Hard, Fast and Beautiful, 1951

First Viewing

Directed by Ida Lupino, this movie is essentially about a stage mother who gets left behind after her manipulations and emotional tricks lead to her daughter's success. Only it's in tennis and not on the stage.

Starring the always magnificent Claire Trevor as her mother, and also a lot of actors who aren't who you think they are. This man is not Howard Sprague from the Andy Griffith Show. 

Notice the back-to-back twin beds. I have never seen this before. I suspect this is a wonderful directorial invention by Ida Lupino and it is marvelous for the economical way it indicates an increasing distance in a marriage.

This is not Steve Allen.

This is not Robert Alda, however it IS the guy from The Hideous Sun Demon. That is also not a 20-year-old Ida Lupino.

This is a good movie. This is also the first movie that I have watched in the morning. I was finding myself getting to the end of the day without having watched anything and didn't want this blog to be about watching the first half of a movie every day.