Not Wanted

Last year we paid tribute to Ida Lupino, an actress turned independent producer and director who created “problem” films of a uniquely hard-edged variety, dealing with such subjects as rape, bigamy, and unwed motherhood, and shot on location with low budgets and a telegraphic film language that put every penny to work. At that time her first feature production, Not Wanted, was unavailable; it is now beautifully restored. Lupino lookalike Sally Forrest plays a waitress who, left pregnant by her dream lover and estranged from her family, sees no option but to give up the kid for adoption. Like all Lupino protagonists, she will trade small-town expectation for a nightmare of alienation from which there is no clean escape. But what is fascinating are the choices the Lupino victim-heroine makes to survive. Sally’s story is recounted in flashback from her jail cell.