Ida Lupino, Groundbreaker

Actress Ida Lupino, who appeared in nearly 60 films in her 48-year career - she was smitten with Bogart in "High Sierra," a depraved murderess in "They Drive by Night," and a pathological warden in "Women's Prison" - was an anomaly.

A woman who, with her husband, formed an independent production company, The Filmakers [sic], in the mid-1940s, she was a prolific triple-threat who wrote, produced and directed low-budget movies with a feminist bent that delved into sexuality and repression. Between 1949 and 1968, she directed over 100 television programs, from "The Untouchables" to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," at a time when few or no women did any of the above. At five-foot two, she was formidable, taking a novel approach to sexual politics of the time by having her film crews address her as "Mother," in case there was any doubt as to who was in charge.

The English-born Lupino got her first break helming a movie in 1949, when she replaced Elmer Clifton, the director of "Not Wanted," a film she co-wrote and co-produced, after he suffered a heart attack. She was the first Hollywood actress to direct a film, and the only American woman to direct a film noir. Elizabeth Banks, Reese Witherspoon and Angelina Jolie Pitt are among the 21st-century actresses who have built on her model, generating and optioning interesting projects in front of and behind the camera that the industry rarely offers them.

Although Lupino was clearly a trail-blazer in a male-dominated field, few outside the insular world of film buffs know much about the extraordinary woman whose work Martin Scorsese once described as "resilient, with a remarkable empathy for the fragile and the heartbroken."

"Her tough, emotional acting is well remembered, but her considerable accomplishments as a filmmaker are largely forgotten," he wrote in a New York Times Magazine article shortly after her death in 1995. "She was a true pioneer; the [six] films she directed between 1949 and 1953 are remarkable chamber pieces, and a singular achievement in American cinema."

"Ida Lupino: Forgotten Pioneer," a one-day event at the Balboa Theater this Sunday, Nov. 22, pays tribute to the artistic achievements of this groundbreaking woman by screening two of her directorial efforts from 1953, "The Bigamist" and "The Hitch-Hiker," which turn gender roles on their head. In both movies, "Lupino was able to reduce the male to the same sort of dangerous, irrational force that women represented in most male-directed examples of Hollywood film noir," wrote film historian Richard Koszarski in his book "Hollywood Directors."

"The Bigamist" is a domestic, unhappily-ever-after melodrama in which Edmond O'Brien plays the duplicitous husband of the title, who leads a double life with one family in L.A., and another in San Francisco. Joan Fontaine and Lupino (her only appearance in a film she directed) portray the two wives he deceives, at least for a while. The script by film and television producer Collier Young mirrored his complex personal relationships. He was married to Fontaine while working with Lupino, who was by then his ex-wife, business partner and the film's director.

It's difficult to ascertain why Lupino had opportunities her female contemporaries and those who later followed her did not, but her entree into the realm of directing might have been aided by her marriage to and professional partnership with Young. Though they divorced in 1951, he served as the producer of "Outrage" (1950), which tackled the taboo subject of rape and rape culture before the latter term was part of the lexicon.

Her icy, fast-paced venture into genre filmmaking, "The Hitch-Hiker" is a chilling road movie that doubles as a cautionary tale about the perils of giving a ride to a sadistic serial murderer. In the film, two friends (Edmond O'Brien, Frank Lovejoy), softie weekend warriors on a lark in the Mexican desert, pick up a fugitive killer (William Talman). Once in their car, he kidnaps and tortures the pair, intent on murdering them after he's had his twisted fun and they've outlived their usefulness. Needless to say, he ruins their vacation. Some critics have noted that the villain becomes a male version of that familiar noir trope, the femme fatale, who teases and taunts her prey before ending him.

Reportedly based on a true story, "The Hitch-Hiker" "is a tough-as-nails noir, and deserves the praise it consistently receives," says longtime Roxie programmer Elliot Lavine. "It's the type of male-centric film associated with the noir style, which is what makes it so remarkable that a woman directed it. It's a film any director, whatever gender, would be proud to have on their resume."

"The Bigamist" screens at 11a.m. on Nov. 22 at the Balboa Theater, followed by "The Hitch-Hiker" at 12:30 p.m. Both films will be introduced by San Francisco Chronicle movie correspondent Ruthe Stein. Tickets are free, but must be requested in advance by emailing [email protected]