Ida Lupino's sexy!
She's like the ultimate frosty, tailored dominatrix type...if that's what you go for!
She's quite....colorful!
She was 37 when she made this film, and she looked even better than usual (which was damn good at minimum) when she got mad and raged. She always was at sex-appeal-supercharge during scenes like that - angry, pouty-lipped, vindictive, and mean, almost hot enough to burn.
When they got done shooting a few of those scenes Howard probably had max wood and needed a little "private time" with Ida.
I love the rhythm of Ida's performance which you well describe. There's something of a 1980's soap opera bitch diva in it which of course was 30 years in the future but Ida's performance was likely inspired by Barbara Stanwyck in her sexier film noirs.
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