Not Wanted (1949) User Reviews

Unwanted And Wanted Credit

[boblipton · 7/10 · 9 August 2019]

Sally Forrest's mother harps on her constantly, so when she develops a crush on piano player Leo Penn, she follows him to the big city. Sally gets a job at an all-service gas station run by Keefe Brasselle. He likes her a lot, but it isn't until Penn blows town, saying no promises had been made, that Sally gives Brasselle a chance. She's happy for the first time, but discovers she is pregnant by Penn.

It's a powerful and moving film about unwed mothers, with a definite message to offer, and Miss Forrest gives a fine performance as the young girl trapped in a situation she does not know how to deal with. All the situations in which she is happy hark back to carefree childhood: at an amusement park, riding the merry-go-round, or playing with Brasselle's immense model train layout. It is the adult world which she is incapable of dealing with.

It was co-written, co-produced and co-directed (uncredited) by Ida Lupino, her first time wielding the megaphone. Director Elmer Clifton's career had been in free fall for a quarter of a century. One of D.W. Griffith's acolytes, he was the first director to cast Clara Bow in a major role. A couple of years later, his leading lady on a film for Fox was injured on set and, his career left him working for Poverty Row producers. Of course, this film was intended for that market, but with a good script and sympathetic directors.... it's hard to tell who directed what at this distance, after Clifton had a heart attack, and Miss Lupino took over the uncredited directing. I think it highly likely that Miss Forrest's performance was aided immeasurably by Miss Lupino, but it lacks the semi-stylized notes that her other movies of this period showed.

In any case, the movie, as it exists, is a fine one. Perhaps it is enough to admit that, note that film is less an individual auteur's work and more a highly involved collaboration. The finished result allowed Clifton's career to end well -- although others of his films were released later, this is the last he worked on -- an provided Miss Lupino the credentials to make some entertaining and didactic movies.

Baby, yes, wedding ring, no: Lupino's sad, sad story

[bmacv · 7/10 · 18 June 2004]

To dismiss Not Wanted (alternate title: Shame) as a dated glimpse into the socio-sexual mores of the bad old days is to forget how revolutionary it was. Ida Lupino – one of the first women to make the break from glamorous stardom into the male preserve of directing – co-wrote and co-produced this movie about what we would now call single motherhood but was then whispered about as illegitimacy. (Tellingly, though Lupino took a reportedly large hand in directing as well, she spurns the credit, leaving it to Elmer Clifton.)

Sally Forrest plays a scatterbrained young woman who can't even remember to bring home duct tape for the leak her dad's trying to fix or potatoes for mom's stew. She slings hash by day but at night dreams moonily of a lusher life, as represented by the hot piano-man at a night club (Leo Penn). She throws herself at him, and he catches (his flicked-away cigarette drifting slowly down a stream encodes their rapture). But, footloose and fancy-free, Penn packs up to try his luck in that provincial Paris, Capitol City. In a huff, Forrest packs up, too, and follows him there, only to be brutally blown off.

She takes a job as a gas jockey at a station managed by lame veteran Keefe Brasselle, but resists his tepid approaches at first (scant wonder: he plies her with his model trains.) But joining him at an amusement park, she swoons; a doctor called in diagnoses her as pregnant, much to her surprise. Without a word to her family back home or to Brasselle, she packs up yet again and checks herself into The Haven Hospital, a home for either (take your pick) unwed mothers or wayward girls. Much as she'd like to keep the baby, it's an unworkable option, so she grudgingly gives it up for adoption. But soon she's wandering the streets eyeing other women's babies a little too loonily. Next, the police are involved....

A more or less `happy' ending – undoubtedly the only condition under which the picture got made at all – can't compromise Not Wanted's unblinking look at what pregnancy without a wedding ring spelled for women who proved less than vigilant about their chastity. It's a compassionate (if melodramatic and sentimental) assault on a complacent mind-set that, disrupted by the exigencies of wartime, was striving to reassert itself (and strives still). Whatever else may be said about single parenthood, it's no longer a cause for scandal and indignation. Lupino can take at least a little of the credit for that.

Moving and absorbing drama

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 10 April 2014]

Ditsy and naive teenager Sally Kelton (a sound and appealing performance by Sally Forrest) falls for sullen and rootless itinerant piano player Steve Ryan (smoothly played by Leo Penn). Steve runs out on Sally, but only after he impregnates her first. Ashamed and abandoned, Sally checks into a home for unwed mothers and gives her baby up for adoption. Directed with commendable taste, restraint, and sensitivity by Elmer Clifton and Ida Lupino (who also co-wrote the thoughtful script with Paul Jerrico), this engrossing and affecting drama thankfully avoids any heavy-handed preachiness or lurid sensationalism considering its subject matter. Instead this film displays a genuine compassion for its wayward, yet still sympathetic protagonist while illustrating the strict mores of the era as well as serving as an effective cautionary tale on the perils of falling for the wrong person. Moreover, it's exceptionally well acted by an able cast: Forrest brings a winningly scatterbrained charm to her character, Penn makes for a suitably moody louse, and, best of all, Keefe Brasselle delivers an excellent, engaging, and delightfully energetic portrayal of helpful and goodhearted disabled nice guy war veteran Drew Baxter. Henry Freulich's stark black and white cinematography makes artful use of fades and dissolves. The score by Leith Stevens does the dramatic trick, too. Worth a watch.

A Closer Look at an Offbeat 50's Film

[dougdoepke · 9 August 2015]

This is the first of Ida Lupino's social conscience films that also includes Outrage (1950) and The Bigamist (1953). Here she deals with the problems that a wedlock baby presents to a young mother (Forrest). It's a topic studios at the time were loathe to touch because of the tricky moral implications. Fortunately, Lupino deals with the topic in realistic and affecting fashion, and from the girl's pov.

Forrest shines as Sally the wedlock mother. As the innocent young woman, Forrest has to act out the many changes in the unwed mother's life, which she does in sympathetic fashion. Then too, Forrest looks the everyday part, petite, pretty, but hardly glamorous. Her hollow look as she roams the forlorn city streets remains unforgettable. (Note the use of ordinary downtown locations as background that helps identify Sally as an everyday person. Then, for contrast, catch how Sally's abruptly thrust into an urban jail cell, which comes across like an urban shark tank.)

Still, I'm really impressed with Leo Penn as Steve the moody pianist who can't seem to find himself. Sally's enthralled with his tempestuous music that suggests a darkly romantic soul underneath. At first, Steve resists her too youthful advances. But then he succumbs, leaving her pregnant (a word never used). Note too how carefully that romantic night is finessed, a Code requirement for the time. Anyway, Steve's not so much a selfish villain as a lost soul. This is an interesting twist since it's really she who presses the relationship instead of the man. And even though he terminates it rather cruelly, Sally is really the author of her own situation. This first part is handled extremely well and in generally non-Hollywood fashion.

The second part involves Sally leaving home and trying to deal with independence in a new town, while coping with a pregnancy that only emerges over time. However, Keefe Brasselle's gas station owner, where she goes to work, smacks of Hollywood contrivance. In short, he's an attractive, idealized bachelor, which means from that point on, we know how the story will end. I guess that even for the gutsy Lupino, the offbeat could only go so far. This second part, though affecting, comes across more conventionally. For me, the high point comes in the unwed mothers home. There a real pathos emerges between Joan and Sally as they ponder what the future holds for them.

Still and all, it's unfortunate actress-producer-director Lupino never got her due from the industry. She should be remembered as a pioneering woman on the production end as well as also being a fine performer. Too bad her gutsy social conscience films, such as this, were ill-timed. As early TV took over popular viewing habits, audiences for these small b&w's dwindled, soon causing them to drift into obscurity. At the same time was the cultural chill set off by HUAC and the McCarthy hearings of the early 50's. As a result, flirtation with touchy topics like this one gave way to the safe entertainment of I Love Lucy and The Ten Commandments. At the same time, screenwriters such as Not Wanted's Paul Jarrico would be blacklisted.

Nonetheless, Outrage remains a sensitively affecting story with continuing relevance even to our own more free-wheeling day. It also remains a lasting tribute to the boldly enterprising Ida Lupino.

The story is dramatic and well done, the insidious shocker medical insert is a shame

[secondtake · 6/10 · 16 March 2011]

The Wrong Rut (1949)

What a bizarre movie with a really strong female lead doing her best with an overly emotional part. The title alone is a goofy thing, meant to preach a little to the poor youth of the country who get pregnant out of "wedlock." The other title, "Not Wanted," has far more meaning and none of the insouciance.

There are two surprises to this tale of a young woman frustrated at home, meeting a man (a piano player, no surprise) and getting knocked up. The first is the leading female, Sally Forest, who has to run through a huge range of emotional situations, from giddy to superficial to terrified to worn out to enamored to simply being a heartbroken would-be mother. This is her first credited role in a movie, and she did appear in a number of decent early 1950s films (including one directed by Ida Lupino) before switching to t.v. (I have seen only "Mystery Street" which was quite good.)

The other surprise might a reason to either watch this film or run far and fast. It's a fifteen minute insert in badly faded (but once vivid) color of a C-section birth. It's clearly a medical short inserted, not relating to the plot, and it cuts in badly with in intertitle card and then is as gruesome as possible. Then it flips back to the nicely filmed black and white narrative, which is a huge relief. I found the documentary aspects interesting on some level, but was so put off by the apparent shock tactics of it I got a little miffed. The idea, it seemed to me, was to shock the young women in the audience, so they wouldn't dare get pregnant, since having a baby was really a cold, violent, bloody affair.

Of course, this has nothing to do with much here. We don't even know if Forest's character has a caesarian (we assume so, of course), and what about women in marriages who want their babies who have to have a caesarian for health reasons? Furthermore, why go along with the horrors of being pregnant at all, in this way? Did anyone mention condoms? It's just a crude painful propaganda piece, on some level.

And yet most of it is a pretty well made mini-drama, an hour long (minus the color insert), and quite well filmed and edited. You might enjoy it, but be forewarned.

An uncredited Ida Lupino film, and a stellar acting job by Sally Forrest

[wmjaeger · 7/10 · 28 October 2019]

Not Wanted (1949)

The draw here is not the plot (which is a somewhat worn story, today, of a woman falling in love with the wrong guy and getting pregnant) and not the director (Ida Lupino) but the leading actress Sally Forrest. She plays with conviction the simple girl with dreams of something better, caught up in misleading romance, and elegantly embroiled in a real romance after all. Lupino of course is the famous hook, and this is her first directorial role (and she is uncredited, mostly because she stepped in for a man who had just had a heart attack). The film is sharp. It's no brilliant mostly because of the writing, in my view-it gives what seems like the obvious plot turns for a girl caught up between the lover who doesn't love her and the man who really does. And she can't quite see which is which. I rather liked the movie, but mostly because it's crisp, well photographed, and dealing with a real predicament. "You know what the real trouble is." She demurs. "You're going to have a baby." And there it is. Her life turns over and over. The key here for contemporary audiences, which might not connect at all to the social service attitudes here, is whether the expectant woman might want to keep her baby. The scenes with the woman in a supportive institution surrounded by other women in the same situation make it a bit superficial, but the problem is real. The sincere man in her life is a bit of a likable guy, simple, probably not a great actor but I liked him a lot here. (His name is Keefe Brasselle, and he had a small role in a number of decent low budget movies at the time like "Railroaded!" and "T-Men" as well as "A Place in the Sun"). There are the usual glosses over reality in a movie from this period, like when the woman has her baby, she is wheeled down the hall in a kind of passive stupor. Where is the screaming that is part of childbirth? (That was forbidden by the all male Hays Code people.) That's only the most obvious of the lack of actual reality in the film. It comes off as a pleasant metaphor, stripped of something deeper. And that sadly is despite the really sincere, moving depiction of her character by Forrest. It's for her this movie remains. And perhaps that reminder of how difficult it was to be pregnant out of wedlock in that era, which in many ways seemed so modern. As a photographer, I'll add the small footnote: the cinematographer, Henry Freulich, also shot "It Happened One Night," and that film is of course a classic, and this one is also very well shot. Which boosts it a notch all through.

A movie that blow the whistle and berate about the social rejection over the unmarried women

[elo-equipamentos · 7/10 · 15 December 2020]

Ida Lupino after a successful career as actress, settles work behind the cameras, even uncredited as director it was her first film debut as producer and director as well, she was one of the first women that took over a field strictly mastered by men only, she made several thematic movies touching in neuralgic subject as "Outrage" "The Bigamist" and "Not Wanted", if today it's quite usually on the late forties was a taboo, be an unmarried mother in those time was a sentence of death for women and upcoming marriage, this small docudrama portraits this matter sharply, narrating a moving story of grow up girl around eighteen Sally Kelton (Sally Forrest) that caught in love by a restless pianist Steve Ryan (Leo Penn), after a couple months of affair, he disappear to another town, Sally follows him, soon she understood that Steve hasn't any feeling over her, too late, meanwhile she receives a fresh approach of courtship of a fine guy Drew Baxter (Keefe Brasselle), haplessly she already was pregnancy of Steve that no longer stays around, Karen hasn't no money to afford himself on those hard days, the ill-fated girl there no choice and is admitted at those charity hospital allowed for those spurned girl, Karen having a little boy, then came up the defining moment , keep with a child to raise in harsh conditions or release him to adopting process, a movie that blow the whistle and berate about the social rejection over the unmarried women, fine subject lifts by the great Ida Lupino!!

Thanks for reading.

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First watch: 2020 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 7

Lupino Does a Great Job - Not Wanted

[arthur_tafero · 7/10 · 7 September 2023]

Ida Lupino was a very gifted actress, but unlike the vast majority of actresses in the Hollywood jungle, she was able to go toe to toe with any man for both direction and production. She was a wily, knowledgable veteran of film and film production, and had nothing but successes behind the camera (which, quite frankly, she had grown accustomed to with successes in front of it as well). The lead actress Sally Forest does an admirable job with an emotionally difficult role. The opportunities for Lupino to get preachy in this film were numerous, yet her careful hand kept an even keel on the flow of the film. One has to decide these issues for themselves. Is abortion right or wrong? Is taking a child to term right or wrong? Is giving up a child right or wrong? The answer is always the same. No one can say if any of these things are right or wrong; only the woman involved can make that decision. It is easy to spout platitudes when you do not have to live with them yourself. A very good film with sobering content.

Taboo subject of yesteryear

[julianhwescott · 9/10 · 10 August 2001]

Depending on how old you are, you will understand why this film is very unusual and a taboo subject for the year 1949 in which it was made. Ida Lupino, although not taking credit, basically directed this film about an unhappy girl who gets mixed up with a loser who gets her pregnant and then leaves her hanging. Since this isn't a taboo subject today in society's eyes, a lot of people will probably miss the whole point of the film. Lupino was a genius--an accomplished actress, a producer, writer and screenwriter and director. She made this film, I believe to bring attention to all sides of the story about an unwed mother not knowing what to do. In my book I rate this film highly.

Unwed mothers and their lost children

[clanciai · 10/10 · 8 May 2018]

A gripping drama of motherhood when complications without end set in. Sally has a relationship with an irresistible pianist, he actually plays quite well, but he is too occupied with his work and problems to be able to provide Sally with any proper support. He gets away, and Sally finds herself in the hands of a garage worker with a passion for toy railways. When she is pregnant from her former relationship, she runs away and ends up in a home for unwed mothers.

The film is mostly remarkable for being Ida Lupino's debut as a director, and at the time the subject was etremely sensitive and taboo and could not be discussed openly. This taboo situation has in an interesting way marked the film like in a haze of mystery, and you get insights in the lives of unwed mothers and their tough luck that shine with fascinating intimacy. This is a women's film about women made by a woman, and as such it is precious, to say the least.

Sally Forrest makes a tremendous performance, she is just a common woman, this part would have been ideal for Susan Hayward, and Sally actually reminds of her, but she is practically as good as Susan, with her weakness, her fits, her tensions and uncontrollable impulses, it's all perfectly real. The music is also quite good, and the piano scenes touch on great romanticism. It's a minor film, but the smallest jewels can sometimes be the most precious ones.

I'd love to know if Lupino directed the really good parts or the really stupid parts.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 17 January 2016]

"Not Wanted" is clearly an exploitation film intended to scare the crap out of young ladies. It's not as over the top of sleazy as most of the exploitation movies--more well intentioned yet dumb. Now as far as the dumb goes, it's hard to properly ascribe blame, as the production had two directors--Elmer Clifton and Ida Lupino. Lupino took over the film after Clifton had a heart attack and you wonder what his original vision had been as well as hers. Why? Because I want to know who to blame--especially for Sally Forest's bizarre overacting.

The film begins with an obviously mentally disturbed lady, Sally (Sally Forest), impulsively stealing a baby! At the police station, after she's been caught, you see a long extended flashback to show how she's gotten to this state. Sally wanted a musician and foolishly ignored every possible warning side. Ultimately, she gets pregnant and goes to a home for unwed mothers so that she can have the baby...and she ultimately gives it up for adoption. But there is MUCH more in between...including some really fine scenes as well as Sally inexplicably fainting repeatedly (this is NOT what happens when you are an unwed mother), some overacting as well as a sloppily inserted bit of stock footage of a Caesarian. Overall, one of the most uneven films I've ever seen---some is very well done, the rest is pretty crappy. Who's to blame, I have no idea but sadly instead of being a good film about teen pregnancy, it's one where you are shocked at how brain dead the main character behaves.

Brilliant debut

[dbdumonteil · 18 May 2009]

Ida Lupino was not to direct "not wanted" but it did mark the birth of an auteur ,who made few movies but who never made a truly bad movie.In retrospect,the fact that her time as a director was short-lived (if we do not count the forgettable "trouble with angels" ,her only movie which is not excellent)does not leave you with the impression that her works were unfinished statements .

"Not wanted" is the story of the unwed mother,a subject which was par excellence melodramatic.Many great actresses (Bette Davis,Olivia De Havilland and many more) had already played this kind of role but Lupino gives it a realistic treatment .Her actors are not stars they are the girl/boy-next-door.Sally Forrest and Keefe Brasselle (who teamed up again in " Never fear" ) have spontaneity ,simplicity and sobriety going for them.

The story is a long flashback:Sally has been arrested after taking a baby in her arms;they thought she wanted to kidnap him.She tells her story: her over possessive mother and her irresolute father,her meeting with a failed piano player with whom she falls in love ,the young man who loves her sincerely...

My favorite scene is the very last:Ida Lupino has the woman play the role of the man when he falls ,which is par excellence anti-Hollywood.Maybe the director remembered the woman warming up her love's body in Borzage's "the river".

Powerful drama about a socially taboo subject of the time

[robert-temple-1 · 10/10 · 15 May 2008]

This was the first of Ida Lupino's magnificent efforts to use the power of the screen to tackle desperately important but socially taboo social issues between 1949 and 1953. Although Elmer Clifton is credited as director, he had a heart attack during production, and most of the film was directed by Ida Lupino herself, who also produced and co-wrote this powerful drama. It was her first directorial effort, was completely successful, and launched her brilliant directing career. The 'social films' which she made during this period dealt with unwed mothers (a totally taboo issue at that time), rape, physically handicapped people, and even the extraordinary subject of bigamy ('The Bigamist', 1953). Ida Lupino pulled no punches, she was right in there, and got straight to the point, with the most overwhelming scenes of intense drama. The choice of Sally Forrest for the lead in this film about an unwed mother was perfect. The feckless fellow she falls in love with is played by Leo Penn, father of Sean Penn, and the likeness of father and son is clear, but then so is the type of character played! Leo Penn is very good, and plays the piano extraordinarily well in the film, where he is an emotionally disturbed and embittered failed pianist (but Sally Forrest does not know that, as she is only 19 and thinks he is Vladimir Ashkenazy.) Keefe Brasselle is superb in the touching role of the man who loves Sally despite all, the 'really nice guy', from whom she must run away because she is 'fallen'. Younger people today may find all of this incomprehensible, but that shows how quickly everyone forgets. If we think the Muslims are strange for killing their daughters for falling in love, try 1950s America. It was only better in that they didn't actually kill them, they merely disowned them and left them on the streets. Lest we think we are morally superior, we should remember that Ida Lupino did not make her films for their shock value. She was no sensationalist. She was addressing serious social wrongs being done by the majority of the population to unfortunates who strayed, and she took her social compassion far enough actually to make a film about a perfectly nice man who merely happened to have two wives. Shocking? Well, how about the hypocrisy then: in Utah there are admitted to be thousands of practising polygamists. Where's the shock? If only Ida Lupino were with us now, what would she be showing us about ourselves? She was a heroic figure, and this film was merely the first of a series of dramas that will tear your heart out, if you have one.

Interesting directorial debut for Ida Lupino

[Wizard-8 · 22 September 2012]

The version of this movie that I saw was the one titled, "The Wrong Rut", which has color birth-of-a-baby footage VERY crudely tacked in around two- thirds in. Needless to say, I found this footage very out of place in a movie that's otherwise a sober and surprisingly compelling tale of a once taboo subject. We may not know for sure which parts of the (original) movie were directed by Lupino once she took over, but there is a constant feeling of sympathy and compassion towards the main female character. Unlike other movies of the time dealing with unwed mothers, the movie does not condemn her - she is seen as a victim, and that it's society that is to be slammed for how it treats her. The ending feels a little too happy, and it doesn't explain how the male figure in that ending somehow changed his mind from how he felt about the main female earlier in the movie. But other than that the movie is very well done. Just make sure you see the "Not Wanted" version and not "The Wrong Rut" version, unless you absolutely can't find the original version to watch.