Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan do battle in “Beware, My Lovely”

Beware, My Lovely (1952) is an American film noir directed by Harry Horner and starring Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan. The film is based on the play The Man by Mel Dinelli. The Man was originally a short story, and then a play on Broadway starring Dorothy Gish. It was also adapted as a radio drama as To Find Help in 1945 with Frank Sinatra and Agnes Moorehead and again with Gene Kelly and Ethel Barrymore in 1949. The cinematography is by George E. Diskant and the music is by Leith Stevens.

World War I window Helen Gordon (Lupino) hires a handyman Howard Wilton (Ryan) during the Christmas holidays to help her with home repairs and cleaning. She soon discovers him to be mentally unstable and physically dangerous. Howard keeps Helen captive in her own home, threatening her if she tries to call for help.

Will Helen be able to escape the clutches of Howard or will things take a turn for the worse?

Harry Horner (1910 – 1994) was a German Bohemian-born American art director who was an Oscar-winning art director and feature film and television director. Horner one his art direction Oscar for his work on The Heiress (1949) directed by William Wyler. He also created the scenery for the original Broadway production of Lady in The Dark (1941). Horner also did the art direction A Double Life (1947), Born Yesterday (1950). Horner directed several TV series including Gunsmoke. Horner won another Oscar, shared with Gene Callahan, for set decoration (back and white) for The Hustler (1961)

Ida Lupino (1918 – 1995) was an English-American actress, director, and producer. She appeared in over 50 films and was one of Warner Bros.’s biggest contract players during the 1940s starring in High Sierra (1941), The Sea Wolf (1941), and The Man I Love (1947). After she left Warner Bros., Lupino formed her own production company, producing, writing, and directing films that tackled subjects the big studios wouldn’t touch. During the 1950s, Lupino was the only female director working in Hollywood. She directed several small independent films but really made a name for herself directing for television. Lupino directed episodes of The Twilight Zone (starred in one too), The Rifleman, Bonanza, Gilligan’s Island, It Takes a Thief, Family Affair, and Columbo. In 1966, she directed her one-and-only big-budget studio picture, The Trouble with Angels starring Rosalind Russell and Haley Mills.

Robert Ryan (1909 - 1973) was an American film and stage actor. Ryan got his start in acting with a theater group in Chicago, where he was born, in the late-1930s. By 1939, he had a film contract with Paramount appearing in minor roles in a variety of pictures. In 1943, he signed a long-term contract with RKO based on his stage performance in Clash by Night (1941). The studio was grooming him for stardom with 1943’s Tender Comrade co-starring Ginger Rogers when he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, serving as a drill instructor. He resumed his career after the war and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance in Crossfire (1947). Ryan worked on stage, TV, and in film during the next three decades. His other film roles include The Set-Up (1949), Flying Leathernecks (1951), On Dangerous Ground (1951), Clash by Night (1952), and Bad Day at Black Rock (1954).

Beware, My Lovely trivia

• The film’s release was held up for a year by Howard Hughes.
• Farley Granger was originally going to star alongside Lupino.
• The photo of Mrs. Gordon’s husband is William Talman who played Hamilton Burger on Perry Mason and starred in Lupino’s The Hitchhiker (1953).
• The staircase in Helen’s home was left over from The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) set.
• Mr. Armstrong, Helen’s border, is played by Taylor Holmes. Holmes worked with Lupino’s father Stanley Lupino on the London stage in 1920.
• This was Harry Horner’s first directorial effort. James Horner was Harry’s oldest son, the Oscar-winning composer (Titanic 1997).

 

To watch the movie on YouTube, click here.

  

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Discussion questions

1. Would you call this movie a film noir (some critics do) or would you classify it as something else?
2. Were Lupino and Ryan a good match? Would it have been a different film if Farley Granger played Howard?
3. Was the film believable? If it wasn’t believable, were you able to go with it anyway?
4. Did the film remind you of any other films you’ve seen?
5. Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?