NEVER FEAR (United States, 1949, Ida Lupino)

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As written by Ida Lupino and Collier Young, the screenplay was psychologically sound in dealing with the emotional ups and downs of polio victims, and it is equally convincing as a documentary of treatment with effective shots of physical therapy. —Variety

IDA LUPINO, DIRECTING ON THE SET OF NEVER FEAR (1949).

If Dorothy Arzner (DANCE, GIRL, DANCE, 1940) is the best-known woman filmmaker who worked in Hollywood during the 1920s and ‘30s, Ida Lupino remains the best-known woman filmmaker from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s (albeit primarily through films that she independently produced). Lupino was the second woman director (after Arzner) to be admitted to the Director’s Guild of America.

ORIGINAL THEATRICAL RELEASE POSTER FOR NEVER FEAR (1949).

Lupino focused on social issue films that dramatically brought to the fore such taboo subject matters as serial killers (THE HITCH-HIKER) bigamy (THE BIGAMIST), rape (OUTRAGE) and out-of-wedlock birth (NOT WANTED). In 1949’s NEVER FEAR, Lupino tackled the taboo subject matter of illness; specifically, polio. The film follows Carol Williams (played by Sally Forrest, who also starred in Lupino’s NOT WANTED). Carol is a beautiful young dancer whose body, and promising career, is suddenly crippled by polio. Carol’s dance partner and fiancé Guy Richards (played by Keefe Brasselle, a featured actor in 1951’s A PLACE IN THE SUN), wants to see her through her illness, but the angry, self-pitying Carol prefers to go it alone. Her father subsequently takes her to the Kabat-Kaiser Institute for rehabilitation, where she meets fellow patients like Len Randall on her road to recovery.

DIRECTOR IDA LUPINO, ON THE SET OF NEVER FEAR WITH ACTRESS SALLY FORREST AND TWO CREW MEMBERS.

Lupino, who herself had been stricken with polio as an adolescent, crafts a psychologically probing look at chronic illness in NEVER FEAR. The film was co-written and co-produced by Lupino and her then-husband Collier Young. It is filmed in semi-documentary style and shot in black-and-white by Archie Stout, an frequent collaborator on Lupino’s films.

This new 2K restoration by Kino Lorber emphasizes the crisp and exemplary quality of Stout’s cinematography. This digital edition also includes an audio commentary track by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas.

NEVER FEAR
(US, 1949)

Director: Ida Lupino

  • 82 minutes
  • 35mm
  • B&W
  • Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server

Published By: Kino Lorber

Institutional Price: $500

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