refusing parts, and even rewriting dialogue (to the studio’s dismay). While on suspension, she’d visit sets and watch directors and cameramen, and learn everything she could about filmmaking. Her issues at Warners, her father’s sudden death in 1942, and Hayward’s request for a divorce (after returning from active World War II duty with mental issues), put Lupino into a depression. When her Warners contract ended in 1947, she didn’t renew.
A truly creative soul, Lupino was constantly writing stories, scripts, and music, and when she met former RKO Pictures' story editor turned writer Collier Young, they decided to start their own independent production company called Emerald Productions. Their mission was to develop, write, and produce low-budget, personal films that depicted ordinary people dealing with taboo subjects studios wouldn't touch. Their first was 1949’s “Not Wanted”, about an unmarried woman with an unwanted pregnancy, co-written and co-produced by Lupino. When the film’s director, Elmer Clifton, suffered a heart attack just as filming began, due to money and time restraints, and because she knew the film inside out, Lupino stepped in as director – an unprecedented move for an actress (she refused to take a screen directing credit). The film was a giant success, and her company’s financial backers requested she direct their next film, 1949’s “Never Fear”, about polio. Co-produced and co-written by Lupino, who was diagnosed with polio in 1934, it was loosely based on her experiences. "Never Fear" was the first Hollywood film since 1943 to have a woman credited as director. The following year, Lupino directed and co-wrote the groundbreaking “Outrage”, about the trauma of rape. She was also inducted into the Directors Guild of America – the second woman to do so, out of 1300 members (the first was Arzner).
Lupino's marriage to Young was on the rocks, and just after she became pregnant from an affair with actor Howard Duff, she filed for divorce from Young and married Duff in 1951. Lupino and Young remained friends and business partners (Young was reportedly even chummy with Duff) and the two continued making films that include the classic noirs "Beware, My Lovely” in 1952 (produced by Young and starring Lupino), and 1953's "The Hitch-Hiker” (written by Young and Lupino, directed by Lupino). "The Hitch-Hiker” contained an unconventional realism for its time and is Lupino’s most famous directorial credit. It is also the only classic-period noir directed by a woman. “The Bigamist” came next, which is the first time an actress directed herself in a sound movie, and Lupino’s performance as “Phyllis Martin” (“Harry’s” other wife) is superb. “Phyllis” is a no-nonsense lady with a hard exterior, seen immediately when “Harry” first meets her on the bus tour. But with each subsequent scene, “Phyllis” softens and warms, and allows “Harry” to get closer, and we movingly experience them falling in love.
The way Lupino looks at “Harry” with overwhelming hope and affection is very affecting, and she brings a plethora of depth to the simplest lines, as when softly telling “Harry”, “You kill me” after a kiss, or later telling him, “Look, I don’t need anybody. I can take care of myself. I’m a big girl now” with such a genuine mixture of hope, heartbreak, and remorse that the words become meaningless. As an actress, Lupino was enormously truthful and nuanced, which you can clearly see all throughout “The Bigamist”.
Though “The Bigamist” got glowing reviews, its lack of expert distribution helped it lose money at the box office (not the first film by Lupino and Young’s company, now called The Filmakers, to do so). The company made two more films, both box-office disappointments, before going under. What a sad thing, since their independence enabled them to make groundbreaking films, six of which (including “Not Wanted”) employed Lupino as director. She was Hollywood's only female director at the time.
Lupino began also acting on television in 1954, and a 1957 episode of "Four Star Playhouse" earned her a Best Actress Emmy nomination. Also in 1957, she and husband Duff co-starred in the TV series "Mr. Adams and Eve” (created by Young), which earned her two more Best Actress Emmy nominations. In 1956, she began directing on TV, and through 1968 she directed about 70 TV movies and episodes in over 30 different shows, including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, "The Untouchables", "Dr. Kildare", "Gilligan's Island", and was the only woman to direct an episode on the original “The Twilight Zone” ("The Masks”, considered one of the show’s scariest and best). She directed one more feature film, the 1966 hit comedy "The Trouble with Angels”. As an actress, Lupino accrued over 100 film credits, others include, "On Dangerous Ground”, "Road House", "The Man I Love", "The Big Knife", "Ladies in Retirement", and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", and TV shows like "The Twilight Zone”, "Police Woman", "Charlie's Angels”, and as villainess "Dr. Cassandra Spellcraft" in two 1968 episodes of “Batman”. She and Duff separated in 1966 and divorced in 1983. She faced major health issues towards the end of her life and died from a stroke while being treated for colon cancer in 1995 at the age of 77. Ida Lupino’s trailblazing film career as an actress, director, writer, and producer in a male-dominated industry led the way for subsequent women to boldly take on all those roles and more. For several decades, her contribution to cinema was largely overlooked, but fortunately, she’s now receiving the recognition and praise she has long deserved.
Top-billed in “The Bigamist” is Joan Fontaine as successful wife and businesswoman “Eve Graham”. A decisive, take-charge woman, Fontaine portrays “Eve” as intelligent, passionate, and dedicated to her marriage and business, with a soft-spoken sensitivity that clues us in to the pain hiding just under her surface. This woman’s so caught up in work she can’t see what’s happening around her, and Fontaine’s focus and sincerity make it plausible “Eve” would be so unaware. Fontaine shows us many facets of this interesting woman, such as her crackerjack skill at charming a client into buying a freezer over dinner or holding it together when rattled over her father’s health. And she plays the moment "Eve" finds out about “Harry’s” double life to perfection. From time to time in “The Bigamist", one powerful line of dialogue pops up that offers deep insight into a character, and one of those is when Eve confesses, "I’m glad [my father] didn’t know how I let you down… when I learned I couldn’t have a child”. With that simple line and Fontaine's added sorrowful introspection, we fully grasp the weight of the immense pressure and sadness “Eve” carries. It’s a wonderfully layered and elegantly played character.
It took five years and fourteen films since her film debut until Joan Fontaine became a major movie star in 1940's "Rebecca". The height of her career was in the early 1940s, and she remained a major star through the early 1950s. After marrying and divorcing actor Brian Aherne and producer Willaim Dozier, Fontaine met Collier Young and married him in 1952 (a year after Lupino’s divorce). Fontaine was then slated to star in “The Bigamist”, written and produced by Young. She was also the one who wanted Lupino to play “Phyllis”, as Lupino explained to Kobal: “Joan Fontaine insisted I play ‘the other woman’. It was kind of interesting. She’d already okayed me as director, but she said, ‘Look Ida, it’ll give us more help at the box office’”. Another interesting tidbit is that Fontaine’s mother, Lilian Fontaine, plays “Phyllis’" landlady in the film, “Miss Higgins”. In 1953, Fontaine began appearing on television, where she'd work for much of her remaining career. You can read more about the life and career of Joan Fontaine in my previous posts on “Rebecca” and “The Women”. Just click on the film titles to open the posts.
Third billed (after Fontaine and Lupino) is Edmund Gwenn as “Mr. Jordan”, an adoption investigator who makes sure children are placed into decent homes. From the start, when the cleaning woman at his office door asks "Can I come in now?" and "Jordon" exclaims "No!", pulling down the shade on the glass door, we understand this is a man of authority. Yet in the next second, we see his kind and warm disposition as he finishes business with "Harry" and "Eve". There's even something compassionate about his puzzled look at "Harry's" strange reaction to being investigated. We gain tremendous insight into this wounded man when he tells the cleaning woman he’s so exacting at his job because, “If you had made a mistake once, you wouldn’t want to ever let it happen again. Not where a child is involved”. Gwenn’s glorious combination of kindheartedness and unstoppable determination shines when "Harry" is being snippy with him in the kitchen or when he's interviewing "Harry's" colleagues in Los Angeles, and his understated shock, anger, and disgust when discovering "Harry's" secret is powerfully affecting. Gwenn presents “Jordan” as a reasonable and fair man, bringing to life an immensely human character.
After making a name for himself in British films, Edmund Gwenn began appearing in Hollywood movies in 1935, making Hollywood his home in 1940. He quickly became a popular character actor, continually appearing films (including "Pride and Prejudice", "Foreign Correspondent”, "The Devil and Miss Jones”, and “Keys to the Kingdom") before becoming a full-blown, beloved movie star with his Oscar-winning performance as "Santa Claus" ("Kris Kringle") in 1947's "Miracle on 34th Street”. He was so revered in that part that there are two nods to it in “The Bigamist”: one when “Eve” says “‘Mr. Jordan’ looks like Santa Claus - just like a man who gives babies away”; and then on the bus tour when the driver points out, "Behind this big hedge over there lives a little man who is Santa Claus to the whole world, Edmund Gwen. Remember 'Miracle on 34th Street’?". That shows just what a big star Gwenn was. He only made four more movies after "The Bigamist” along with a smattering of television appearances before his death in 1959. You can read more about Edmund Gwenn in my post on "Miracle on 34th Street". Be sure to check it out.
The last name above the title in "The Bigamist" is Edmond O’Brien, who plays bigamist “Harry”/“Harrison Graham”, a man trapped by his own choices. The film centers around him, and O’Brien masterfully shifts between affection, guilt, and trying to do the right thing, making “Harry’s” predicament both believable and heartbreaking. It’s yet another of the film’s superbly and subtly layered portrayals, with O’Brien employing genuine emotions from beginning to end (like tenderness talking to “Eve” at the airport, an almost paralyzing panic when “Jordan” discovers his secret life, or unquestioning love when asking “Phyllis” to marry him). Even the manner in which O’Brien walks and speaks lets us feel the immense weight that sits this man's shoulders. Though “Harry” has done an egregious thing, because of the humanity O’Brien delivers, one doesn’t hate him. He's not a villain but a sympathetically flawed man, ensuring that “The Bigamist” is not scandalous drama, but a complex and sensitive human tragedy.
Edmond O’Brien had been appearing in movies since 1939, and at this point was known best for lead and starring roles in film noirs such as "D.O.A.", "The Killers", "A Double Life", "The Web", "An Act of Murder", "711 Ocean Drive", and most recently, Lupino's "The Hitch-Hiker”, released earlier in 1953 (he and Lupino liked working together, and he was happy to work with her again in “The Bigamist”). O’Brien worked steadily in films and TV through the mid-1970s, including supporting roles in noteworthy films like "The Barefoot Contessa" (earning him a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award), "Seven Days in May" (earning another Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination), "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance", "The Longest Day", "Fantastic Voyage", and "The Wild Bunch". He began having memory issues in the 1950s, and in the 1970s had Alzheimer's disease which led to his death in 1985 at the age of 69. You can read more about the life and career of Edmond O'Brien in my previous post on "White Heat".
One last mention of Jane Darwell who plays “Mrs. Connelley”, the woman who cleans “Mr. Jordan’s” office. It’s a tiny role (she’s only in one scene), yet in that short time Darwell is able to shape a realistically rough-around-the-edges woman who freely speaks her mind. A wonderful and prolific character actress who appeared in over 180 films and about thirty TV shows, she’s been in many classics, including three already on this blog, "Gone with the Wind", "Mary Poppins", and "The Grapes of Wrath" (which won her an Oscar), and you can read more about the life and career of Jane Darwell in those three posts.
This week’s highly nuanced, thought provoking, and haunting tale about love, guilt, and the choices we make, stays with you long after the credits end. Enjoy the ultra-captivating "The Bigamist”!
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Fascinating! I have never seen this movie and I am looking forward to watching it.