:
Humphrey Bogart,
Humphrey Bogart,
Gloria Grahame,
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:
Nicholas Ray,
Nicholas Ray
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: Not Rated
: Columbia TriStar
: Classics, Drama, Classic Drama, Film Noir, Classic Crime, Crime, Classic Crime, Classic Drama
: 93 min.
: English, French
: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese
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A haunting work of stark confessionalism disguised as a taut noir thriller, In a Lonely Place -- Nicholas Ray's bleak, desperate tale of fear and self-loathing in Hollywood -- remains one of the filmmaker's greatest and most deeply resonant features. It stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a fading screenwriter suffering from creative burnout; hired to adapt a best-selling novel, instead of reading the book itself he asks the hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) at his favorite nightclub to simply tell him the plot. The morning after, the girl is found brutally murdered, and Steele is the police's prime suspect; however, the would-be starlet across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with a solid alibi, and they soon begin a romance in spite of Gray's lingering concerns that the troubled, violent Steele might just be a killer after all. During production, Ray's real-life marriage to co-star Grahame began to crumble, and his own vulnerability and disillusionment clearly inform the picture; the brooding, bitter Steele -- a role ideally suited to Bogart's wounded romanticism -- is plainly a doppelganger for Ray himself (the site of his first Hollywood apartment is even employed as the set for Steele's home), and the film's unflinching examination of the character's disintegration makes for uniquely compelling viewing. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
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| Bogart was made for noir...
by GSutton
July 3, 2008 - 11:06 AM PDT
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2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
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| ...and noir was made for Bogart. Though not as awesome and the Maltese Falcon, this film shines. Probably because In A Lonely Place is noir in feel, but not in practice. Yes the movie dark both visually and in subject, but it's less formulaic. Bogart was more complex than a anti-social private eye, and Grahame isn't a cold and calculating black widow. She is smart, charismatic, and has realistic feelings about the world and her place in it which is refreshing to say the least. |
| What's Between the Lines
by randomcha
February 28, 2008 - 2:44 PM PST
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3 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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Every now and then I watch a movie and then immediately want to watch it all over again. It's hard to predict when it'll happen. Last year it definitely happened with "Laura." I think I watched it about four times. On Friday night I rented In A Lonely Place and then tonight I just had to see it again. I'd only seen it once before; while I was living in L.A. it was shown on a double bill with "Knock on Any Door" at this cool little theater in West Hollywood called The Beverly. It's been very hard to see for a long time and only recently came out on DVD.
Anyhow, this movie is absolutely haunting. There's something about Bogart and Gloria Grahame that's deeply mysterious. It reminds me a lot of "On Dangerous Ground." The way Nicholas Ray uses shadowing, foregrounding and perspective creates very subtle effects that colors the story but never allows your focus to wander from the people onscreen. What's between the lines stuns you because you can't get your fingers around it. |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.96)
164 Votes
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