Never Fear,1949, was the first of several low-budget melodramas directed by actress Ida Lupino, after which she turned to TV directing. Female directors were almost unknown in the sound era before Lupino started directing, though there were several in the silent period, including Lois Weber and Frances Marion, and Lupino paved the way for other women directors who (slowly) followed.
Never Fear is about a dancer (played by Sally Forrest) who is struck down by polio and her struggles to walk again and reconcile with her dancing partner (played by Keefe Brasselle). She tries to struggle alone and only reluctantly accepts help; Lupino uses Forrest's voiceover to capture her despair. She finally reluctantly accepts help from another patient, played by Hugh O'Brian (a Lupino discovery) and a highlight of the film is when O'Brian and Forrest square dance together in their wheelchairs.
While watching this film for the first time (it was shown on Turner Classic Movies recently as part of a tribute to MoMA film preservation) I could not help but think of Tanaquil Le Clercq, a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet who was partially paralyzed by polio in 1956, a year before Salk's polio vaccine became available; a movie about her, Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil le Clercq, is available from Netflix.
Lupino's film captures the struggle against polio, which Lupino herself had in 1934, though she made an almost complete recovery. One can't help but think that her battle against polio helped to inoculate her in her attempts to get film directing jobs in the male-dominated film industry.
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