From Columbia Pictures
Directed by Nicholas Ray
Starring
Humphrey Bogart
Gloria Grahame
Frank Lovejoy
Art Smith
Jeff Donnell
Carl Benton Reid
Robert Warwick
Martha Stewart
It is considered to be one of the noir masterpieces, a cachet of remarkable jobs delivered by the director, writer and the two leads and utterly watchable. There's little more that can be asked of a film than this. It was well-received at the time of release and has grown in stature over the years to become the classic it is today.
At the heart of the hypnotic story is Dixon Steele, a hard-drinking, paranoid, harsh and violent screenwriter who hasn't written anything for several years. He has just been hired to adapt a novel he hasn't read and doesn't want to. At his favorite watering hole the hatcheck girl tells him how much she loves the book and he gets an idea. He gets her to cancel her date and come over to his apartment and tell him the story and he will write something based on her observations.
Problems arise when she is murdered after leaving his apartment and he becomes the obvious suspect. The police zero in on him also because he has a rap sheet of assaults with men and women. He also talks to the cops as a murderer might but he smugly tells them, when confronted, that he thinks like a murderer because he's written about so many of them.
On the up side is Laurel Gray, an upstairs neighbor across a courtyard, who not only met Dix for the first time when he arrived with the hatcheck girl but observed her leaving alone.
The police aren't sure they believe her (and further suspect that Dix could have gone after her after Laurel saw her leaving) and when asked why she's coming to his defense, she says she likes his face.
A respite from the drama comes when he later tries to kiss her, she brushes him off saying I said I liked your face. I didn't say I wanted to kiss it.
Laurel flirted with Hollywood fame by appearing in a couple of B movies. She has just left a long but unhappy relationship with a wealthy car dealer and is wary of starting another one but finds herself somehow mesmerized by the writer. They begin a relationship and due to her calming and supportive presence he is able to settle down and write. She types up his pages and they enjoy a light-hearted banter as they fall in love.
Soon she assesses his capricious nature and becomes alarmed. It doesn't take long for him to turn on her and she witnesses his outrageous behavior with others. Becoming a nervous wreck, she starts taking tranquilizers. She can't bring herself to openly confront him. She withdraws and he becomes suspicious, never once apparently considering it may have something to do with him.
Putting aside the murder angle, this is the story of a doomed romance. Anyone who has ever experienced a new love affair suddenly go very wrong, and all the more so when violence and fear are present, will be able to relate to Laurel's predicament. How does she get away? Just as she is determined to do so, Dix insists they marry later than same day. She knows she will not go through with it but is too afraid to tell him no.
He won't let her out of his sight but when he roughs up his loyal but harried agent at his favorite night spot, Laurel sneaks out and goes home to hurriedly pack. Of course, it doesn't quite work out that way and their confrontational scene makes the finale both a gripping and a poignant one.
In the book, Dix murders Laurel but not in the film. It would have worked either way but the movie version gives the story a more realistic ending. Dix does rough her up some and in the middle of it, the phone rings. The police captain is calling to say the dead woman's boyfriend has confessed. The cop apologizes for his treatment of both Laurel and Dix and she, limp from a tussle, responds with one of the film's most famous passages: Yesterday this would have meant so much to us. Now it doesn't matter.
Another memorable passage is one that Dix has written in his screenplay. He says it to Laurel and asks her to say it back to him. She knows it's prophetic but does he?
I was born when she kissed me.
I died when she left me.
I lived a few weeks when she loved me.
The novel by Dorothy Hughes was completely changed (retaining the title, characters' names and little else) by a couple of writers and their work was further changed by Andrew Solt who fashioned an exceptional screenplay. I'm sorry the movie didn't garner some Oscar noms but perhaps it was overshadowed by two other showbiz stories the same year, All About Eve and Sunset Blvd.
Bogie came across the work and commissioned it for his Santana Productions. It would be the production company's third film. The prior year Bogie and Santana made Knock on Any Door with Nicholas Ray as the director. Ray signed on for Lonely because, like a number of directors, he was crazy about Bogart and saw this as a good shot for both of them.
The leading lady had yet to be cast as production was being readied. Bogie was hoping his wife, Lauren Bacall, would play Laurel (it would have been their fifth joint venture) but Jack Warner would not release her to work for Columbia and besides he was mad that Bogie/Santana didn't bring the project to Warner Bros where he'd worked for many years. Bogie then zeroed in on Ginger Rogers but others poo-poohed that crazy idea. Finally, Nick Ray suggested Grahame which was understandable since he was married to her.
Well, it's actually not all that understandable since they were at war with one another and would soon be divorced. One might think he would want to avoid being around her on a daily basis, all day, but he said he knew she could deliver. She was a noir actress but not yet in the films that would make her an icon of the genre. While In a Lonely Place would help her on her way, she was not a bad girl here. In fact, it's actually one of her sweetest roles and she's certainly more victim than predator. It is one of the actress's best roles in one of her best films.
Ray, fearful of an acrimonious film set caused by his tigress-wife, had the following stipulation in her contract... my husband shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct and even command my actions during the hours of 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sunday for the duration of principal production. It must have worked because it was a harmonious set with both Rays acknowledging the professionalism of the other.
This was, however, Bogie's film all the way. He is the only one billed above the title (that was wrong) and I expect most film scholars would allow this is one of the actor's best roles, certainly in the top half dozen. It's also one of his most different. Has he ever displayed such a wide range of emotions? We've seen the angry Bogie and the whacked-out Bogie countless, perfect times. They're here, too, but they're intermingled with laughter, glowing in a new love affair and whispering tender yearnings in her ear. If one says he owns this picture, we'll recall he really did. There was more than a salary to Bogart the actor, there was all that dough to Santana. He wanted it to work. He wanted to knock it out of the park. And he did.
Kudos go to the supporting cast as well. Lovejoy (very disliked by Ray), the cop-friend who knew Dix from army days, gave his usual solid performance. Donnell (in real-life Grahame's BFF) was perfect as Lovejoy's wife and Reid was his usual crusty, imposing self as the police chief. Smith was excellent as the put-upon agent.
Ray loved the dark side. He loved stories of people trying to fit into society and he loved the outsiders who flipped off society. He was a perfect noir director. He must have seen the glass as half empty. He had a strong opinion of Hollywood, certainly leaning toward the unfavorable. This is a Hollywood story and not a very pretty one as seen through Ray's eyes. The phrase in a lonely place could refer to Hollywood. The script said it referred to where the dead woman was found and how, it could be how Laurel felt as Dix went off the deep end. One can be sure Ray saw all the possibilities.
We must give a shout-out to the set decorator William Kiernan who duplicated on a Columbia sound stage the picturesque Spanish-style apartment complex where Ray had lived in the 1940's.
The film was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant. Bravo. Well-deserved.
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