The Bigamist

So there's this guy who wants to adopt a kid because he and his wife are having fertility issues, but then the adoption investigator gets all up in his grill and discovers that he has a second family. This is a bit of a no-no these days, but back in the 1950s it was positively scandalous. Harry (Edmond O'Brien), the bigamist in question, seems to think that relating his story will stop his arrest but there's not really anything in his tale that suggests he has 'extenuating' circumstances that would get him out of it. In short: he's a bigamist!

I guess the real point of this film is that it humanises adultery. I don't think anyone in this film is denying that it's a problem, but the fact of the matter is that it happens and Hollywood films in the '30s, '40s and '50s had a hard time putting this on the screen without demonising certain parties. Harry is a cagey travelling salesman, so he's out on the road and away from his wife a lot. He eventually finds love in the arms of another woman, and in a way this helps him combat his loneliness at home. Both women are portrayed as innocents in all this, with neither knowing about the other (at first). It is what it is. It's not exactly a justification for bigamy, but it goes some way towards explaining it. It's pretty sensationalist and hard-hitting stuff for the '50s, and I guess this lends the film a certain film noir-ish tone (especially in the way it's told in flashback).

O'Brien plays Harry with a certain swarthiness that makes him seem suspicious, and it's important to remember that since this was a film made under the Hays Code that this means it could never go too far towards justifying bigamy. Check out this quote from the adoption investigator (played by Edmund Gwenn), it pretty much sums up the censorship-heavy mixed message of the film:

"I'm not a policeman. It's not my duty to do anything but see that the juvenile wards of the state of California are given decent homes. I can't figure out my feelings towards you. I despise you, and I pity you. I don't even want to shake your hand and yet, I almost wish you luck"

He speaks for the audience, who must've also felt some conflicted emotions after investing sympathy in this character despite his moral transgression. In a way it's a commentary on censorship and a commentary on the Hays Code itself. Regarding morality, it shouldn't really be the place of films to censor the truth of things. It should be a matter of personal judgment, and that's what I took away from this interesting and ahead-of-it's-time film.

DIRECTOR: Ida Lupino
WRITER/SOURCE: Screenplay by Collier Young, Larry Marcus and Lou Schor.
KEY ACTORS: Edmond O'Brien, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Fontaine, Ida Lupino, Kenneth Tobey, Jane Darwell

RELATED TEXTS:
For another Hollywood film from this era that tackles adultery, see The Postman Always Rings Twice.
- Actress Ida Lupino was the only female director working in Hollywood throughout the '40s and '50s. She addressed a variety of controversial social issues in a series of low budget films: Outrage, The Hitch-Hiker, Never Fear and The Trouble With Angels.
- Films about bigamy: The Constant Husband, Move Over Darling, My Favourite Wife and Eulogy.
- See also the fun HBO series Big Love, which is all about polygamist mormons.