Ida Lupino: A Biography

Rating:
Summary: Reasonable overview, many open questions
Review: Donati has written a respectful and seemingly accurate portrait of Ida Lupino as star, director and woman. A reader looking for basic biographical data on a deeper-than-encylopedia level will find what they are looking for with this book.

Donati, unfortunately, writes with a noticeable lack of flair and manages to nearly make Lupino boring. This is no mean feat, given how colorful and important she was. He does not place her films into a critical or historical context. Nor does he really explore her character on anything more than a surface psychological level. Furthermore, in his focus on her romantic life, he overlooks or skips over other important relationships that she had with other women. The most obvious omission is her adult relationship with her daughter.

Useful for class assignments, but other readers may want to wait for a better treatment.

Rating:
Summary: Ok on Facts of Life --Little Film Analysis and Commentary
Review: The author is good at setting out the basic facts of Lupino's life. He writes clearly and is basically engaging. However, after having read the book, I don't feel I know Lupino well--personnally or as an artist.

As an artist--how did she view her acting roles? How was her personality expressed in the films she directed? Why did she make The Hitch Hiker, for example? Or, what was her sense of her contribution to film? In short--there is just about zero description of her work and no integration of film anaylsis and commentary into the biography.

About her personal life, we are told about her turbulanet relationships with no explantion as to why a powerful woman would put up with the seemingly abusive Howard Duff as a husband. There is one paragraph in the last chapter where the author speculates that Lupino had a borderline personality disorder. This perspective came through dimly as he worte, but I would have appreciated a more consistant and deeper exploration of her personality.

Unfortunately, I ended up having less respect for Lupino after reading the book than before, in large part, I believe, because the author refuses to place Lupino in an artisitc or psychological context.

Rating:
Summary: Ok on Facts of Life --Little Film Analysis and Commentary
Review: This book provides a concise and in-depth investigation on what drove Ida Lupino, not only as an actress but to become Hollywood's first female director. Starting off with a background look at the Lupino family the author, William Donati, gives us at the foundation upon which Ida was driven to carry on in the family business, and would eventually lead her to Hollywood. Here we are given a real life look at what actors had to endure during the studios contract days, in which they controlled not only the lives of their stars, but their careers as well. We learn of the battles Ida had to put up with, both artistically and physically, and how the glamorous life of a star could be anything but. This treatment would eventually lead her to split from the studios and strike out on her own, as an independent. Here we learn of her first foray into directing, and the constant struggle to finance and put out quality films. This is paralleled with the conflict between her career and personal life, as we are given a clear glimpse at her failed marriages, and her battle with herself. The author gives us a real fans eye look at this great actress come director. Truly a must book for any fan of Hollywood's golden age.

Rating:
Summary: a look at Hollywood's forgotten queen, Ida Lupino
Review: William Donati's book, Ida Lupino, a biography, was very interesting and well written. Some of the data is in line with the A and E biography, but some is not. I have to agree with just one of the other reviewers in the fact that very little is said about Ms. Lupino's daughter, Bridget Duff as a grown woman. It came out very strongly that Ms.Lupino had a never ending concern about what her father thought. Ms. Lupino's roles on the screen were that of woman who, while flawed, were very interesting. One could not help to think about what would have happened if she was given better roles. Her constant feuds with Warner Bros. and many suspensions for not accepting lousy parts were outlined in the book. Another thing that the book does not go into is, why after 60 plus movies as an actress, 6 as a directors and 100+ as a TV director, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and sciences and the Emmy Awards has completely overlooked Lupino. Overall, I liked the book very much.