Known for taking roles Bette Davis turned down, Ida Lupino went on to pave a path entirely her own. With on-screen credits including “They Drive by Night” and “High Sierra,” the actress “reinvented herself as a pioneer indie director, writer, and producer, the first woman of the sound era to do so and the only woman director in Hollywood for decades, tackling once-taboo subject matter, under her company banner The Filmmakers,” a press release from Film Forum details. The New York movie theater is hosting “Ida Lupino at 100,” a film series celebrating the trailblazing multi-hyphenate.
Scheduled to take place November 9-22, the retrospective includes all-new restorations of three of Lupino’s films as a director: 1953’s”The Bigamist,” a portrait of a man secretly married to two women, 1953’s “The Hitch-Hiker,” about two fisherman who pick up a dangerous hitchhiker, and 1949’s “Not Wanted,” the story of a young woman seduced and impregnated by a musician.
Lupino made history as the only woman to helm an episode of the original “Twilight Zone” series. Her other small screen directing credits include “Bewitched,” “Gilligan’s Island,” and “The Fugitive.” She received three Emmy nods for her work as an actress.
Born in England in 1918, Lupino died in 1995 in LA.
For more information about “Ida Lupino at 100,” head to Film Forum’s website.
