IN
A
LONELY
PLACE
Directed by:
Nicholas Ray - Written by: Dorothy B. Hughes, Edmund North,
Andrew Solt
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy -
Released: I950
A noirish film
considered to be one of the gems of the Bogart cannon, made
by his own production company, directed by Nicholas Ray,
and reckoned the closest to the "real" Bogie by film
scholars. If it's actually close to the real Bogie, then my
sympathies to his wife Lauren Bacall, because the man Bogie
plays drinks to excess and throws tantrums and beats people
to within an inch of their lives.
Bogie
plays Dixon Steele, a screen-play writer with few hits to
his post-war record. He's a Hemingwayesque character-hero;
good with his fists , a war hero, loved by all, a female
magnet, and men admire him too. He live in one of the
Spanish-style apartment houses that still dot the Hollywood
area (some say modeled on the famous Garden of Allah
apartments that were home to many famous writers).
Almost
immediately, a beautiful woman named Laurel (Gloria
Grahame), a name similar to real-life partner Lauren,
enters his life and he falls heavily for her. She's not as
sure, especially since he's suspected of murder of another
young woman whom he's picked-up the night before. She
begins to fall heavily for him, but his hot-tempered
behaviour has her worried - to the point that she suspects
him of the murder. But then again, she has a butch masseuse
with very powerful hands that could have done it too.
In
the meantime, there's lots of inside Hollywood banter, and
humorous and sometimes scathing asides about the nature of
tinsel-town. The problems are the obvious penny-pinching
look of the film, the tatty sets, the few extras, the
no-name supporting cast. That could be overlooked. The big
problem is the performances by all concerned; never have
lines been delivered with less enthusiasm or emothion; more
like a script read-through than a movie.
The
film is still praised as pure Bogie without frills, and is
worth a look if you're a Bogie fan; there are many good
elements in the film for inside Hollywood buffs, but they
never seem to gel in this offbeat movie.
Note:
(a)
Gloria Grahame was estranged from her husband, the film's
director Nicholas Ray. She would subsequently go on to
marry one of Ray's sons from a previous marriage
