In a Lonely Place (1950)

Just perfect...

Crappy film

An absolute waste of money

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Humphrey Bogart turns in an outstanding performance in this gritty film noir about an aging screenwriter suspected of murder. One evening he takes a young checkroom woman home with him to talk about a book, and after she leaves that night, she's strangled in a car and dumped. His neighbor (Gloria Grahame) provides what seems to be an alibi, and then the two begin having an amorous relationship. The police, however, continue investigating him, and they have reason to, because Bogart is quite a hothead. He has a 'take no prisoners' approach to life, is unafraid of police questioning, and lets his fists do the talking when he flies into a rage, which he does several times. There is a pathos to Bogart's flaws, which seem to have doomed him to life 'in a lonely place', despite his big heart and authenticity as a person. He just can't help himself when he does things he later regrets, and yet he "he has to explode sometimes," as his agent puts it. He always apologizes afterwards, sometimes in quiet ways, and he's also fiercely protective of friends, including an old actor with a predilection for drinking. He's aging, fighting the system, and fighting himself. We can't help but feel for him, even if he scares us. Bogart's eyes in the moments when he's explaining what must have happened during the murder to his police friend and his wife are truly frightening. It's hard to believe he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for his performance.In one of the most touching scenes, he's driving with Grahame and says "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." They're lines he's trying to work into one of his scripts, but one senses real pain from his past. In another fantastic scene, the two are in the kitchen after she's read his script, and he's clumsily trying to cut her a grapefruit for breakfast. In what defines his gruff yet tender character, after she's complemented the love scene in the script, he says "That's because they're not always telling each other how much in love they are. A good love scene should be about something else besides love. For instance, this one. Me fixing grapefruit, you sitting over there, dopey, half-asleep. Anyone looking at us could tell we're in love."Grahame falls for him, and as improbable as the romance may seem, the pair have chemistry, and play their conflicted roles well. She shows great range as their relationship goes through stages, and without spoiling anything, I'll just say that things get difficult for her as Bogart gets erratic, and she realizes he may have committed the crime.Director Nicholas Ray is taut in his story-telling, and there is a wonderful atmosphere to the film, such as when the two are in a nightclub sitting at a piano with other couples as Hadda Brooks performs "I Hadn't Anyone Till You", drinking and murmuring to one another. "Anything you want to make you happy?" he asks. "I wouldn't want anyone but you," she whispers. There is a sophistication to how people dressed and spoke in movies like this one, a coolness to the way they drank and smoked, and yet it's juxtaposed with violent passion and tragic flaws. The overall emotional effect of the film is like a punch to the gut, and much stronger because of its revised (and apparently improvised) ending. This is no-nonsense, fantastic film noir.

I am unsure why this film is receiving such high marks as a film noir. For me, this has to be one of the most boring noirs I have ever seen, and as a noir buff, I've seen dozens and dozens of films noir. The entire movie takes place in the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes. The remaining middle of the movie can be excised without affecting the outcome at all. This movie doesn't seem to know what it wants to be: mystery, drama, crime story, or comedy. The music is childish and cartoonish and often intrusive.The only aspect of this movie that makes it worth watching is Bogie's slow 'crash and burn' as Dix Steele, who realizes how shallow his relationships with others are, even the woman he loves, played by the unbelievably wooden and amateurish Gloria Grahame.She is supposed to be a woman living in fear that she might have gotten involved with a murderer but there is no love in her, or fear, or happiness, or any other emotion for that matter. I find myself not caring one iota about her and wondering why Dix even bothered pursuing her in thee first place.The rest of the cast is a mélange of interchangeable, immediately forgettable characters that add very little to the story. There are 2 cops on the case, but one would have been plenty. We have the obligatory drunk friend who adds nothing at all, except for the minuscule comedy relief, which is not welcome here, and the balance of the cast is just filler material. The only exception being Dix's agent Mel who is surprisingly realistic.All in all, a very forgettable film. Too bad, because Bogart is awesome.

Speaking as a Bogart fan, this movie just didn't click for me, and I'm not going to blame the leading male for its serious flaws and weaknesses. I found it ironic that the story revolved around a Hollywood screenwriter who was grappling with a script because this script must have involved quite a bit of struggling, possibly from a lack of inspiration on the part of the writer.Bogart aside, I have seen Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, and Art Smith in other films, and they were much better in them. In Grahame's case, perhaps it was the collapse of her marriage to Director Nicholas Ray that seriously weakened her lackluster performance here, but it could have been the very poor, lethargic script as well. Art Smith as the prison physician in "Brute Force" demonstrated how well he can do in much better circumstances.Very rarely do I appreciate Hollywood films about Hollywood. They always seem self-absorbed to me as someone who is 3,000 miles away from the place, not only physically but culturally. Perhaps I am incapable of understanding the occupational hazards and tribulations of Hollywood folks during the often difficult process of film making. I have yet to reach a conclusion about this. The jury is still out.For me, the film opens well and finishes on a dramatically compelling and thought provoking note, but I found it very tiresome for at least an hour in between. In my view, the actors were emotionally detached from their characters, most likely as the result of a limp script that, for the most part, lacked energy. Maybe if Bogie took that carefully carved grapefruit and smashed it into Graham's face or threw a pot of hot coffee at her, I would have been jolted out of my yawning listlessness. At any rate, I found this film to be extremely overrated and at or very near the bottom of my Bogart movie list.

IN A LONELY PLACE is a film in which the action takes place in two apartments and a picturesque courtyard. The paradox in the title of the film is excellent. Souls are lonely. Incapable of changing and incapable of love. The mystery surrounding the murder of a young girl is a certain kind of trial for the main protagonists.Angry and aggressive writer who lives at the expense of success in the past and lawfully but very clever actress connects a murder mystery. Both of them are in some way involved and carry a certain burden. They fall in love and problems arise when the burden should be divided. I think they are both burned in their own idealism. The story can be viewed as a mystery, and the main male character as an enigma. Although, I can easily say that this is a character who has a problem with a lack of understanding and control of emotions. This is certainly not a heartbreaking love story but a classic noir attitude of a man with a dark place in his soul and a woman who at all costs trying to heal him. The main male character becomes a victim of its nature, the main female character are the victim of his self-esteem.Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele just plays well sensitive characters. At this point I would like that fact attributed experience. Characters that are not true heroes, with the specific style and tone. They are appealing and interesting, but often persecuted and sinful. Sometimes guided by greed and lust.Gloria Grahame as Laurel Gray is a change in man. A woman who can change the human temperament. Her self-esteem and fear they create an alarm that was waking up from a fairy tale in the real world close to a nightmare.This film is born and dies in a few weeks of love.