In a Lonely Place (1950)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Nicholas Ray

Writers:

Dorothy B. Hughes (story)
Edmund H. North (adaptation)

Release Date:

17 May 1950 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

THE BOGART SUSPENSE PICTURE WITH THE SURPRISE FINISH - (original poster)

Plot:

A potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. But she begins to have doubts...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Murder | Film Within A Film | Masseuse | Road Rage

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Dixon Steele
Gloria Grahame	...	Laurel Gray
Frank Lovejoy	...	Det. Sgt. Brub Nicolai
Carl Benton Reid	...	Capt. Lochner
Art Smith	...	Agent Mel Lippman
Jeff Donnell	...	Sylvia Nicolai
Martha Stewart	...	Mildred Atkinson
Robert Warwick	...	Charlie Waterman
Morris Ankrum	...	Lloyd Barnes
William Ching	...	Ted Barton
Steven Geray	...	Paul, Headwaiter
Hadda Brooks	...	Singer

Also Known As:

Behind the Mask (USA) (working title)
Late at Night (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #14256) | UK:PG | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Spain:18

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Though the title and characters are based on Dorothy B. Hughes's novel, the biggest difference between book and movie is that in the movie Dixon Steele, though violent, is only accused of being a murderer while in the book he is a serial killer and rapist. Director Nicholas Ray claimed that he made the change because he was "more interested in doing a film about the violence in all of us, rather than a mass murder film or one about a psychotic." Hughes was never bothered by the changes from her novel and praised Gloria Grahame's performance.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Dixon and Laurel are in the car, the window glass of his left hand-side is up. But after he stops the car, in the shots from the left, the window glass disappears.

Quotes:

Laurel Gray: [on a scene in Dix's script] I love the love scene - it's very good.
Dixon Steele: Well 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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Edge of Outside (2006)

Soundtrack:

I Hadn't Anyone Till You

Classic Bogart, classic script, classic noir

This is one of my all time favourite films, and (alongside the obvious - Casablanca, Maltese Falcon etc) my favourite Bogart.

The script is smart, witty and cynical, just like a typical Bogart character. But in this film Bogart plays probably his darkest character.

In some of the scenes with Gloria Graeme he's at his smooth, wisecracking, slightly irritable best, but in the moments where the anger and the fog of despair descends he is a more threatening character than in any of his other leading man roles.

The cynical, darker aspects of this film just go to highlight how few contemporary films are prepared to be so bleak.

Despite the fact that the plot is ostensibly a 'did he do it?' crime story, this is largely inconsequential to the psychological character and relationship study that is the central concern of the film.

If you like a cracking script with sharp performances, with all kinds of deep psychological observations on love and loneliness to be read into it, in the best noir tradition, this is the film for you.