In addition to being one of the only women to direct movies in studio-era Hollywood, Ida Lupino was a formidable and versatile actor who brought a defiant toughness and intelligence to her many memorable screen performances. After failed attempts by studio moguls to mold her into another blonde starlet à la Jean Harlow, Lupino dyed her hair brown and stole the show with her steely presence in noir classics like THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT and HIGH SIERRA. Though she began to focus primarily on producing and directing her own films in the late forties, she continued to act regularly, delivering searing performances in lesser-known gems like the atmospheric western noir LUST FOR GOLD and Robert Aldrich’s slashing Hollywood-on-Hollywood exposé THE BIG KNIFE.
Directed by Henry Hathaway • 1935 • United States
Starring Gary Cooper, Ann Harding, John Halliday
Based on George du Maurier’s classic and intensely romantic novel, PETER IBBETSON tells the otherworldly tale of two childhood sweethearts reunited as adults, only to be separated again through a t...
Directed by Raoul Walsh • 1940 • United States
Starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino
Humphrey Bogart and George Raft share a driving ambition in this feisty tale of brothers trying to make a go of their independent trucking enterprise. After ten years of the Great Depression, scrappy Jo...
Directed by Raoul Walsh • 1941 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Humphrey Bogart, Alan Curtis
Marking the moment when the gritty gangster sagas of the 1930s began giving way to the romantic fatalism of ’40s film noir, HIGH SIERRA also contains the star-making performance of Humphrey Bogart, w...
Directed by Anatole Litvak • 1941 • United States
Starring John Garfield, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell
John Garfield and Ida Lupino star in the big-screen adaptation of Irwin Shaw’s play “The Gentle People,” a pre–World War II allegory warning of the seductive allure and danger inherent in preten...
Directed by Michael Curtiz • 1941 • United States
Starring Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield
Michael Curtiz’s masterful adaptation of Jack London’s classic psychological adventure novel gives Edward G. Robinson one of his finest screen hours as Wolf Larsen, the tyrannical captain of ...
Directed by Archie Mayo • 1942 • United States
Starring Jean Gabin, Ida Lupino, Thomas Mitchell
French screen legend Jean Gabin made his Hollywood debut in this broodingly fatalistic noir melodrama. He stars as an alcoholic dockworker who, following a night of heavy drinking, wakes up with no me...
Directed by Vincent Sherman • 1943 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Dennis Morgan, Joan Leslie
When Bette Davis turned down the lead role in this juicy, dark-hearted backstage melodrama (a decision she later regretted), it paved the way for Ida Lupino to take on one of her finest dramatic sh...
Directed by Raoul Walsh • 1946 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King
Bathed in a downbeat noir mood and smoky jazz-lounge atmosphere, this haunting melodrama stars Ida Lupino as husky-voiced singer Petey Brown, who takes a job performing in a divey nightclub. She’s carryi...
Directed by S. Sylvan Simon • 1949 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Glenn Ford, Gig Young
The search for a legendary fortune unleashes tragedy in this dark, gripping saga of gold and greed. Glenn Ford is Jacob Walz, a young man determined to track down the fabled Arizona gold mine known as t...
Directed by Michael Gordon • 1950 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Stephen McNally, Howard Duff
As far as the rest of the world is concerned, mill heiress Deborah Chandler Clark (Ida Lupino) is dead, killed in a freak auto accident. But Deborah is alive, if not too well. Having discovered a ...
Directed by Robert Aldrich • 1955 • United States
Starring Jack Palance, Ida Lupino, Rod Steiger
Hollywood superstar Charlie Castle (Jack Palance) has it all, except for a way out. When he tries to leave show business, his tyrannical studio boss, Stanley Hoff (Steiger), blackmails him with a let...
Directed by Lewis Seiler • 1955 • United States
Starring Ida Lupino, Jan Sterling, Cleo Moore
One of the first and most influential of the many “women in prison” films that would become exploitation staples, this pulp shocker established many of the tropes that would define the genre (including ...
Directed by Fritz Lang • 1956 • United States
Starring Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders
“Ask mother,” says the message scrawled in lipstick at a murder scene by an unknown serial killer who preys on women. It’s a sensational story—if it bleeds, it leads—and a news conglomerate offers...
