How Ida Lupino broke into man’s world of directing

Ida Lupino liked to be called Mother on a movie set. She even had the nickname inscribed on her director’s chair. She felt the cast and crew would try harder if they considered her as family.

In a broad definition of the word, Lupino, who directed seven feature films and more than 100 TV episodes between 1949 and 1968, was mother to future generations of actresses with the wherewithal to secure their place behind a movie camera.

Among those owing a debt: Angelina Jolie, whose third movie as a director, “By the Sea,” opened Friday, Nov. 13; Natalie Portman, who directed the Hebrew-language film “A Tale of Love and Darkness”; and Elizabeth Banks, director of “Pitch Perfect 2.”

Lupino’s influence isn’t limited to actresses. When Clint Eastwood was shooting “Rawhide” in the early 1960s, he would visit the next-door lot just to watch her direct “Have Gun — Will Travel.” He found her riding a horse alongside the cameraman to get action shots.

When film critic Carrie Rickey interviewed Eastwood, “He said to me, ‘I believed that if an actress could become a director, it kind of made me think I could be a director.’”

But Lupino’s contribution to cinema history is only faintly remembered. She never received the recognition she deserved — no Directors Guild awards or Oscars, not even a nomination. After accumulating three director credits, Lupino was trotted out at the 1950 Academy Awards to announce best director. The winner, Joseph Mankiewicz, greeted Lupino by describing her as “the only woman in the Directors Guild, and the prettiest.”

Belonging to that male fortress, whose members were routinely identified as “gentlemen and Miss Lupino,” is just one distinction. Lupino was the first marquee-name actress to direct a movie in the sound era, the first to direct herself (in “The Bigamist”), the first and still the only woman to direct a film noir (“The Hitch-Hiker”) and almost certainly the only one to have a jazz song written about her: “Ida Lupino,” composed by bandleader Carla Bley.

“Once I started directing, I realized how tough it must have been for her and what courage she must have had,” said Lee Grant, the first prominent film actress after Lupino to turn director with “Tell Me a Riddle” in 1976.

Lupino often found herself suspended by the studio for turning down roles she considered beneath her. Restless and quick-witted, she turned to writing movie scripts and producing films with her second husband, Collier Young.

“Collier was a very smart guy, and I think he encouraged her to direct. I am not trying to undermine her achievement. But I think he was an important element in what came to pass,” said film critic and historian David Thomson.

When director Elmer Clifton had a heart attack a few days before cameras were to roll on “Unwanted,” Lupino, then 31, the film’s co-writer and producer, took his place.

She soon established work habits like staying up all night dictating ideas for the next day’s shoot. Throughout her directing career she stayed on a tight shooting schedule by studiously preparing and never appearing indecisive.

“I would never think of indulging in what has come to be known as a woman’s right to change her mind,” Lupino says in “Ida Lupino: A Biography” by William Donati. “As soon as I get a script I go to work on it. I study and prepare and when the time comes to shoot, my mind is usually made up and I go ahead right or wrong.”

Lupino’s views on how women should act in a male environment would not be readily endorsed today. “Women who wish to smash into the world of men usually aren’t very feminine,” she says in her autobiography “Behind the Camera.”

“But I retain every feminine trait while directing (including maintaining manicured red fingernails). Men prefer it that way. They are more cooperative if they see you are fundamentally of the weaker sex. At times I pretend to a cameraman to know less than I do. That way I get more cooperation,” she said, adding that she never once blew up on a set. “A woman cannot afford to do that. They’re waiting for it.”

Lupino instinctively knew how to light her actresses and had a sharp eye for casting, giving Hugh O’Brian, Sally Forrest and Keefe Brasselle early breaks. Producers loved her because she looked for ways to save money, bragging about bringing in a film in 13 days and for under $200,000.

Lupino’s cost-cutting devices included recycling a set from an old John Garfield movie and giving her female cast members access to her clothes. For a scene in “Not Wanted” of a woman giving birth, she engaged her personal physician to officiate at the delivery for free.

“Not Wanted,” the story of a single woman enduring an unwanted pregnancy, set a pattern for Lupino of tackling tough social issues that male filmmakers wouldn’t touch. She went on to deal with rape in “Outrage,” bigamy in “The Bigamist” and polio in “Never Fear.” Martin Scorsese has called these films “resilient with a remarkable empathy for the fragile and heartbroken.”

Like several of her movies, “Never Fear” grew out of Lupino’s personal experience. She was stricken with polio as a child, leaving her with a bum hand. Born into a famed British acting family, she was pushed into films while still a teenager by her mother, Connie Emerald, whose own desire to be a movie star had been thwarted. In “Hard, Fast and Beautiful,” Lupino created a stage mother based partially on her own who lives vicariously through her tennis prodigy daughter.

Hard-edged noir

In the early 1950s, Lupino turned down what would have been her fifth women’s picture in favor of a hard-edged noir, “The Hitch-Hiker,” starring a primarily male cast. She was one of the first from the film world to recognize the potential of television and found a home there directing a wide range of shows, including “The Twilight Zone,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “The Bill Cosby Show” and the pilot for “Gilligan’s Island.” Lupino deserves the last word on her pioneering career: “I held my own in the toughest kind of man’s world.”

Ruthe Stein is The San Francisco Chronicle’s movie correspondent. E-mail: sadolphson@sfchronicle.com

By the Sea ( R) is playing at Bay Area theaters.

To see a trailer, go to www.youtube.com/watch ?v=j8lMbJTsUGU.

Two of Ida Lupino’s strongest films as a director will be shown for free Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Balboa Theatre. “The Bigamist” screens at 11 a.m., followed by “The Hitch-Hiker” at 12:30 p.m.