The Bigamist (1953)

The Bigamist (1953)

starring Joan Fontaine, Edmond O’Brien, Ida Lupino, Edmund Gwenn

directed by Ida Lupino

80 minutes

Harry (Edmond O’Brien) and Eve Graham (Joan Fontaine) are looking to adopt a child because they are unable to have one of their own. The adoption agency puts Mr. Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) in charge of vetting them. He discovers, in the process of looking into their background, that Harry has a second wife. Harry explains his situation to Jordan, once Jordan has cornered him. 

Harry and Eve had been married for a little over seven years when he met Phyllis (Ida Lupino), his second wife. He didn’t tell Phyllis when they met that he was already married. He kept that fact from her until she inadvertently discovered that he had been seen with another woman, Eve. He wanted to tell Eve and get a divorce but circumstances made it difficult for him to do that.

Harry was considering ending his relationship with Phyllis when he learned that she was pregnant. He proposed to her and got a place for them to live. It wasn’t long after Phyllis gave birth to Danny, their son, that Mr. Jordan began his investigation and found their home.

Thoughts

I was influenced to give this movie a try by descriptions that it was noir-like. I agree with that assessment. Harry gets himself into an unsolvable situation. He has himself to blame but that isn’t the focus of the movie.

There are a couple references in the movie to the fact that Edmund Gwenn played Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street (1947). 

The Bigamist ends on a subtle note which I thought was effective but probably won’t satisfy a lot of people. There are no fireworks or explosions of any sort at the end of the movie. Eve and Phyllis exchange glances after Harry has been led away by the police after the trial. Collier Young, who wrote the screenplay, was married to Fontaine, at the the movie was made, and had been married to Lupino a few years earlier.

The Bigamist was worth my time and gave me something to chew on after the movie was over. It probably won’t satisfy everyone as much as it satisfied me.