{"id":4173,"date":"2007-09-11T15:25:44","date_gmt":"2007-09-11T22:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4173"},"modified":"2021-02-02T01:52:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T08:52:01","slug":"bigamist-the-1953","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4173","title":{"rendered":"Bigamist, The (1953)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;How can you call [your wife] and tell her that you must have a divorce? Worse than that, you&#8217;ve been unfaithful &#8212; you&#8217;re going to be a father. How can you hurt someone so much?&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster-194x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-68023\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster-194x300.png 194w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster-662x1024.png 662w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster-83x128.png 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster-175x270.png 175w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Poster.png 689w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen Harry Graham (Edmond O&#8217;Brien) and his wife (Joan Fontaine) try to adopt a baby, the head of the agency (Edmund Gwenn) senses something is not quite right with Harry. After following him on a business trip to Los Angeles, Gwenn discovers that Harry is married to another woman (Ida Lupino), and has a young child with her.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Edmond O&#8217;Brien Films<\/li>\n<li>Edmund Gwenn Films<\/li>\n<li>Flashback Films<\/li>\n<li>Ida Lupino Films<\/li>\n<li>Infidelity<\/li>\n<li>Joan Fontaine Films<\/li>\n<li>Love Triangle<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIda Lupino&#8217;s earnest &#8220;problem picture&#8221; (her second-to-last directorial feature) suffers greatly from Collier Young&#8217;s overly cautious and dated script. In order to &#8220;justify&#8221; O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s lapse into a second marriage, Fontaine is depicted as both career-obsessed and unwilling to acknowledge blatant hints that her husband might be straying. In one particularly implausible scene, O&#8217;Brien calls Fontaine from Los Angeles and openly admits to her that he&#8217;s been flirting with a &#8220;brown haired mouse&#8221; &#8212; yet Fontaine acts as though she hasn&#8217;t heard him; later, Fontaine is shown flaunting her technical knowledge and social finesse during a business dinner with prospective clients, effectively &#8220;emasculating&#8221; poor O&#8217;Brien. It&#8217;s no wonder &#8212; in typical &#8217;50s ideology &#8212; that O&#8217;Brien&#8217;s Harry is &#8220;forced&#8221; to turn to Lupino, a &#8220;real&#8221; woman able to give him a child from a single night of sex (though this is implied rather than depicted, naturally). Adding to the overall impression of Harry as someone steamrollered into bigamy, it&#8217;s made clear that marrying Lupino &#8212; while also saving Fontaine from the tragedy of divorce &#8212; is the only &#8220;right&#8221; thing to do. Despite its clumsy script, however, <em>The Bigamist<\/em> remains oddly watchable, thanks in large part to the truly heartfelt performances by O&#8217;Brien (he&#8217;s perfectly cast), Lupino, and Fontaine. It&#8217;s fascinating to know that in real life, Fontaine had just married Lupino&#8217;s ex (Collier Young, the film&#8217;s screenwriter), thus eerily echoing the story&#8217;s marital love triangle. Much less impressive &#8212; in fact, downright annoying &#8212; is Edmund Gwenn as the head of the adoption agency; he&#8217;s a busybody snoop who may mean well but ultimately comes across as creepy. Fortunately, his presence merely bookends the film. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Edmond O&#8217;Brien as Harry<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-1024x743.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"464\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-68024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-1024x743.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-300x218.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-768x557.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien-372x270.png 372w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-OBrien.png 1415w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Ida Lupino as Phyllis<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-1024x758.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"474\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-68025\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-1024x758.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-128x95.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-768x569.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino-365x270.png 365w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Lupino.png 1409w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Joan Fontaine as Harry&#8217;s self-deluding career wife<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-1024x754.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"471\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-68026\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-1024x754.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-768x566.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine-367x270.png 367w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/09\/Bigamist-Fontaine.png 1411w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but fans of Lupino&#8217;s work will likely want to check it out. <\/p>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0045557\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/68744\/the-bigamist#articles-reviews?articleId=159664\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/the-bigamist\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;How can you call [your wife] and tell her that you must have a divorce? Worse than that, you&#8217;ve been unfaithful &#8212; you&#8217;re going to be a father. How can you hurt someone so much?&#8221; Synopsis: When Harry Graham (Edmond O&#8217;Brien) and his wife (Joan Fontaine) try to adopt a baby, the head of the agency (Edmund Gwenn) senses something is not quite right with Harry. After following him on a business trip to Los Angeles, Gwenn discovers that Harry&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=4173\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68027,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4173\/revisions\/68027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}