Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward in “Ladies in Retirement”

Ladies in Retirement (1941) is an American gothic suspense film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward. The movie was based on the play of the same name by Reginald Denham and Edward Percy. The cinematography was by George Barnes who won an Academy Award the previous year for his work on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

The plot involves Ellen Creed (Lupino), a middle-aged spinster forced to work as a housekeeper/companion to Miss Leonora Fiske (Isobel Elsom), a wealthy retiree and former chorus girl in her youth. Ellen gets a letter about her two sisters Emily (Elsa Lanchester) and Louisa (Edith Barrett) who are odd, to put it mildly. The letter threatens to evict the sisters and send them to an institution.

Ellen suggests to Miss Fiske that her two sisters come for a visit. The visit turns disastrous with Miss Fiske ordering the sisters and Ellen to leave her home. To complicate matters, Albert Feather (Hayward), a distant relative shows up at the most inopportune moment.

Charles Vidor (1900 – 1959) was a Hungarian film director whose career started during the early days of talking pictures. Vidor is most famous for the work he did under contract to Columbia Pictures including Ladies in Retirement (1941), Cover Girl (1944), Together Again (1944), A Song to Remember (1945), and Gilda (1946). After leaving Columbia, Vidor directed Hans Christian Andersen (1952) for Sam Goldwyn, Love Me or Leave Me (1955) for M-G-M, and The Joker is Wild (1957) for Paramount. Vidor suffered a heart attack and died three weeks into filming.

George Barnes (1892 – 1953) was an American cinematographer who began his career during the silent era and worked into the early 1950s. Barnes was competent in both black-and-white and color cinematography. He won an Academy Award for black-and-white photography in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940). Some other films Barnes photographed include Jesse James (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Jane Eyre (1944), Spellbound (1945), Samson Delilah (1949), and The War of the Worlds (1953).

Lupino and Hayward at home with their dog

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 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.

Charles Laughton visits the set of Ladies in Retirement

Louis Hayward (1909 – 1985) was a British-American actor. He worked on the London stage under the tutelage of Noel Coward. He made some films in England in the early 1930s and came to Broadway in 1935 working with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Noel Coward’s Point Valaine. His Broadway fame brought him to Hollywood where he was cast in some minor roles before getting starring roles in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), My Son, My Son! (1940), and The Son of Monte Cristo (1940). Hayward was married to Ida Lupino from 1938 to 1945.

Ladies in Retirement trivia:

• Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward were married during the filming.
• Rosalind Russell was originally announced as the film’s lead.
• Lupino was 23 playing a woman in her mid-40s.
• The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture

Click HERE to watch the movie on YouTube.

Click HERE to join the online discussion on October 28, 2024, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation with a link to join the discussion on Zoom.

Questions for discussion:

1. What genre would you classify this film?
2. Did Ida Lupino make a credible middle-aged woman?
3. Why do you think Miss Fiske gave money to Albert?
4. What did you make of the two “batty” sisters?
5. Did you have any sympathy for Ellen?

  

Tyrone Power heads the cast in “Witness for the Prosecution”

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) is an American mystery thriller directed by Billy Wilder and starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, and Charles Laughton. The supporting cast includes Elsa Lanchester, John Williams, Henry Daniell, Ian Wolfe, Torin Thatcher, Norma Varen, Uno O’Connor, and Ruta Lee.

Sir Wilfrid Robarts (Laughton), a senior barrister, who is recovering from a heart attack, agrees to defend Leonard Vole against the objections of his nurse Miss Pimsoll (Lanchester). Vole has been accused of murdering Emily French, a wealthy widow with no family who had left him the bulk of her estate.

Robarts interviews Vole’s wife Christine (Dietrich) who provides her husband with an alibi. Robarts finds Christine’s testimony off somehow and is suspicious of her motives.

Will Robarts be able to defend Vole against the charge of murder or will circumstances beyond his control change everything?

Henry Daniell, Tyrone Power, and Charles Laughton

Billy Wilder (1906 - 2002) was an Austrian-born American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He won six Academy Awards for his writing and direction and was nominated twenty-one times over a career that spanned five decades. Wilder started his career as a writer, penning the screenplays for Ninotchka (1939), Ball of Fire (1942), Double Indemnity (1945), The Lost Weekend (1946), Sunset Boulevard (1951)  Boulevard (1951), Sabrina (1955), Some Like it Hot (1960), and The Apartment (1961). As a director, he won Academy Awards for directing The Lost Weekend (1946) and The Apartment (1961). Wilder directed fourteen different actors in Oscar-nominated roles. He is considered one of the most versatile directors from Hollywood’s Classical period.

Tyrone Power (1914 – 1958) was a major movie star as well as a star on stage and radio. He was one of the biggest box office draws of the 1930s and 1940s. Power was under exclusive contract to 20th Century-Fox where his image and film choices were carefully selected by studio head Zanuck. After the war, Power wanted to stretch his acting past romantic comedies and swashbuckler roles. Nightmare Alley was Power’s personal favorite of all his films. Some of Power's films include Marie Antoinette (1938), The Rains Came (1939), Jesse James (1939), The Mark of Zorro (1940), and  Blood and Sand (1941). Later in his career, he starred in Captain from Castile (1947), The Black Rose (1950), and Witness for the Prosecution (1957). Power’s favorite of all his films that he starred in was Nightmare Alley (1947) even though it was a commercial and a critical failure when first released. Its status as a classic film noir has been recently reevaluated.

Charles Laughton (1899 – 1962) had a long career on the stage and in Hollywood. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Henry VIII in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) and was nominated for two other Best Actor Oscars for his performances in Mutiny on the Bounty (1933) and Witness for the Prosecution (1957). His performance in The Suspect is considered one of Laughton’s most natural screen performances, which is credited to director Siodmak, a close personal friend of the actor.

Marlene Dietrich (1901 – 1992) was a German and American actress. Dietrich got her start in silent films in her native Germany. She was directed by Josef von Sternberg in The Blue Angel (1930) which made Dietrich an international star. Its success also earned her a contract with Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. Dietrich had her biggest successes during the 1930s in films like Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil is a Woman (1935), and Destry Rides Again (1939). After World War II, Dietrich starred in A Foreign Affair (1948), Stage Fright (1950), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1960). 

Witness for the Prosecution trivia

• Marlene Dietrich was convinced she would receive an Academy Award nomination and was crushed when she did not.
• Agatha Christie was pleased with the film version of her novel.
• This was Tyrone Power’s last completed film. He died of a heart attack on the set of Solomon and Sheba in 1959.
• William Holden was the director’s first choice to play Vole but he was unavailable. Other actors considered include Gene Kelly, Kirk Douglas, Glenn Ford, Jack Lemmon, and Roger Moore.
• Actresses considered for the role of Christine include Ava Gardner and Rita Hayworth.

To watch the movie on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join the discussion on May 29, 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and link to join the discussion on Zoom.

Discussion questions

1. What did you think of the film's casting?
2. Some critics thought Tyrone Power looked too old to play Vole. Do you agree?
3. The cast is impressive. Did any one cast member stand out to you?
4. Was the ending a surprise to you?
5. How does this film stack up to other Billy Wilder films?

Ida Lupino headlines “Ladies in Retirement”

Ladies in Retirement (1941) is an American gothic suspense film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward. The movie was based on the play of the same name by Reginald Denham and Edward Percy. The cinematography was by George Barnes who won an Academy Award the previous year for his work on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca.

The plot involves Ellen Creed (Lupino), a middle-aged spinster who is forced to work as a housekeeper/companion to Miss Leonora Fiske (Isobel Elsom), a wealthy retiree and former chorus girl in her youth. Ellen gets a letter about her two sisters Emily (Elsa Lanchester) and Louisa (Edith Barrett) who are a bit odd, to put it mildly. The letter threatens to evict the sisters and send them to an institution.

Ellen suggests to Miss Fiske that her two sisters come for a visit. The visit turns disastrous with Miss Fiske ordering the sisters and Ellen to leave her home. To complicate matters, Albert Feather (Hayward), a distant relative shows up at the most inopportune moment.

Charles Vidor (1900 – 1959) was a Hungarian film director whose career started during the early days of talking pictures. Vidor is most famous for the work he did under contract to Columbia Pictures including Ladies in Retirement (1941), Cover Girl (1944), Together Again (1944), A Song to Remember (1945), and Gilda (1946). After leaving Columbia, Vidor directed Hans Christian Andersen (1952) for Sam Goldwyn, Love Me or Leave Me (1955) for M-G-M, and The Joker is Wild (1957) for Paramount. Vidor suffered a heart attack and died three weeks into filming.

George Barnes (1892 – 1953) was an American cinematographer who began his career during the silent era and worked into the early 1950s. Barnes was competent in both black and white and color cinematography. He won an Academy Award for his black and white photography in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940). Some other films Barnes photographed include Jesse James (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Jane Eyre (1944), Spellbound (1945), Samson Delialah (1949), and The War of the Worlds (1953).

Lupino and Hayward at home with their dog

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.

Charles Laughton visits the set of Ladies in Retirement

Louis Hayward (1909 – 1985) was a British-American actor. He worked on the London stage under the tutelage of Noel Coward. He made some films in England in the early 1930s and came to Broadway in 1935 working with Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Noel Coward’s Point Valaine. His Broadway fame brought him to Hollywood where he was cast in some minor roles before getting starring roles in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939), My Son, My Son! (1940), and The Son of Monte Cristo (1940). Hayward was married to Ida Lupino from 1938 to 1945.

Ladies in Retirement trivia:

• Ida Lupino and Louis Hayward were married during the filming.
• Rosalind Russell was originally announced as the film’s lead.
• Lupino was 23 playing a woman in her mid-40s.
• The film was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture

To watch the film, click on the YouTube link below.

To join us on November 3, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. for a discussion on Zoom, visit the Chicago Film Club Meetup page.

Questions for discussion:

1. What genre would you classify this film?
2. Did Ida Lupino make a credible middle-aged woman?
3. Why do you think Miss Fiske gave money to Albert?
4. What did you make of the two “batty” sisters?
5. Did you have any sympathy for Ellen?