The Bigamist goes where no movie has gone before; it gives us a bigamist as the central character and manages to make us sympathise with his plight. Harry Graham is a salesman who longs to spend time with his wife, played by Joan Fontaine, but she's a workaholic businesswoman who rarely finds time in her schedule for her husband. While on a sales trip Graham befriends a waitress played by Ida Lupino and as friendship turns to love Graham calls and teases wife about meeting another woman; we see a quick flash of fear in her eyes, but then she immediately changes the conversation, in a fake chirpy tone, and pretends nothing bothers her. The well-detailed characters bring the drama of The Bigamist to life. The waitress is a tough but compassionate character, much more full of life than Fontaine's Eisenhower era wife. Significantly, we also discover that the waitress is much more fertile than Fontaine - who cannot bear children.
This subtle critique of `50s families and the sterility of home life when business becomes more important than family communication makes The Bigamist just as relevant today as when it was made in 1953.