Beware, My Lovely | |
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Directed by | Harry Horner |
Written by | Mel Dinelli |
Based on | The Man by Mel Dinelli |
Produced by | Collier Young for The Filmakers [1] |
Starring | Ida Lupino Robert Ryan Taylor Holmes |
Cinematography | George E. Diskant |
Edited by | Paul Weatherwax |
Music by | Leith Stevens |
Production company | The Filmakers |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 77 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Beware, My Lovely is a 1952 American crime film noir directed by Harry Horner starring Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan and Taylor Holmes. The film is based on the 1950 play The Man by Mel Dinelli, who also wrote the screenplay.
A widow named Helen Gordon impulsively hires handyman Howard Wilton to help her with house repairs and cleaning, but she quickly discovers that he is dangerous, paranoid and unstable. Howard keeps Helen inside the house for the entire day and she cannot summon help or escape.
The play on which the film is based, The Man, was originally a short story written by Mel Dinelli, who also adapted the story for the stage. [2] It debuted on Broadway in January 1950 with Dorothy Gish in the starring role. [3] The story was also featured on the CBS radio show Suspense as "To Find Help" on January 18, 1945 with Frank Sinatra and Agnes Moorehead. It was dramatized again as an episode of Suspense with Gene Kelly and Ethel Barrymore on January 6, 1949. [4]
The film was shot over an 18-day period in 1951 for Collier Young and Ida Lupino's production company the Filmakers. RKO Pictures head Howard Hughes withheld the film from release for a year. Robert Ryan later said that he felt that Hughes had tried to "bury" the film because Ryan was active in left-wing politics. [5]
Earlier in 1952, Lupino and Ryan had costarred in On Dangerous Ground , a film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by John Houseman.
The story was the basis for a 1960 episode of the TV anthology Startime , with Audie Murphy and Thelma Ritter.
In a contemporary review for The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther wrote: "It is a straight tour-de-force situation, clearly contrived and designed for no other positive purpose than to send shivers chasing up and down the spine. And in that respectable endeavor, its success will depend entirely upon how susceptible you are to illogic and little tricks of looming shadows and clutching hands." [1]
Ida Lupino was a British actress, director, writer, and producer. Throughout her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed eight, working primarily in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She is widely regarded as the most prominent female filmmaker working in the 1950s during the Hollywood studio system. With her independent production company, she co-wrote and co-produced several social-message films and became the first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953.
High Sierra is a 1941 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh, written by William R. Burnett and John Huston from the novel by Burnett, and starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Its plot follows a career criminal who becomes involved in a jewel heist in a resort town in California's Sierra Nevada, along with a young former taxi dancer (Lupino).
Robert Bushnell Ryan was an American actor and activist. Known for his portrayals of hardened cops and ruthless villains, Ryan performed for over three decades. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film noir drama Crossfire (1947).
On Dangerous Ground is a 1951 film noir starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino, directed by Nicholas Ray, and produced by John Houseman. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides based on the 1945 novel Mad with Much Heart by Gerald Butler.
The Spiral Staircase is a 1946 American psychological horror film directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Dorothy McGuire, George Brent, and Ethel Barrymore. Set over the course of one evening, the film follows a mute young woman in an early-20th century Vermont town who is stalked and terrorized in a rural mansion by a serial killer targeting women with disabilities. Gordon Oliver, Rhonda Fleming, and Elsa Lanchester appear in supporting roles. It was adapted for the screen by Mel Dinelli from the novel Some Must Watch (1933) by Ethel Lina White.
Howard Green Duff was an American actor.
Act of Violence is a 1949 American film noir starring Van Heflin, Robert Ryan and featuring Janet Leigh, Mary Astor and Phyllis Thaxter.
The Sound of Fury is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by Cy Endfield and starring Frank Lovejoy, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson. The film is based on the 1947 novel The Condemned by Jo Pagano, who also wrote the screenplay.
The Window is a 1949 American black-and-white film noir, based on the short story "The Boy Cried Murder" by Cornell Woolrich, about a lying boy who witnesses a killing but is not believed. The film, a critical success that was shot on location in New York City, was produced by Frederic Ullman Jr. for $210,000 but earned much more, making it a box-office hit for RKO Pictures. The film was directed by Ted Tetzlaff, who worked as a cinematographer on over 100 films, including another successful suspense film, Alfred Hitchcock's Notorious (1946). For his performances in this film and in So Dear to My Heart, Bobby Driscoll was presented with a miniature Oscar statuette as the outstanding juvenile actor of 1949 at the 1950 Academy Awards ceremony.
Sally Forrest was an American film, stage and TV actress of the 1940s and 1950s. She studied dance from a young age and shortly out of high school was signed to a contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
House by the River is a 1950 American murder mystery film starring Louis Hayward, Lee Bowman and Jane Wyatt. Regarded by some as a film noir, the Victorian era feature was directed by Fritz Lang, based on the 1921 novel of the same title by A. P. Herbert.
Private Hell 36 is a 1954 American crime film noir directed by Don Siegel starring Ida Lupino, Steve Cochran, Howard Duff, Dean Jagger and Dorothy Malone.
The Las Vegas Story is a 1952 American suspense film noir starring Jane Russell and Victor Mature, directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Robert Sparks and Howard Hughes with Samuel Bischoff as the executive producer.
The Man I Love is a 1947 American film noir melodrama starring Ida Lupino, Robert Alda, Andrea King, and Bruce Bennett. Directed by Raoul Walsh, the film is based on the novel Night Shift by Maritta M. Wolff. The title is taken from the George and Ira Gershwin song "The Man I Love", which is prominently featured.
Out of the Fog is a 1941 American film noir crime drama directed by Anatole Litvak, starring John Garfield, Ida Lupino and Thomas Mitchell. The film was based on the play The Gentle People by Irwin Shaw.
Hard, Fast and Beautiful is a 1951 American drama film directed by Ida Lupino and starring Claire Trevor. It is loosely based on the 1930 novel American Girl by sports-fiction author John R. Tunis, which was an unflattering and thinly veiled fictionalization of the life of the tennis star Helen Wills Moody.
The Glass Web is a 1953 American 3-D film noir crime film directed by Jack Arnold and starring Edward G. Robinson, John Forsythe, Marcia Henderson and Kathleen Hughes. It is based on Max Simon Ehrlich's 1952 novel Spin the Glass Web.
Woman in Hiding is a 1950 American melodrama starring Ida Lupino, Howard Duff and Stephen McNally. It was directed by Michael Gordon, with cinematography by William H. Daniels. Peggy Dow, John Litel, and Taylor Holmes, appear in support. Some observers regard the picture as a film noir, a view not universally embraced.
Amelio "Mel" Dinelli was an American writer for theatre, radio, film and magazines, usually in the suspense genre. He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and graduated from Albuquerque High School. He joined the Albuquerque Little Theatre company for its inaugural season in 1931, acting in two plays alongside future I Love Lucy star Vivian Vance. He later studied at the Pasadena Playhouse school of theater arts and the University of Washington.
Victory is a 1940 American adventure film directed by John Cromwell and starring Fredric March, Cedric Hardwicke and Betty Field. It was based on the popular 1915 novel by Joseph Conrad. On the eve of the American entry into World War II, Conrad's story of a hermit on an island invaded by thugs was refashioned into a call for intervention in the war in Europe at the height of American isolationism.