Ida Lupino forged a career for herself playing tough, strong women in films of the 1940s alongside such greats as Humphrey Bogart and John Garfield, until her contract with Warner Brothers expired in 1947. Controversially, she decided to go freelance and picked her parts but when they didnÂ’t show, she opted to step behind the camera.

She became widely regarded as one of the most inspiring, and certainly one of the earliest, successful female filmmakers. Most of her movies were made on the cheap but dealt with real “social issues”, including rape in ‘Outrage’ in 1950. Her most iconic (and ever-copied) work is the thriller ‘The Hitch-Hiker’, which made her the first woman to direct a film noir in 1953.