Ida Lupino's 1953 effort about a man, played Edmond O'Brien, who wants to have it both ways, when it comes to wives. O'Brien, a salesperson, is seemingly in a happy marriage to Joan Fontaine, who runs a freezer business but after some time on the road it starts to get to him where we see he walks around whatever city he happens to be in aimlessly & dejected, even to the point when he's in Los Angeles he decides on a whim to take a celebrity tour bus of their homes where he meets a woman, played by Lupino, sleeping near the front of the bus. Amused, he strikes up a conversation w/her & they find they're both simpatico w/each other so while at home he puts on a brave face to his predicament, living not his best life, but whenever he's in town w/Lupino, he comes out of his shell & they both revel in the fact they've found their soulmates. The crux however becomes that pesky marriage he's already a part of but when Lupino disappears for a bit (she's quit her job, left her old boarding house), O'Brien tracks her down to find she's pregnant which spurs O'Brien to become the titular man of the hour. Treating subject matter which when this film was made was probably royally taboo (but now is an ongoing series on cable TV) is surprisingly very even handed & humane, despite the eyebrow raising subject matter. O'Brien acquits himself in his usual 'matter of fact' performance w/the lovely ladies fully fledged & committed to their circumstances. Co-starring Edmund Gwenn (which this film keeps alluding to Miracle on 34th Street which he won a Best Actor Oscar for) as a adoption rep (Fontaine wants to adopt & uses his services) & Kenneth Tobey as one of O'Brien's fellow salesman.
Review of The Bigamist
