Beware My Lovely (1952)

Beware My Lovely (1952)

Helen Gordon hires Howard Wilton as a handyman to do chores around her house. She doesn't know what she's let herself in for. Insecure and paranoid, Wilton thinks everyone, including Helen, is against him. He suffers from memory lapses and extreme mood swings. She's soon a prisoner in her own house after Wilton locks the doors and tears out the telephone. His mood swings from violence to complacency but after Helen gets a message to the police via a telephone repairman, she finds he is still in the house. (IMDB garykmcd)  

Ida Lupino as Mrs. Helen Gordon

Robert Ryan as Howard Wilton 

Ida Lupino (1918–1995) 

Ida Lupino  was an English-American film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her forty-eight-year career, she appeared in fifty-nine films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States, where she became a citizen in 1948. She co-wrote and co-produced some of her own films as well. She appeared in serial television programmes fifty-eight times and directed fifty other episodes. Additionally, she contributed as a writer to five films and four TV episodes.

She became the only notable and respected female filmmaker of her era in Hollywood.

She was the second woman to be admitted to the Director's Guild.