Never Fear was Hollywood acting star Ida Lupino’s first official directorial credit, co-written with Collier Young and produced by their independent company, The Filmakers. Inspiration for the story, about a young dancer struck down by polio, came directly from Lupino’s life; she contracted the illness at sixteen, shortly after her arrival in America from a successful film career in England. In the film’s realistic and unsentimental treatment of a conventional melodrama narrative, Lupino shows how quickly she translated her experience in front of the camera into a strong signature style behind it.