Showing posts with label Ida Lupino. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ida Lupino. Show all posts

Monday, February 2, 2026

Roadhouse

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Roadhouse. Ida Lupino, Richard Widmark, and Cornel Wilde star in this 1948 film noir. Lupino plays a sultry night club singer hired to perform at a roadhouse run by Widmark and Wilde, close friends, who both fall for her with tragic results. Jean Negulesco directed this love triangle story, and famed cinematographer Joseph LaShelle's black and white photography makes it a true film noir. 95 minutes. CC.

This fictional roadhouse is situated in a town in hunting country not far from the Canadian border. It includes a bar and cocktail lounge as well as a bowling alley. Those were the days.

Seeing Lupino sing “One for the Road,” and “Again” is worth the price of admission. She was not a singer but an actress who could put over a song. Here's a link.


Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark

Trivia questions. As mentioned above Ida Lupino sings "One for the Road" a song about a solitary patron in a bar late at night. From the song lyrics,

 What time is it?
 What's the name of the bartender?

Monday, January 5, 2026

High Sierra


High Sierra. 
This ground-breaking 1941 film stars Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. Bogart plays a prohibition era gangster released from prison only to find himself out of place in a new world. Even the criminals are not up to the old standards. Written by John Huston, and directed with gritty intensity by Raoul Walsh, High Sierra signaled a new era in film. 100 minutes. CC.

High Sierra marked Bogart’s first role as a sympathetic leading man, and established his persona as a tough guy with a hard exterior cloaking a soft, caring inside, a persona immediately evident in two subsequent iconic films, The Maltese Falcon (1941), and Casablanca(1942), that made him a huge star. Roy Earle, Sam Spade, and Rick Blaine were roles that it is now hard to imagine anyone playing but Humphrey Bogart. 

Ida Lupino matched Bogart scene by scene as well as any of his more famous leading ladies. She would go on to have a fine career as a film actress, writer, and director. 

Here is a link to Eddie Muller's short intro to the film where he discusses its making and significance. 

Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart