In 1953, Monogram Pictures, one of the original ‘Poverty Row’ studios in Hollywood, re-branded itself as ‘Allied Artists’ a brand that had been used for more ambitious pictures than the cheap ‘programmers’ or B pictures that the studio was known for. Jennifer carried both the Monogram and Allied Artist brands, marking the moment of transition. At only 73 minutes it was clearly aimed at the B market except for two factors – its star Ida Lupino and its cinematographer James Wong Howe, one of the top names in Hollywood. However, Wong Howe was married to a woman who had been a Communist party member and he was ‘grey-listed’ during the height of the Communist witch hunt in the early 1950s, forcing him to work outside the major studios. Lupino was at this time still running her own production company and presumably taking any jobs she could find to help fund her own pictures including The Bigamist in 1953. In Jennifer she is paired with Howard Duff, her third husband.

Agnes finds a diary . . .
. . . dancing with Jim does she feels more, or less, comfortable than in the house?
Some of the compositions separate the leads . . .

I’ve been aware of Jennifer for some time as possibly the least successful of Lupino’s films as an actor but I’d only found very poor quality prints that didn’t tempt me. I was therefore surprised to find a high definition print had recently appeared online. The film is described in various places as a film noir. This is misleading. It might perhaps be described as a ‘gothic noir‘ or a mystery thriller or even a haunted house film. Ida plays a rather meek and vulnerable woman, ‘Agnes Langley’, who applies to become the caretaker of a spacious but isolated country mansion some 10 minutes drive outside of Santa Barbara. The previous person to look after the house was ‘Jennifer Brown’ one of the family who own the house and who are now anxious to sell the property, a bequest from a wealthy family member who had it built just before the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Jennifer has now disappeared and nobody knows where she has gone – or at least if they do, they are not saying.

In the store Agnes meets four of the locals. Orlin (second from right) is there, always available to stick his oar in?

Howard Duff plays the local hotel and store manager Jim Hollis who knows the family and has agreed to keep an eye on Agnes. She doesn’t know the full extent of this arrangement. The other main character is Orin (Robert Nichols), a student working for the local grocery store who delivers groceries and does repairs and maintenance at the house if required. Agnes has no back story. All we know is she has been ill and not working for the last few months and she needs this job. This is a potentially vulnerable woman – i.e unlike the usual Lupino character. But unlike her character in Beware My Lovely, (1952) in which she is menaced by Robert Ryan, here Lupino appears both afraid and unsure of what she is doing in the house. The script has a few good lines of dialogue and the film displays some visual flourishes courtesy of Wong Howe, supported by a sometimes overwhelming score by Ernest Gold. The original property was a short story in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1949 by Virginia Myers. The director is Joel Newton, who doesn’t appear in any reference books and some reviewers have suggested that the name might be a pseudonym. Ida is as good as the script and the story idea allow. Her scenes with Duff have a tension from the script and also a rather creepy familiarity from their real-life marriage. We can believe that Agnes is attracted to Jim but is also wary of him. He does keep popping up at odd moments and she suspects he knows more about what is going on than he admits.

Agnes, spooked, runs through a courtyard out of the shadows
This marvellous image by James Wong Howe shows the gardener, another mysterious figure. The image is almost ethereal but doesn’t match other shots.

The house itself is a remarkable location. Since it is intended for sale it is sparsely furnished but has that strange feeling of being created to be mysterious in a California-Spanish style overlain with trappings of European-style carved doors and grand fireplaces. And of course it has at least two basement areas and numerous doors and passages. Some of the scenes seem to be studio sets but much is filmed around the house. James Wong Howe does his best to use the location and I’ve selected some of the more interesting compositions to present here.

Shots like this are probably why some critics/scholars see the Jennifer as a film noir. Wong Howe was well-known for his expert use of shadows and shooting in depth.
Another potentially noir composition of Lupino in genuinely scared mode
This seems like a take on Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai  (1947), the Orson Welles noir. Jennifer finds herself reflected in the mirror while she plays the one record in the house, ‘Vortex’ by Zindell – a Herrmannesque piece of disturbing urgency.

In the final analysis the film doesn’t really work. There is an interesting set-up and with a bigger budget something could be made of it. The only other contribution to note is the live performance of ‘Angel Eyes’, a composition that would become well known as a jazz standard and is here sung by Matt Dennis who also wrote the music. Earl Brent wrote the lyrics. Part of the problem is that the narrative appears caught between a murder mystery and a woman in peril story. Is Agnes being gaslighted by Jim? What really happened to Jennifer? Eventually we are given an explanation of sorts but then the door is left slightly open to undermine that explanation in the last shot of the film. Jennifer might not work as a mystery thriller but it’s still worth a look to see Lupino’s performance and Wong Howe’s photography. In the UK this film was distributed by ABC-Pathé as a second feature, on at least one occasion as support for On the Waterfront in December 1954. Lupino was everywhere in UK cinemas in the early 1950s, but usually distributed via Rank.