The role of the viciously ambitious older sister in The Hard Way (1943) could be considered the pinnacle of Ida Lupino's career as a Hollywood movie star. It is the role for which she received her most prestigious award—Best Actress from the New York Film Critics Circle in 1943.
It is commonly cited that Lupino was given this role after Bette Davis had turned it down. The late film historian and television personality Robert Osborne quotes Davis later expressing regret for that decision: "How did I let that one get away?"
It turns out, though, that Warner Bros. intended The Hard Way to be an Ida Lupino vehicle virtually from the beginning. So how did Bette Davis have the chance to turn it down?
Let's follow the story.
At the time that The Hard Way surfaced as a project for Warner Bros. in mid-1941, Bette Davis was the top dramatic actress on the lot and amongst the most celebrated actresses in Hollywood. Meanwhile, Ida Lupino was a rapidly-rising dramatic star at the same studio, having made a splash a year earlier in a supporting role in They Drive By Night, and then continued her momentum with co-starring roles in High Sierra, The Sea Wolf, and Out of the Fog. Though Warners was her primary studio, Lupino had avoided signing an exclusive contract, and her next project was a starring vehicle—her first—at Columbia called Ladies in Retirement.
Warners had been building up Lupino as a star for nearly a year and was overdue to provide their own starring vehicle for her. According to the initial press reports, The Hard Way would serve that purpose. The Film Daily had an item on June 5, 1941:
Warner Bros. has signed Irwin Shaw, whose "Gentle People" Warners filmed under the title of "Out of the Fog," to prepare the scenario for the Ida Lupino vehicle, "The Hard Way".
The next day, Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons wrote:
These heartless, cruel girl roles cannot come too tough for Ida Lupino who doesn't even object to a nice murder now and then—on the screen I mean. So she's greatly intrigued over Jerry Wald's new story, "The Hard Way," which Hal Wallis selects for her as her next for Warners.
These were the first press reports concerning The Hard Way that I have found. Could Bette Davis have been offered the part before this? It is certainly possible, though the evidence, if any, is not public. But Davis was offered the role—publicly—a few months later.
How did Lupino almost lose her first Warners starring vehicle to Bette Davis?
Only July 1, a few weeks after the initial press reports on The Hard Way, and while Lupino was working at Columbia in the final stages of Ladies in Retirement, Warners assigned her to the supporting role of Cassie in King's Row. Lupino strongly resisted this assignment, suggesting, according to William Donati's biography of her, that the part was too small and the billing too low.
Warner Bros. had severe trouble finding another prominent actress willing to do the role of Cassie. By the end of August, with King's Row well into production, they again pressed Lupino to play Cassie. This time she turned down the role for good, was put on suspension, and left Hollywood for a vacation in New York. Louella Parsons reported that the studio ordered Lupino to report back to the lot at the end of the month for her next part as the title character in Juke Girl—"or else".
Clearly, the Warners-Lupino relationship was in the dumps after the King's Row dispute. On her New York City trip. Lupino talked to the press about how she loved the city, but would "probably" return to Hollywood because she was looking forward to doing Moontide at 20th Century-Fox with Jean Gabin. Left unsaid was that she was not pleased with the Juke Girl role Warners expected her to do, and that she and the studio executives were in another bitter dispute.
On September 18, Film Daily reported that "Warner Bros. would like to have Ginger Rogers for the lead in Irwin Shaw's The Hard Way". No other details were included. Was this for the younger sister role eventually played by Joan Leslie or Lupino's role as the older sister? In either case, The Hard Way would no longer have been an Ida Lupino vehicle.
The Warners-Lupino situation again blew up in the press two weeks later. On October 4, as Lupino was returning to Hollywood by train, Louella Parsons reported that Lupino had rejected Juke Girl and taken another suspension.
The same day, in what cannot be a coincidence, Film Bulletin wrote, "Formerly scheduled for Ida Lupino, The Hard Way has been tossed Bette Davis' way."
Warners was apparently so displeased with Lupino turning down two successive assignments, that they were playing hardball by taking away her first starring vehicle for them. According to the Donati bio, Warners also threatened to cancel Lupino's contact.
Ten days later, Louella Parsons wrote that the studio was trying to assemble a superstar cast of Davis, Ginger Rogers, and Cary Grant for the film, saying "it is more than wishful thinking", though salaries alone would make it extremely expensive. Wishful thinking it was, though. It must have been at this point that Bette Davis turned down The Hard Way.
After mid-October, press reports on The Hard Way go quiet. Donati wrote that the tension between Warners and Lupino eased when Warners allowed her to participate in a sequence of the ensemble film Forever and a Day at RKO. Her chapter of the film appears to have been filmed in early November. Shortly after this, she reported to 20th Century-Fox to begin work on Moontide opposite the French star Jean Gabin. Moontide would occupy her into February.
Meanwhile, Warner Bros. was moving ahead with The Hard Way, assigning Vincent Sherman as director and working on script revisions. By late November, Warners and Lupino were presumably back on good terms, as she was announced as the star in a new project, albeit one that never came to fruition.
Presumably it was at this time that Warner Bros. put Lupino back in The Hard Way. She was enthusiastic about the revised script she received in December.
And so, as Donati put it, her career crisis at Warner Bros. had ended. Just after the new year, the press was reporting that Warners would claim Lupino back for The Hard Way after Moontide completed. Indeed, she started on The Hard Way in early March 1942.
Of course, by that time, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor had happened and the United States was at war. Other crises were at hand.
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