Not Wanted

Not Wanted is a 1949 American drama film directed by Elmer Clifton and an un-credited Ida Lupino and starring Sally Forrest, Keefe Brasselle and Leo Penn.
A few days after shooting started, Clifton suffered a heart attack. Lupino stepped in to direct the film without taking credit. The film's sets were designed by the art director Charles D. Hall. Shooting took place at the Universal Studios.

Plot

A young woman is attracted to a travelling musician while feeling stifled at how her parents treat her. She abandons her home town to follow him but he has decided to move on to chase his dream career. After he has left, she finds out that she is pregnant and faces a decision over what to do about her impending baby. She gives the child away after giving birth but finds herself feeling guilty to the point where she snatches a child from a stroller. In the meantime, her employer at the gas station has fallen in love with her.

Cast

Critical reception

The film has been received positively by modern critics. It holds an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 5 reviews.
Richard Brody of The New Yorker in a glowing review lauded the film and Lupino's direction, writing,

Lupino displays a documentary avidity for the details of work and play. She conveys Sally’s unworldly, impractical passion with tender, intimate closeups and an intense, effects-driven subjectivity—a hallucinatory sequence in a hospital is a masterpiece of low-budget Expressionism. An incongruous yet majestic chase scene, highlighting a photogenic array of Los Angeles locations, projects the intimate melodrama onto the world stage.