Simply A Masterpiece

How sad is this?

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Ida Lupino, born into a British show business dynasty, was as convincing as any foreign player at passing for American in movies. What's more, she got to direct seven features, unheard of for a woman in the late 1940s and '50s. The Bigamist was the last of consequence; probably the best is The Hitch-hiker of 1953.The major problem with the movie under review is its title. If we didn't know this fact about Edmond O'Brien until it transpired in the plot, we would have had a lot more to bite on. So the extended play between O'Brien and Lupino (as actress) loses tension because we already know how it will play out. What's more, most of the story is told in flashback, which means that there is other information we carry right through the movie that we would have found more nourishing to gain later. It cries out to be told chronologically, with the arrival of Edmund Gwenn postponed until much later. And indeed the opening sequence in Gwenn's office is directed over-emphatically by Lupino, pointing us towards concerns about O'Brien's character.A small issue but one that diminishes the film concerns the coy remarks, occurring in two separate scenes, about Miracle on 34th Street and Gwenn's role in it. Indeed, that O'Brien and Lupino meet on a studio tour bus interrupts the sequence with name-dropping to no useful purpose.But I want to end positively. The acting is first rate - Joan Fontaine is especially good in what could easily have become a thankless role - and the willingness to tackle difficult material (including out-of-wedlock pregnancy) is wholly admirable.

Ida Lupino, the trail blazing female director, both stars and directs in this extraordinary 1953 film "The Bigamist".Ms. Lupino made interesting films and tackled some difficult subject matter. This being one of them, the plot conveyed in the title. However, Ms. Lupino, brings sympathy and understanding to all 3 main characters, herself playing Phyllis, Joan Fontaine playing Eve, the barren wife and the travelling tortured salesman played by Edmond O'Brien. Twee in-jokes aside and a few groan-worthy melodramatic moments, the film has aged well.Eve plays the business woman extremely well. Everything starts to turn on its head when she decides she does want a child after all and they proceed with the adoption process.Lupino plays the tough farm girl, working at menial jobs in the city and all too ready to have a romance. Her vulnerability is beautifully portrayed. Her pregnancy is handled with subtlety.Edmund Gwenn plays the adoption agency investigator and does an admirable job.The climax comes in the courtroom scene and this is where some melodrama comes into play but it does not affect the restraint shown by the director in letting the audience decide the moral outcome.8 out of 10. Recommended.

The film starts with a husband and wife, Harry (Edmond O'Brien) and Eve (Joan Fontaine), going through the procedure of adopting a child with adoption official Mr Jordan (Edmund Gwenn). Mr Jordan senses something strange about the behaviour of Harry and so investigates his past which takes him to Los Angeles where he discovers that Harry uses a different name and has another wife Phyliss (Ida Lupino) and child. The main bulk of the film is told in flashback as Harry explains the circumstances to Mr Jordan. At the end, we are left to decide who, if any, of the women will stand by him as a judge announces that sentence will be passed in a week's time.....The film plays out so that you are sympathetic to all 3 major stars - O'Brien, Fontaine and Lupino - and has an ambiguous ending to some. I find that the ending is clear as the final shot says it all. From the beginning, I thought that Mr Jordan was suspicious for no good reasons and that his delving into the past as he did was unrealistic. We are led to believe that he had made a mistake in the past to explain his thoroughness, but he was still a jobsworth to the power of a million. I didn't like him! When Harry goes on a Beverly Hills tour of houses of movie stars (where he meets Phyliss), we are shown the house of Edmund Gwenn, who plays Mr Jordan in the film. Harry should have stopped the bus and torched the place! I think the film needed more excitement but its OK.

This friendly writer finds O'Brien an irresistibly colorful actor and was not unpleased with his almost kabuki _expressivity and glacé grimaces in THE BIGAMIST. Besides, the whole cast is worth watching—Mrs. Fontaine and Mrs. Lupino.Mrs. Fontaine proves again her fantastic gifts--dramatic as well as physical.The script is acceptable in the sense that the protagonist' anxious expression is intended probably, and noticed as such by the old guy. As for the rest, I can not really say that Mrs. Lupino became my favorite director. The movie feels somewhat stale, somewhat stilted; yet for me the cast was a compelling reason to somewhat enjoy it.