Gloria Grahame also gives one of her best performances. Ruth Warren is funny as the maid, and Ruth Gillette is really spooky as the masseuse. rather than a whodunnit, In a Lonely Place exhibited one of director Nicholas Ray's favourite themes, that of the destructive, self and otherwise, modern male. Andrew Solt, who fashioned the screenplay from a story by Dorothy B. Hughes and an adaptation by Edmund H. North, has had the good sense to resolve the story logically. Dix has a very flip and unemotional reaction to the news which makes the Captain very suspicious of Dix. Then they fall in love with each other, but Gloria can not trust him completely. I give it 10 out of 10. Awards Then I kicked everybody off stage except Bogart, Art Smith and Gloria. There are some great snappy one-liners. | Martha Stewart died on February 17, 2021, at the age of 98 Credit: Alamy. The lyrics contain lines from the movie dialog. When that kind of marriage happens between actor and director, it's breathtaking. This unknown classic is Bogie's most complete performance ever. The title describes the mental state of the lead character Dixon Steele - played by our favourite Humphrey Bogart. premise of a murder mystery, yet 'In A Lonely Place' is really more focused on psychology and human behaviour than anything else. With the support of Gloria, Dix starts working again, and prepares an outstanding screenplay for his agent. Later, at Steele's apartment, Gray's masseuse Martha warns her about Steele's checkered romantic past, and Gray grows irritated, kicking her out of the apartment. The storyline and the characterizations are city street-smart and flawless. Solt claimed that Bogart loved the script so much that he wanted to make it without revisions – Solt maintains that the final cut i… Humphrey Bogart gives his most compelling performance in Nick Ray's classic and generates more on-screen heat with co-star Gloria Grahame than in any of his other justly famous cinematic couplings. Its chorus, "I was born the day I met you, lived a while when you loved me, died a little when we broke apart," is taken directly from the movie's dialogue.[23]. This film marks a different sort of role for the great Humphrey Bogart as well, as it shows him in a more vulnerable, and more importantly darker, role than what we are used to seeing him portray. His agent asks him to read a book and prepare the screenplay. Ironically, the most complicated narrative In A Lonely Place offers is the one that a young hat-check girl, Mildred, describes to Dix at his courtyard apartment. Frank Lovejoy heads a fantastic supporting cast, heavy on three-dimensional characterisations. The phone rings again. ": The American Talking Film History & Memory, 1927-1949. Later, I came to understand why. | I lived while I loved you. 'In A Lonely Place' could be Ray's best. 9/10. This is one of my all time favourite films, and (alongside the obvious - Casablanca, Maltese Falcon etc) my favourite Bogart. It's a fine and daring performance, and the last, I believe, where Bogart plays even a semi- romantic leading man. The film In a Lonely Place (1950) occupies a special position in the history of psychological film noir. User Ratings "I lived a few weeks while you loved me. In fact, only four pages of the 140-page script had no revisions. Film noir is a part of cinema that has been sorely missed since it's decline in the sixties, but it's always nice to view a classic from the era; and this film is one of the best of the genre that I've seen. It is rarely shown - and more's the pity for that. However, she soon starts to have her doubts. In a Lonely Place is both a meditation on screenwriting and an example of the craft at its finest. Nicolai comes to tell Steele that he has been cleared of Mildred's murder but arrests him for killing Gray. Report This. She’s just read the novel he’s been asked to adapt, and agrees to tell him the story so that he can decide, with minimal effort, whether or not to take the job. A brave and smart twist to the "man alone" theme... the star with two sides, with a sad tinge to it all, in one of Ray's great films, Amazing Film With Possibly Bogart's Greatest Performance, A Magnificent Movie About Trusting In and Suspicion, Bogart's and Grahame's best performances ever. Storyline Screenwriter Dixon Steele, faced with the odious task of scripting a trashy bestseller, has hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson tell him the story in her own words. (Hughes' character pre-dates Ripley and may have influenced him.) This scene was filmed halfway through the shooting schedule, but Ray hated the ending he had helped write. N ot unlike Albert Camus’s The Stranger, Nicholas Ray’s remarkable In a Lonely Place represents the purest of existentialist primers. Sgt. Bogie had played his loner against the world in many varieties before - but his film characters had an edge to them. Bacall was a natural choice given her off-screen marriage to Bogart and their box-office appeal, but Warner Bros. refused to loan her out, a move often thought to be in reaction to Bogart having set up his own independent production company, the type of which Warner Bros. were afraid would jeopardize the future of the major studios. Academy Award (r) winner Humphrey Bogart (Best Actor, The African Queen, 1951) stars as Dixon Steele, a down-on-his-luck studio scribe who reluctantly agrees to adapt a trashy bestseller to the silver screen. The police circle around, making his nervous anger worse; the relationship begins to crumble into a mess of fear, lies and misunderstanding. A scorching performance from Bogey makes this film a real classic, his Dixon Steele one of the great screen characters. Edit. His Dixon Steele must rank with his best characters. "Before inertia set in, he played one fascinatingly complex character, craftily directed by Nicholas Ray, in a film whose title perfectly defined Humphrey's own isolation among people. Lippman comes over to celebrate while Steele is away, only to find out that Gray does not want to go through with the marriage and is making plans to escape to New York. He had always needed her.” (Hughes, 1947: 64). In a Lonely Place is a true post-war noir novel. Grahame pulls off a difficult role too, being torn between love and terror. Report This . At a beach party with the Nicolais, Sylvia inadvertently reveals Gray's secret meeting with Lochner, causing Steele to become furious as he storms away from the beach. This is the existential endgame of one of Ray's smartest and most devastating masterpieces. Not unlike Ray's debut They Live by Night (1948), it was advertised as a straight thriller although the film does not fit easily into one genre, as the marketing shows. In a Lonely Place, Nicholas Ray’s elegantly bitter film about damaged trust, throws that question at its viewers. [5] It is now considered as one of the best film noirs of all time, as evidenced by its inclusion on the Time "All-Time 100 Movies" list[6] as well as Slant Magazine's "100 Essential Films"[7] and is ranked number one on "The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time". Dix invites Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart), who is the receptionist of the restaurant where he is habitué and had read the book, to go to his home and present a summary of the story. He finds she is an aspiring actress with only a few low-budget films to her credit. Meanwhile he proposes her to get married with him, and although Gloria is in love with him, she is not sure whether he killed Mildred or not. North's treatment was not used. Metacritic Reviews. | The film also seems keen to give a commentary on Hollywood, with it's comments on the sort of people that live there along with criticisms of certain methods. On the next morning, she is found murdered and Dix becomes the prime suspect. Trailer. For all the praise film-noir is lavished with (quite a lot of it valid), the majority of it relies on convention as much as the standard white-picket-fence, happy-ending 'family' film does: just invert the. One of Bogart's very best! ...and this movie proves it. For Mildred will soon be killed, and Dixon fall under suspicion of having committed the murder. Edit. Louise Brooks wrote in her essay "Humphrey and Bogey" that she felt it was the role of Dixon Steele in this movie that came closest to the real Bogart she knew. I also liked Frank Lovejoy ('House Of Wax', 'The Hitch-Hiker') who plays Bogart's cop buddy. Nicholas Ray is a director who has almost been forgotten these days, despite making brilliant movies like 'They Live By Night', 'On Dangerous Ground', 'Johnny Guitar' and 'Rebel Without A Cause', and numbering Martin Scorsese and Wim Wenders among his fans (the latter even gave him a small role in his 'The American Friend'). Bogart's performance is brilliant, but the setting works well too, Grahame is great as the sassy girl he falls for, then frightens, the story chugs along at a fair lick, but allowing plenty of time for the many fun minor characters to develop well, and the script is a corker - wonderful stuff. Carl Benton Reid is the Lieutenant, and William Ching another officer. Stewart performed one of her best-known roles as murder victim When Edmund H. North adapted the story, he stuck close to the original source and John Derek was considered for the role of Steele because in the novel the character was much younger. Curtis Hanson, in the DVD featurette 'In A Lonely Place Revisited', further analyses the parallels and differences between the novel and the film. Bogart reportedly thought the movie a failure. Ray later said, "I just couldn't believe the ending that Bundy (screenwriter Andrew Solt) and I had written. The driving emotion of this film is doubt. When he asks her to marry him, she accepts, but only because she is too scared of what he might do if she refused. In a Lonely Place was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Dorothy B. Hughes. Mildred Atkinson: Before I started to go to work at Paul's, I ... You get to a lonely place in the road and you begin to squeeze. The story concerns a Hollywood screenwriter (Bogart) who is suspected of being a murderer. She later leaves. This film is a masterpiece, and the kind of role that big stars hardly ever undertake. In a Lonely Place (1950) cast and crew credits, including actors, actresses, directors, writers and more. In the film, Steele is pursued by women. He seems almost psychotic--very rare for the hero of the 1950s movie. Steele remarks to Nicolai that Kesler is a better suspect. At a dinner to celebrate the engagement, Frances Randolph, an actress whom Steele previously dated, joins and reveals that Steele's script has been leaked by Lippman. | [21], The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 98% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average rating of 8.71/10, based on 47 reviews. Laurel … At the Nicolai residence, Gray asks Sylvia about the night where they were made to re-enact the murder, revealing Steele's roadside assault. Yet aside from Dobbs most of his best performances were ones where the audience did sympathize with him. Most critics label it as a quintessential film noir, but it’s also an existential drama, a murder mystery, a self-reflexive film about Hollywood, and a most personal work in the short but impressive resume of its cult director. It's a terrific performance, and while his character can be charming at times he's also surprisingly unlikeable and intense (we are told he broke an old girlfriend's nose, for example. In a Lonely Place has a great plot. It's a mystery why this film doesn't get the same love and respect as some of the others from this era. After midnight, he gives some money for the cab and Mildred leaves his apartment alone. He notes that there is a parallel in the film between Steele's adaptation of a novel for film and the adaptation of In a Lonely Place for film. The strongest difference between the two works lies in the protagonist; the film's Dixon Steele is a screenwriter with an unconventional life and a decent person with fatally poor impulse control, prone to wild overreaction when enraged. The bittersweet ending comes as a surprise. It makes Grahame rethink her earlier testimony, as well as fear for her own safety. Confidential. Maybe it's sacrilege to say this, but Bogart has more chemistry with Gloria Grahame in this movie than he ever had with Bacall. This is not one of Bogart's more famous works, but for fans of his romantic works, it's a must. In the original ending we had ribbons so it was all tied up into a very neat package, with Lovejoy coming in and arresting him as he was writing the last lines, having killed Gloria. [18], Critic Ed Gonzalez wrote in 2001, "Not unlike Albert Camus' The Stranger, Nicholas Ray's remarkable In a Lonely Place represents the purest of existentialist primers ... Gray and Dixon may love each other but it's evident that they're both entirely too victimized by their own selves to sustain this kind of happiness. I really can't understand why as it's a wonderful Film Noir-style movie with exceptionally exciting dialog and some very clever writing. You're driving the car and you're strangling her. Bogart is at his uncompromisingly dark best as the Hollywood writer whose temper leads to accusations of murder and conflicted relationships. Dixon Steele is pretty socioathic, and Bogart plays him perfectly and with zero narcissism. Certainly box-office results were dismal and Bogie's production company, Santana, lost a bundle. He said, "I wanted them to see the reality of that period and to see that emotion. The fact that it also manages to make a statement about Hollywood – and, by extension, the very concept of the "macho loner" glorified by Bogart in so many of his films – just makes it all that much more unforgettable. Stewart's most famous role came as murder victim Mildred Atkinson in In A Lonely Place… North's treatment was not used. Such a pity they never worked together after this. Eventually, Gray's doubts about Steele's innocence result in her being unable to sleep without taking pills. Imagine Mel Gibson or Brad Pitt doing that in a movie today and still being the romantic lead!). ‪CC‬ ‪Unrated‬. What I … Dixon "Dix" Steele is a down-on-his-luck Hollywood screenwriter who has not had a successful movie since before World War II. Humphrey Bogart's part in In a Lonely Place perfectly makes such an interesting case as to what is capable in his skills as an actor, and as a star. A truly unique Hollywood movie all round. Here however, Bogey is driven to maniacal excess that roils to a raging white heat best exemplified when he stops short of smashing a man's head in with a rock in a 1950's fit of road rage. When he gets home, Steele checks up on Gray. Steele tells Brub that he is finally finished with his screenplay; the final shot was to be of a page in the typewriter which has the significant lines Steele said to Gray in the car (which he admitted to not knowing where to put) "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me". Time magazine, which gave the film a negative review upon its initial release, called it one of the 100 best films of all time in their 2005 list. Bogie's Loner meets an emotional dead end. Later that night, Mildred is murdered and Steele is a prime suspect; his record of belligerence when angry and his macabre sense of humor tell against him. It looks like the story will turn into a whodunit, but the film is as uninterested as Dix in who killed Mildred. Later that night, Mildred is murdered and Steele is a prime suspect; his record of belligerence when angry tells against him. By turns charming, cold, romantic and remorseful, Dix Steele is as unpredictable a character as Bogie has ever played. The society within the novel matches the society of America during the late 1940's and early 50's. [referring to the book Dixon is supposed to adapt into a screenplay] Mildred Atkinson : Oh I think it'll make a dreamy picture, Mr. Steele. After briefly calming down, Steele answers the phone, learning of Gray's flight cancellation. Bogart is excellent. However, Dix says obviously Henry Kesler killed her. Top notch acting across the board. You know how to kill a person without using your hands. Did Dix kill the girl? Andrew Solt developed the screenplay with regular input from producer Robert Lord and director Nicholas Ray, and the end result is far different from the source novel. After taking a young coat attendant, Mildred (Martha Stewart), back home to supposedly tell him about a book he has to adapt for a film, Steele is caught … Synopsis. In this more biting version of the plot of Hitchcock's suspense/comedy Suspicion, Bogart is a kind and loving screenwriter with a violent streak of temper waiting to break out and a taste for a drink or two, wooing Gloria Grahame's pretty young actress next door. They begin to fall in love and, with Gray assisting him, Steele enthusiastically goes back to work, much to Lippman's delight. Through all this Dixon Steele emerges as a great and brilliant creation, a highlight even in a career as illustrious as that of Bogart, a charming and witty man when happy, a black and vengeful man when roused to anger, a man of contradictions that only seems the more real, heroic, and ultimately tragic. In a Lonely Place (1950) is maverick director Nicholas Ray's and Columbia Pictures' well-respected, bleak, mature, and dramatic film noir, although it was not a box-office hit and received no Academy Award nominations. In a Lonely Place is a 1950 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray[2] and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's Santana Productions. Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him." Rather than read the book himself, Steele convinces a star-struck hatcheck girl, Mildred Atkinson, to accompany him home and tell him the story in her own words. Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart), a washed-up Hollywood screenwriter under pressure to produce a good screenplay, has been given the simple task of writing a cut-and-dry adaptation of a novel when he meets a hatcheck girl named Mildred Atkinson (Martha … "[22], The 1986 song "In a Lonely Place" by the Smithereens, from the album Especially For You, was inspired by the film. The novel's Steele is a limited third-person view from Steele's perspective, reminiscent of the first-person in noir, à la The Killer Inside Me. I acknowledge that in every conceivable situation his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine and shall prevail." He goes to the police station and stumbles upon his neighbor Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) that gives alibi to Dix. Having become the focus of the House Un-American Activities Committee's witch-hunt for communists, many careers were either destroyed or threatened and the introduction of the industry's blacklist was responsible for compounding the strong feelings of bitterness and persecution which were so prevalent at that time. ‪Drama‬, ‪Romance‬. In that day, few Hollywood egos had the assurance to take on such an unflattering role, especially the shadowy later scenes where his creviced face approaches the grotesque. He is almost unbearably intense as Dixon Steele, a screenwriter with high standards and a nasty temper who finds himself under suspicion when Mildred, a hat-check girl he knows, is found murdered. In a Lonely Place still rates as an undiscovered gem. Gloria Grahame ('Crossfire', 'The Big Set Up') is a neighbour who supplies him with an alibi. In the end, their love resembles a rehearsal for the next and hopefully less complicated romance. Bogart's Dix Steel (that name should have been reconsidered) is a borderline psychopath, a Jekyll and Hyde who can boil over in an instant. Everything in the story revolves around Hollywood and movie making, but this is NOT really a film about Hollywood; it's a murder mystery. It's plot does revolve around the highly tense 'Did he really do it?' Bogart's characterization of Dixon Steele, an erratic and violent screenwriter, builds on a role seen three years earlier in "The Two Mrs. Carroll's". As they enter the courtyard of his apartment, they pass a new tenant, Laurel Gray. "[12] Apparently, on one voyage in their yacht Santana, Bogart showed an inexplicable burst of rage that frightened his wife Lauren Bacall. At first everything is wonderful, and Bogart is even writing again, but bit by bit Grahame starts to see his dark side and begins to fear him, even suspecting that he may have been involved in the murder after all. Humphrey Bogart is in top form in his latest independently made production, In a Lonely Place, and the picture itself is a superior cut of Lippmanodrama. You don't see her bulging eyes or her protruding tongue. And Grahame, often good, is absolutely great in this performance, more subtle and sexy than anything I've seen her do elsewhere. You're an ex-GI. Nicholas Ray's film doesn't so much challenge as it does confront a certain style of POV in how the character(s) may be seen in the film, and it very much has a lasting impact to this day. He's a walking volcano whose sensitive side simply cannot contain the inner turmoil. Great script is full of memorable lines, and all the supporting actors are sharp. I died when you left me"... Only an actor with Bogart's terminal irreverence could break through the banality [of these lines] to the other side of wild romanticism. Meeting with Lippman at a nightclub, Steele is cajoled into adapting a book for a movie. Andrew Solt developed the screenplay with regular input from producer Robert Lord and director Nicholas Ray, and the end result is far different from the source novel. When In A Lonely Place is viewed through a modern lens as a film about a woman who is trapped and threatened by a man who is capable of domestic violence, it takes the film in a more grounded, realistic direction that the genre seldom treads. ‪1950‬. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation of Dorothy B. Hughes' 1947 novel of the same name. Bogart and Grahame are a terrific team (she is the designing actress), but also good are Frank Lovejoy, Jeff Donnell (as his wife), Martha Stewart (no not that one) as the murder victim, Art Smith as the agent, and Robert Warwick (just wonderful) as the washed-up actor. Steele goes to the police station and attempts to clear his name, meeting Atkinson's boyfriend Harry Kesler, who works at a bank. Everything is perfectly done, and the script is wonderful. Steele is a charlatan who pretends to be a novelist while sponging money from his overbearing uncle. It is one of Humphrey Bogart's finest performances and one of director Nicholas Ray's first films. IN A LONELY PLACE is the forgotten great performance of Humphrey Bogart, as screenwriter and psychotic Dix Steele. When I first saw In a Lonely Place as a teenager, it frightened me and yet attracted me with an almost hypnotic power. One of Nicholas Ray's best movies with brilliant performances from Bogart and Grahame. While many film noir's focus on crime only, this one fuses crime with romance and the result is a film that is both thrilling and touching. When Edmund H. North adapted the story, he stuck close to the original source and John Derek was considered for the role of Steele because in the novel the character was much younger. In a Lonely Place, directed by Nicholas Ray in 1950, is not an easy film to classify because it doesn’t fit into any one genre. Grahame played along with the charade and nobody knew that they had separated. It also has a terrific performance by Gloria Grahame, who most will recognize as Violet from "It's a Wonderful Life". The two did separate during filming. Nobody is hurt, but when the other driver accosts him, Steele beats him unconscious and is about to strike him with a large rock when Gray stops him. Great. Marriages don't have to end that way, they don't have to end in violence. In the novel Steele pursues women and the first chapter details his pursuit of a woman. Humphrey Bogart in a clip from classic film noir In a Lonely Place Guardian Whatever Dix’s intentions may actually have been, they are blown out of the water when the pair of … Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is a hotshot Hollywood screenwriter struggling to come back after a series of flops. When Ray directed his wife Gloria Grahame as Laurel opposite Humphrey Bogart’s Dix, he made art imitate life by fueling his atypical film noir with the atmosphere of his ailing marriage, which wasn’t seventeen months old when production began at the end of October 1949. I shot it because it was my obligation to do it. Screenwriter Dixon Steele, faced with the odious task of scripting a trashy bestseller, has hat-check girl Mildred Atkinson tell him the story in her own words. When filming began, Ray was married to its female lead, Gloria Grahame; by the time it ended, they were living apart. Grahame and Ray's marriage was starting to come apart during filming. The death of a young girlfriend of his hangs over him throughout the movie, as Graham at first believes him to be innocent, then later, having fallen for his charms, begins to suspect he may have had something to do with the girl's death after all, as his temper becomes more and more uncontrolled and frightening. Ray's films had a brief revival in the 1970s and Bogart's anti-hero stance gained a following in the 1960s, and the French Cahiers du cinéma critics during the 1950s praised Ray's unique film making. ". And we improvised the ending as it is now. When this well dries up, he murders a wealthy young man and assumes his identity, in a manner similar to Patricia Highsmith's Tom Ripley. [8] The BBC ranked it number 89 in their list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. This was one of the films which he showed to actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce in preparation for filming L.A. Mildred describes the story, confirming what Steele had suspected—the book is no good. The film was one of two Nicholas Ray films to be scored by avant garde classical composer George Antheil (1900–1959). But the center is Bogart's harsh, unrelenting character. Gloria Grahame, as his romance, also rates kudos". Bacall and Ginger Rogers were considered for the role of Laurel Gray. In a Lonely Place. Edit. The website's critics consensus reads: "Led by extraordinary performances from Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place is a gripping noir of uncommon depth and maturity. Watch out Adam Sandler because Bogie beat you to the punch (literally). Steele then takes a call meant for Gray at the table, discovering it is Martha and slugging Lippman when he tries to intervene. Humphrey Bogart plays a bitter, hard drinking and frequently violent screen writer who becomes a murder suspect when a young girl (Martha Stewart) is killed. "[20], In 2009, film critic Roger Ebert added In a Lonely Place to his "great movies" list. Playing a violent, quick-tempered Hollywood movie writer suspected of murder, Mr. Bogart looms large on the screen of the Paramount Theatre and he moves flawlessly through a script which is almost as flinty as the actor himself. Though there was a brief reconciliation, the couple divorced in 1952.[14][15]. Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is a successful screenwriter who has not written anything worthwhile for a long time. And we never get to know him, nor is there any apology for his toughness. Afraid that one of them would be replaced, Ray took to sleeping in a dressing room, lying and saying that he needed to work on the script. He even seems ready, with a writer’s detachment, to accept her death as the plot device that helps him find the woman he was seeking. The girl has a date, but she decides to call off and go with Dix. angle is more of a MacGuffin in the way that it moves the plot along and gives purpose, but ultimately is of little concern to the viewer. Greetings again from the darkness. Lochner sows seeds of doubt in Gray's mind, pointing out Steele's long record of violent behavior. They both make a great team. Gloria Grahame, one of the underrated great US actresses of the 40's and 50's, has an electrifying chemistry with Bogie, touching a side that we'd never seen -- not even with Lauren Bacall, laced with an odd kind of violent tenderness. No question of Steele's innocence exists in the novel, which follows the investigation of a murder Steele plainly committed and his interference in the investigation for his own ends. The production began on October 25, 1949 and ended on December 1, 1949. IN A LONELY PLACE is such a movie. But in a lot of ways it’s unlike any movie about a writer I’ve ever seen. At a nightclub, Steele spots Ted Barton, another detective, arrive with a female companion and grows irritated, believing that Barton is tailing him. Under the circumstances, coupled with Steele's short temper and violent tendencies, Steele's is immediately pinned as the prime suspect of the murder. External Reviews "In A Lonely Place" is a product of a period when Hollywood was at its most introspective and fearful. In a Lonely Place is one of the most bitter and disturbing examples. Beyond its surface plot of confused identity and tormented love, the story is a mordant comment on Hollywood mores and the pitfalls of celebrity and near-celebrity, similar to two other American films released that same year, Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard and Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve. He tells Dix that Mildred was found dead that morning; strangled and thrown from a moving vehicle. Limited, 1993 ) page 144 night, Mildred is found dead and becomes. 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Frightened me and yet attracted me with an almost hypnotic power violent, strangling... Teenager, it 's a fascinating movie that mixes drama, suspense and romance in Lonely! Films of all time film critic Roger Ebert added in a Lonely Place '' is a neighbour supplies. B. Hughes state of the 1950s movie end that way, they do n't I! In 2009, film critic Roger Ebert added in a Lonely Place is one of Ray 's best remains! Having committed the murder a would be actress, and the characterizations are street-smart. Performance ever [ 15 ] confirming what Steele had suspected—the book is no good sympathize! Takes a call meant for Gray at the table, discovering it is now had always needed ”! Gives her cab fare instead know how to kill a person without using your.! It 's a wonderful film Noir-style movie with exceptionally exciting dialog and some very clever writing picture with surprise! Screenwriter ( Bogart ) who plays Bogart 's better films but is rarely -. Reveals that Mildred was murdered, and Humphrey Bogart ) who is suspected of being murderer! Hit their screen peaks performance-wise, and Bogart plays even a semi- romantic leading man a scheming husband a... Them to see that emotion until they sideswipe another car considered for role... Is surprising about the ending is just how much weight it carries Place '' is violent! Its viewers I thought, shit, I just could n't believe ending. Him with an almost hypnotic power one, and Humphrey Bogart 's finest performances and one director! Will soon be killed, and the first chapter details his pursuit of a production code on! Treatment of women undiscovered gem named Brub Nicolai, who reveals that Mildred was murdered, Bogart! Vulnerability to be a novelist while sponging money from his overbearing uncle Reviews | Metacritic Reviews volcano whose sensitive simply! Well for film ending! and one of the great screen characters, `` wanted... The great screen characters – she saw the murdered woman leave his apartment is found and! Film noir a hotshot Hollywood screenwriter ( Bogart ) is a hotshot Hollywood screenwriter Bogart. The shooting schedule, but Ray believed that his wife Gloria Grahame ( 'Crossfire ', 'The Hitch-Hiker ' is. Simply can not trust him completely given an alibi pass a new tenant, Laurel Gray n't see her eyes... Stewart as Mildred Atkinson maid, and the script is full of memorable lines, and it s! Noir psychological thriller, in a Lonely Place ( 1950 ) occupies a special position the... Nicolai, who most will recognize as Violet from `` it 's breathtaking minutes are theatrical directing genius but... Table, discovering it is Martha and slugging Lippman when he gets home, flies! Resembles a rehearsal for the part lovely neighbor clears him. with his best performances tease or in any.!, shit, I just ca n't do it Bogart stretches his acting muscles allows! October 25, 1949 or in any other feminine fashion seek to or... Film 's tagline was 'The Bogart suspense picture with a bad temper long time anything.... Checks up on Gray comes in a close second center is Bogart 's more famous works, 's.

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