Ida Lupino stars in "Ladies in Retirement," a 1941 film also starring Louis Hayward, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Isobel Elsom and Edith Barrett. Lupino is Ellen Creed, the housekeeper/companion to a retired actress Eleanora Fiske (Elsom) who "has friends" that send her money besides her pension. Translation: she got around. Ellen's crazy sisters (Lanchester and Barrett) are being evicted from their place in London, so Ellen gets Fiske to agree that they can visit. Of course Ellen doesn't intend that they visit, she intends that they move in. They turn out to be impossible, bringing in branches, shells, dead birds, scratching the funeral and living like coyotes, so after 6 weeks, Fiske tells Ellen that not only is she throwing out her sisters, but Ellen is going with them. The next day, Ellen kills the old woman and tells her sister she's purchased the house.

Complications arise when a relative of the Creeds, Albert Feather (Hayward) who has already been to the house to see Ellen when she was in London and met Mrs. Fiske, shows up again. It doesn't take him long to figure out what went on and what's going on.

Lupino's career would have been better, of course, if she hadn't been stuck at Warner Brothers where the plum roles she might have played went to Bette Davis. She is very good here in a restrained performance as a determined young woman who takes her responsibilities to her sisters very seriously. Lanchester turns in an excellent performance as the willful sister, and Edith Barrett, the more fragile one, is very amusing. Lupino was married to Louis Hayward at the time of his filming. Hayward could look strange, possibly when his weight was up - here he is most attractive and charming as Albert. He was marvelous as Simon Templar, the Saint, and here he brings that same smooth as silk quality to his performance. Evelyn Keyes has a small but showy role as a maid who can't resist Albert. Isobel Elsom is excellent as Mrs. Fiske - distracted, self-involved and somewhat annoying with no coping mechanisms.

The big question is, if Ellen's two sisters are crazy, and Ellen can kill so easily, is Ellen crazy as well? Hard to say but perhaps her obsessiveness over her sisters and her determination to get what she wants are indications that she has a streak of instability.

The sets are very noticeable today as is the fake fog, and I have to add that a title like "Ladies in Retirement" sounds like an early '30s film with Constance Bennett. Nevertheless, it has a good, suspenseful atmosphere and while a little slow moving, it definitely held my interest.