Bigamist, The (DVD)

Brand The Bigamist is an amazingly sympathetic portrait of a figure historically given very short shrift: the title character is not only a two-timerhes a traveling salesman as well. But, as embodied by that perpetually pressured everyman of the 1950s, Edmond OBrien, the bigamist comes across as a victim of his own sensitivity. Caught between two complementary spouses, OBriens dazed indecisiveness dominates the narrative. As always in Ida Lupinos directorial efforts, a strong social consciousness informs all choices: Joan Fontaine is an upper-crust lady, reverently attached to her dying father, while Lupino herself plays a tough-talking working woman, waitressing in a cheap Chinese restaurant. But no on-screen triangle could beat the one behind the cameraThe Bigamist was produced and written by Collier Young, Lupinos longtime collaborator and recently divorced husband, whose new wife was none other than Joan Fontaine. The wonderful cast includes Edmund Gwenn, Kenneth Tobey and Jane Dar