This rather remarkable actress turned directer was in my opinion quite brave to try and take on such controversial topics as rape and being an unwed mother. In the movie The Bigamist, Lupino tackles the topic of Polygamy. In this movie we have a seemingly happy married traveling salesman whose wife due to being unable to have a child invests all her time into the family business. This man loves his wife but is so very lonely that he has an affair with an equally lonely woman he meets in another city. After discovering that she is pregnant he does the "honorable" thing and takes her as his wife despite already having a wife.
I felt that Lupino tried very hard to make a movie with a plot line that could have been considered a male basher if taken in a certain extreme direction so she seemed to take it to another extreme direction. She made the male character so sympathetic that in doing so she took away any culpability he would have had in the audiences eyes. I can understand that as a new director she may have felt pressure to make the male lead look not all bad but in doing so I feel she did a disservice to women.
I mean he wronged both these women leaving them with the shame of being cheated on and left alone and these two woman really seemed to care for him. The worst part is though that in the end you end up feeling more sorry for him than them! I just thought that if the story could have shown him in a harsh light the way an adulterer ought to be shown that this would have made the story a bit more even. Perhaps if he had gone to jail that might have been a better ending.
8 comments:
Hi Kelly,
I feel your frustration on how Lupino portrayed Harry as such a likable character. However I think that is what made this film so different, the fact that she as female director could make a film like the bigamist so unbiased.
Seema
Her man friend should have been thrown in jail. Its odd that Lupino took the story that way because you would think that in 1953 a Judge would sentence a bigamist to jail, not lecture him on how he did the only thing morally right he could do. I also have to say that I didn't really see the ending happening like it did. It surprised me.
I also see your point of view, I was upset to see this guy get off so easily and portrayed as somewhat of a good guy. I was surprised to see this from Ida Lupino.
I don't think Lupino made Harry such a likable character because she was afraid of being called a male basher. She made him (and the rest of the characters) so sympathetic because their conflict was supposed to be a reflection of injustice in society as a whole.
I think it's likely that the blame in The Bigamist is supposed to be laid on the rigid nature of marital relationships at the time.
I think that he was already being punished for his crime. He hurt his wives but at least he was looking out for them. No one could have won in that situation. I don't think he was portrayed in a real light though. What guy would really do that?!?
There were a lot of good moral points pointed out in the film and a lot of good ones made on this blog and comments page. His punishment at the end of the movie; however, is more of an open-ended discussion. I believe he is not let off easy, but I can see a good argument against mine. The film just sort of ends without too much closure. Harry gets caught, but we do not know the judge's sentence. He may have even lost both of the women he loved.
Kelly,
The Bigamist was a movie that people (like myself) that watch comtemporary film are not used to. Most of the movies we often watch all have clear endings, tied with a pretty bow. But that's not how life is. Yes, it's film and films help us escape for 2 hours, but personally, I'm getting sick of what I see in many films today; the ending is so predictable, especially in the romantic comedies. I like this film because it leaves the viewer uncomfortable, like someone in Harry's position would feel.
Maybe she wanted to portray the character in a complex way.
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