“There was an absolute and ironclad caste system in the film capital in the 1940s and 1950s,” Ida Lupino once wrote, that “had its primary purpose to exclude females.” A Hollywood star who had a ...

Dorothy Arzner, the only female director in the Hollywood studio system during the late ’20s and early ’30s, became infamous for her distinctly dapper butch look and slicked-back hair. Ida Lupino ...