Never Fear

One of the greatest treasures held by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is this 1949 drama that marked actress Ida Lupino's official directing debut (she had earlier taken over direction of the same year's Not Wanted, which she had co-written and co-produced for her and husband Collier Young's Emerald Productions). Like most of the films she made with Young, it deals with social issues from a woman's perspective. Not Wanted had dealt with adoption, while Outrage (1950) was one of the first American films about the traumas following a rape, Hard, Fast and Beautiful (1951) focused on the exploitation of female athletes and The Bigamist (1953) examined women's marital rights in the story of a man with two families. For Never Fear, Lupino dealt with polio and the rehabilitation process as a young dancer (Sally Forrest) on the verge of a career breakthrough suddenly loses the use of her legs. Never Fear was a very personal project for Lupino. In 1934, the year she started appearing in U.S. films, she contracted polio herself. Although hers proved to be a mild case, leaving her with weakness in her right hand and leg, she still remembered the fears that had assailed her during her illness. In the late '40s and early '50s, the disease began spreading, particularly among children between five and nine, the ages at which infection posted the greatest risk of paralysis and death. Although the White House press corps did a great deal to hide the level of President Franklin Roosevelt's paralysis, his status as a polio survivor had greatly increased public awareness of the disease. Given her personal connection to the subject and her interest in creating low-budget films about social issues, the subject was a natural for Lupino. To add to the connection, she suffered an injury before production that required her to direct the film from a wheelchair. As with the other films she made with Young, the film is shot simply, in near, documentary style, and features two of Lupino's acting protégées - Forrest, who resembles the younger Lupino, and Keefe Brasselle, as her dancing partner and fiancé. The two had appeared previously in Not Wanted. The film's key supporting role is played by Hugh O'Brian in his first credited film role (he had played a bit as a sailor in 1948's Kidnapped). Years before he achieved stardom on the Western series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp, he plays a fellow patient whose courage inspires Forrest to stop feeling sorry for herself and get on with her rehabilitation. Lupino also cast her sister, Rita Lupino, in a supporting role. Not wanting to commercialize the subject matter, Lupino and Young decided not to seek studio funding. Instead, they put together a $151,000 budget, small even by '40s standards, out of their own money and investments from friends. They rented space at the California Studio but did most of their shooting on location. Forrest's rehabilitation scenes were shot at the Kabat-Kaiser Institute in Santa, Monica, CA. Many of the extra roles were filled by patients there, who were shown going through their own rehabilitation process. For the clinic's square dance, Lupino used members of a wheelchair dance group. Once the film was completed, they released it through the U.S.-based British distributor Eagle-Lion as a production of The Filmakers, which had replaced Emerald Productions as their family production company. Howard Hughes was so impressed with what Lupino and Young had done on their meager budget that he invited them to set up their own production unit at RKO Pictures. RKO would release her next three films as director, Outrage, Hard, Fast and Beautiful and The Hitch-Hiker (1953). Unfortunately, audiences didn't share his enthusiasm. Historians have argued that the prevalence of polio in the news actually hurt Never Fear at the box office; audiences wanted to escape from the harsh realities of life rather than confronting them. With the dissolution of Eagle-Lion in 1951, the film entered a kind of cinematic limbo. Eventually, Selznick International Pictures picked up the original camera negative. ABC Pictures International bought the Selznick library in 1978 and donated its nitrate elements, including Never Fear, to the Museum of Modern Art. Since the film had been out of circulation for decades, the negative was still in good condition, making it relatively easy for MoMA to create a fine-grain master and 35mm exhibition prints. Never Fear is the first feature length film directed by a woman that MoMA preserved, and since that time, works by Shirley Clarke and Yvonne Rainer amongst other female filmmakers have been preserved. Director: Ida Lupino Producer: Lupino, Collier Young Screenplay: Lupino, Young Based on the novel Midnight and Jeremiah by Sterling North Cinematography: Archie Stout Score: Leith Stevens Cast: Sally Forrest (Carol Williams), Keefe Brasselle (Guy Richards), Hugh O'Brian (Len Randall), Eve Miller (Phyllis Townsend), Lawrence Dobkin (Dr. Middleton), Rita Lupino (Josie).