Not Wanted (1949)

Directed by Ida Lupino & Elmer Clifton. Starring Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle, Leo Penn, Dorothy Adams, Wheaton Chambers, Audrey Farr, Rita Lupino, Carol Donne, Virginia Mullen, Ruth Clifford, Ruthelma Stevens.

Marginal, socially-conscious Poverty Row melodrama of a naïve young woman (Forrest) who falls for a “rolling stone” piano player (Penn); he knocks her up and takes off, and she lives to regret giving up her baseborn child. Acting tends to waver between stiff and highly strung, but intimate shot selections and a gentle, subjective tone keep it watchable throughout. Leith Stevens’ score may be overbearing at times, but there’s uncommon sensitivity in the way a “hysterical” woman from the era is treated, and even at its most overwrought—snatching up strange babies, dizzying carousel metaphors, and frantic fantasies of leaping off of tall bridges—there’s no sense that the effect is meant to be exploitative instead of sympathetic. Ida Lupino co-scripted and co-produced, in addition to taking over directing duties shortly after production began when original director Clifton suffered a heart attack; this marks her directorial debut, although she went uncredited.

61/100