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In a Lonely Place
We can’t go on together, with suspicious minds
1950
Review: August 14, 2009
Director: Nicholas Ray
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid
Not really.
THE SETUP:
Screenwriter is the top suspect in a murder case. His new love isn’t so sure he’s innocent.
DISCUSSION:
This was playing as a revival at Film Forum here in New York, and came with the attendant rapturous raves about what a wonderful movie it is, how great the director is, etc. Apparently director Nicholas Ray is known for the emotion of his films, as opposed to their technique or style. Plus, there’s a New Order song named after this film, and I’ve had good experiences seeing films songs are named after: Eyes Without a Face… Shock Corridor…
So we meet Humphrey Bogart as screenwriter Dixon Steele, who comes into a swank club looking for a book he’s supposed to read, to consider writing the screenplay. Steele won’t adapt any book he doesn’t like, and hasn’t had a hit in ages in part because of this policy, and obviously, his pride. The coat-check girl, Mildred Atkinson, asks him if she could hold onto the book while he has dinner; she’s reading it and is almost done.
During dinner we meet a bunch of Steele’s Hollywood associates, none of whom end up really mattering much. After dinner, Steele asks the coat-check girl home. For hot sweaty sex on the kitchen countertop? No, so she can tell him the plot of the novel, and he can decide if he wants to write it without having to read it first. She agrees. On the way in, they are spied by a sultry blonde who lives across the way. One might think she and Steele know each other, but actually they don’t: she just thinks he’s hot. Atkinson relates the story in an amusingly comic scene, then she leaves.
In the morning, Steele is awakened by the cops: Atkinson was MURDERED! And he was the last known person to see her alive! Blah, blah, the woman across the way, Laurel Gray, comes in and swears that she saw Atkinson leave and Steele stay in the rest of the night.
SPOILERS > > >
Soon Steele and Laurel are suddenly in love. Both are repeatedly questioned, and she is defiant and steadfast in her support. But the pressure is being put on him, and he starts lashing out at people in anger. At one point he’s driving like a maniac and almost hits someone, then gets out and almost beats the guy up, and all of this right in front of Laurel.
She’s beginning to have all sorts of second thoughts, but doesn’t want to tell him, and her silence [and passive-aggression!] is enough to make her agree to marry him, when she’s not at all sure she wants to. What’s more, he’s so happy he’s writing again, and the script he’s working on is good! And as soon as he hands it in, they’re going to take off and get married.
But love’s true course never do run smooth, do it? Laurel finally decides that rather that have an awkward conversation with her husband-to-be, she’d prefer to just leave the country hours before he thinks they’re going to run away and be married. This is what they mean when they say communication is important in a relationship. Blah, blah, he ends up discovering her travel plans, and takes off [remember his pride]. Just as he’s about to leave, she gets the phone call that they found the killer and Steele has been completely exonerated. Laurel says “Yesterday this would have meant so much,” as she watches him leave for good. The end!
< < < SPOILERS END
It has a certain tragic resonance, and I like that last line, but to me it felt like so much string-along for an ending that makes “a point” rather than feels really organic. From the midpoint on, I found myself growing ever more annoyed with Laurel and her whiny non-communication and passive-aggression. Got something to say, lady? This whole thing could have been resolved at any time had she just opened her mouth, or had a little more faith in her fiancé. Aside from that, there’s just, to a modern audience, little going on here. There’s no real mystery to the mystery, and we never wonder for a second if Steele actually did it, so you’re just watching as Laurel grows ever more misguided and Steele plays the sap. Is it emotional? I suppose, although I’d prefer the latent emotionalism of Laura any day. So, an amusing enough watch, but something I’m not looking forward to ever watching again.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
If you’re a noir completist. Everyone else can watch other things first.
