Underplayed Gems

In a Lonely Place (1950)

In a Lonely Place poster
Directed by
Nicholas Ray
Genre
drama film, film noir, romance film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 34m
Rated
NR
Rating
7.6 of 10 from 669 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

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How it feels

A screenwriter with a violent temper becomes the main suspect in a murder case. His neighbor provides an alibi and falls in love with him, but doubts begin to erode their relationship.

tensemelancholicbroodingsuspensefulromanticcynicalslow-burnnoirish

What happens

In a Lonely Place is a 1950 American film noir by director Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, produced for Bogart's-own Santana Productions. The script was written by Andrew P. Solt from Edmund H. North's adaptation of Dorothy B. Hughes' 1947 novel of the same title. Bogart stars as Dixon (Dix) Steele, a troubled, violence-prone screenwriter suspected of murder. Grahame co-stars as Laurel Gray, a lonely neighbor who falls under his spell. 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 the Best Picture-winner, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's All About Eve. Although less famous than his other work, Bogart's performance is considered by many critics to be among his finest and the film's reputation has grown over time, along with Ray's. It is now considered one of the best films noir of all time, as evidenced by its inclusion on the Time "All-Time 100 Movies" list and Slant Magazine's "100 Essential Films", and it is ranked number one on Slant's "The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time". The BBC ranked it number 89 in their list of the 100 greatest American films of all time. In 2007, In a Lonely Place was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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