Great piece, Drew. Great film, too. Caught it for the first time last year (my first Ray).
Thanks! Ray is brilliant in how he plays with conventions. I’ve only seen three of his films, but they each appear at first to be something totally different than what they become.
I really hope some discussion can occur on this thread!!
… but they each appear at first to be something totally different than what they become.
Wind Across the Everglades is a strong example of this
There’s no business like show business! There’s been some really great films with elements of Hollywood turning the camera back on itself in a dark light, Sunset Boulevard, All About Eve and In a Lonely Place among others. In a Lonely Place is a great movie with stellar performances from Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame and some of the wittiest and sharpest dialogue that you’ll find in a noir. The name of Bogart’s character alone (Dix Steele) says all we need to know about him and boy does he deliver.
A couple of minor scenes that stick in my mind;
I love the scene at the bar when Dix orders a drink for the director (the director orders a Stinger) and Dix goes on to berate him for the type of director that he is; “So it stunk. Everybody makes flops except you. You haven’t had one because you’ve made the same picture for the last twenty years. You know what you are? You’re a popcorn salesman!”And of course poor Mildred the hat check girl who just prior to that scene having asked Dix if she could keep a borrowed book just a while longer states, “I know the end, I always read that first.” But of course in real life she never knew what was coming.
This is definitely one of Bogart’s finest performances and Grahame’s as well. Who knew Bogart could be both genuinely frightening and emotional and pull it all off so seamlessly? A great film, highly recommended.
I love this film and very much enjoyed your reading of it Drew. Luckily the first time I saw it this past summer was on the big screen in a double feature with Sunset Boulevard.
Funny, I just watched this a few days ago…Absolutely loved it. My favorite Ray out of the three I’ve seen. Drew, your analysis has actually enhanced my appreciation of the film a great deal!
Soybean, That line about Mildred reading the ends first is brilliant! Thanks for pointing that out. And I agree that critiques of the film industry are often the most interesting films!
MI, Thanks! I’m quite jealous to hear that. I’d love to see this in theatres.
Hidden, Oh I’m so glad! I watched this last Sunday and it wasn’t until today that I finally managed to organize my thoughts on what the film was about.
@Drew, that scene somewhat mirrors the one where Dix has dinner at his detective friends house (the one where he makes them act out the crime) and Dix says something about how long the investigation is taking and that in his business (hollywood) the crime is always solved within a couple of hours. The detective points out that that’s because they (writers) always know who the killer is beforehand.
As viewers we know fairly well who the killer is from the beginning, too. At least it’s pretty clear that it’s not Dix. But what we learn throughout the film, along with Laurel, is that Dix was very capable of being the killer all along and could have just as easily committed murder. This discovery is quite unsettling because at the same time Dix is a very likable character.
Great observations, Drew.
This is central Nick Ray. Bogart’s anti-hero embodies all the ambivalence Ray felt about both Hollywood and himself. Plus he was leaving Gloria Grahame at that time — just as Bogart was in the film.
The screenwriter, Waldo Salt, went on to adapt “Midnight Cowboy.” He lived in a courtyard apartment in the Fairfax area that’s reproduced exactly in the film. I know because a friend of mine (now deceased) lived there. When I visited him there once he said “Welcome to the In a Lonely Place building.”
Soybean, It’s very interesting to note the moment where suspicious behavior leading Laurel to suspect Dix of committing an immoral act, become in themselves acts immoral enough to decide his character. In the end it doesn’t matter that he didn’t kill Mildred, because he almost killed some random person with a rock! And you know choked Laurel near to death. I just find it interesting that when he first attacks that driver as the audience we see it more as evidence against his murder case, then it’s own separate unforgivable act.
David, Thanks! That’s really quite interesting. That adds a whole new layer to the film. If we’re sticking with my theory it seems as if Nicholas Ray couldn’t function in reality, just like Dix!
That’s really cool. One because it’d be awesome to have an apartment that such a great film used as it’s inspiration for its setting, and two because that was just a really cool apartment!
I love this film, and I’m not really sure why that is. I mean, there are good performances, but my love for this film seems a bit out of proportion. I think I really had a thing for Gloria Grahame in this—and I wanted the relationship to work out.
Bogey’s performance is really good. Here’s an leading actor who could really act!
Jazz, That was how I first reacted. I loved the movie, but really didn’t know why. I’m really glad I had to write about it so I could begin to unravel its mysteries a bit, because after first seeing it I was left stunned and confused. I think it’s one of those films that has a quality to it that exposes that it’s complex before one understands its complexities. These films are the most fun to analyze, I think!
I like his face.
very few romantic leading men that look like that these days
comedians are funny looking but thats about it
Hmm, I just read this from the web-site film reference, (of course SPOILERS)
Originally, the film was to have ended ambiguously, with the spectator never knowing whether Dixon had actually strangled Laurel or not. After shooting that ending, however, Ray cleared the set and spontaneously directed the ending which now exists, an ending in which, after almost killing Laurel, Dixon learns he has been exonerated in the murder case, only to realize that his violence has destroyed his relationship. He then exits Laurel’s apartment and is seen against the criss-crossing patterns of the complex courtyard, a lonely figure in a harsh environment.I think he made the right choice. That ending is perfect.
With permission, I’m reprinting a quote from Ruby Stevens about this film:
some more tidbits about ‘in a lonely place’- louise brooks wrote that out of all bogie’s film characters, this one was the most like the bogart she knew. a little disturbing. even more disturbing- ray and grahame’s disastrous marriage was dissolving at this time, final straw being when ray caught grahame in bed with his 13 yr old son :/
That is disturbing. (Was there really something going on between Grahame and the son? Then again, I don’t think I want to know the answer to that.) Brooks’ comments about Bogie don’t surprise me too much. I could see him having a temper in real life. What I liked about the character is the way it seems like a more insecure, more violent version of Rick. Grahame’s acting was really good in this—certainly it pushed all the right buttons for me.
well, grahame and ray did reconcile after this but divorced two years later, when the supposed incident occurred. also bogie’s often violent relationship with at least one of his wives, mayo methot, was well known in hollywood. she’s the one he left for lauren bacall. here’s the quote from louise brooks’ essay, humphrey and bogey:
“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. In a Lonely Place gave him a role that he could play with complexity because the film character’s, the screenwriter’s, pride in his art, his selfishness, his drunkenness, his lack of energy stabbed with lightning strokes of violence, were shared equally by the real Bogart.”
the film really shows amazing self reflexive honesty on the part of all involved and may be the best ‘inside hollywood’ story ever
I recently came across that same factoid, Jazz, and it appears to be true, unfortunately. I believe she got pregnant by the son a few years later and eventually(when he was old enough) they got married. So, yikes.
^Oh man. :(
@Ruby
the film really shows amazing self reflexive honesty on the part of all involved and may be the best ‘inside hollywood’ story ever
You might be right about that.
Of course, Ray was no innocent party. He had an affair with 16-year-old Natalie Wood during the shooting of Rebel Without a Cause when he was in his forties. Hollywood!
Lovely.
what i wonder is if this alternate ending still exists. is there a criterion edition of the film? seems like a great extra. what i read was that the ending as scripted was bogie strangling grahame, then his cop buddy shows up to tell him he’s been cleared and has to arrest him for the murder. and the last shot we see is the finished script with the famous lines “I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me.” supposedly it was filmed but ray decided he hated it and had the actors improvise the ‘perfect’ ending we see today
ahh the only ray film on criterion is bigger than life. oh well. it was prolly destroyed anyway :(
Ray indicated that he didn’t like this ending. He tried it and it seemed to wrap everything up too neatly. The DVD I have contains a featurette with Curtis Hanson, who befriended Ray at the end of his life.
It is strange to think that a more pessimistic ending would be a neat way to wrap things up, but I think the fact that Dix could have done the murder and his rage partially breaks them apart allows the feeling to simmer.
Brub, played by radio actor Frank Lovejoy, was supposed to break in at the last minute and deliver the news. This feels kind of rushed, but I am curious like you.
As far as criterion is concerned it’s anyone’s guess. Sony owns it right now. It should get a better treatment.
maybe the parallel to his own marriage was too strong lol. joking.
by most accounts the marriage was a disaster. grahame supposedly spent her honeymoon alone in a vegas hotel room while ray lost 40 grand in the casino
i do think the film is ray’s masterpiece
Pierre said, It is strange to think that a more pessimistic ending would be a neat way to wrap things up, but I think the fact that Dix could have done the murder and his rage partially breaks them apart allows the feeling to simmer.
Yep.
The chosen ending was more poetic, and maybe even more heartbreaking (a bit more realistic too). The other option would have had a great noir bite to it. Both would work for me but the unused one has more of a B-film feel to it. In other words, the one chosen maybe lifts the film above and beyond the trappings of classic film noir.
Drew Gregory
If Dixon Steele was in any other Humphrey Bogart film then he would be heroic as opposed to unstable. Steele is suave, witty, and overly aggressive, which could all be summed up by saying that Steele is the protagonist of classic film noir. The conflict arises in that Steele is not in a film, but in a city where films are made. However for Steele there is no distinction, so when hat-check girl, Mildred Atkinson, is killed after leaving Dix’s house late at night, he does not reply in shock, but with wit. Murders are commonplace in the universe of Dixon Steele, and the way to respond is with snappy one-liners that people use in the movies, but appear cold and cruel in real life.
No film is complete without a love story, and neither is Dix’s. Enter Laurel Gray, an aspiring actress who just moved in next door, whose intelligence and mystery seems to fit in perfectly with the plot of Dix’s life. Steele is prime suspect for the murder of Mildred Atkinson, presumably wrongly accused, and now he has fallen in love with a mysterious woman. If this were a movie Laurel would probably be a femme fatale, and somehow get Steele convicted. Or maybe the police would try and arrest Steele, but with complete trust in her love Laurel would protect him and they’d flee looking for evidence to prove his innocence. Or maybe even Laurel would discover that Steele was guilty and be in danger for her life. But this is not a movie. This is a movie about someone who writes movies.
Dix goes out of his way to make it seem as if he killed the girl. Whether he’s joking with his agent, or explaining to his police buddy how the murder would have occurred, or even just giving into his violent impulses in front of Laurel, he makes it apparent to the audience and to the people in his life that he would be capable of murder. He likes the excitement this causes for those around him, and he likes the idea of pushing the police to suspect him so he can be Hitchcock’s “wrong man”. He immerses himself in the world of movies, even if he’s never quite sure which plot he wants to live. There is a time where he wants to merely be in a love story. He wants to marry Laurel and live happily ever after. But his previous actions have hindered this plot line. His constant heightening of all of life’s drama has prevented him from the heightened happy ending he suddenly desires. Being a loose canon in a Hollywood film noir makes you the hero, but in real life you’re merely a loose canon.
After the murder, and after meeting Laurel, Dix’s writers block suddenly vanishes and he begins writing furiously. His agent thanks Laurel for being his muse. However Laurel is not his muse. His suddenly cinematic situation is his muse, and Laurel is just one aspect to this. Dixon Steele has finally become the protagonist to one of his screenplays, hence he can now write at ease. Real life has inspired him, by being surreal. At this point Dix is really writing two screenplays: the one on paper and the one that is his own life. It is revealed that Dix’s screenplay is a very loose version of the novel he is supposed to be adapting, and it wouldn’t surprise me if his written screenplay is much closer to his own life than it was originally supposed to be.
As the police’s suspicions increase, and Laurel’s suspicions increase, Dix asks Laurel to marry him. She says yes, but plans to run away out of fear that Dix did in fact murder Mildred Atkinson. This is the perfect set up to the perfect climax. But remember this is not a movie. So yes, Dix finds out about Laurel’s plan to leave, so yes, he should very well kill her! What an ending! But wait, the police then reveal that they have caught the true killer, so now it’s a race for the police to reach Laurel before she leaves her true love for good! What an ending! How romantic! Then why does Dix still attack Laurel if he’s innocent? Why is he now choking her? We found out he isn’t the crazed murderer, so why does it look like he’s still trying to kill her? Wait, it makes sense! How complex! If someone is accused of being a murderer he will turn into one. But then the phone rings, and Dix doesn’t kill her, and Laurel picks up the phone and finds out Dix was innocent. But it doesn’t matter that he’s not a murderer, and it doesn’t matter that she loves him. This is not a movie. Laurel sends Dix away because he’s deeply disturbed and abusive. That’s kind of anti-climactic, I guess. That kind of ending certainly wouldn’t be found in a Dixon Steele screenplay.
Earlier in the film Dix says that he’s written a line that he wants to put into a script: “I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.” As the film ends and Dix leaves, in tears Laurel repeats that very line, “I was born when you kissed me. I died when you left me. I lived a few weeks while you loved me. Good-bye, Dix.” This overly cinematic line has now been uttered in reality. Dix has succeeded at making his life more cinematic. But it’s still not a movie. No one lives happily after