Saturday, June 6, 2026

In A Lonely Place (1950)

 

In a Lonely Place is a 1950 American film noir by director Nicholas Ray[2] 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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5] 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[6] and Slant Magazine's "100 Essential Films",[7] and it is ranked number one on Slant's "The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time".[8] The BBC ranked it number 89 in their list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.[9] 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."[10][11]

Plot

Bogart as Dixon Steele

Dixon "Dix" Steele is a down-on-his-luck Hollywood screenwriter who has not had a successful movie since before World War II. While driving to meet his agent, Mel Lippman, Dix's explosive temper is revealed when, at a stoplight, he engages with another motorist in a confrontation that almost becomes violent. Meeting with Mel at a nightclub, Dix is cajoled into adapting a book for a movie. The hat-check girl, Mildred Atkinson, is engrossed in reading the copy meant for Dix; since she only has a few pages left to go, she asks to be allowed to finish it. Dix claims to be too tired to read the novel, so he asks Mildred to go home with him to explain the plot. As they enter the courtyard of his apartment, they pass a new tenant, Laurel Gray. Mildred describes the story, confirming what Dix had suspected—the book is no good. Rather than drive her home as promised, he gives her cab fare instead.

The next morning, Dix is awakened by his friend, police detective Brub Nicolai, who served under Dix during the war. Nicolai takes him downtown to be questioned by his superior, Captain Lochner, who reveals that Mildred was murdered and informs Dix that he is a suspect. Dix remembers that Laurel saw him letting Mildred out of his apartment, which Laurel confirms when brought in for questioning. Afterwards Dix strikes up conversation with Laurel and their mutual attraction is evident. When he gets home, Dix checks up on Laurel. He finds she is an aspiring actress with only a few low-budget films to her credit. They begin to fall in love and, with Laurel assisting him, Dix enthusiastically goes back to work, much to Mel's delight.

Laurel takes a frightening ride with Dix

At a dinner with Nicolai and his wife, Sylvia, Dix has them re-enact the murder as he imagines it; his odd behavior leads Sylvia to doubt his innocence. Captain Lochner meets with Laurel again and sows seeds of doubt in her mind, as he has fixated on Dix's record of violent behavior. Laurel confides to Sylvia her growing doubts about Dix.

At a nightclub with Laurel, Dix spots Ted Barton, another detective, arriving with a female companion. Dix angrily leaves, believing that Barton is tailing him. Later, Laurel's masseuse Martha warns her about Dix's chequered romantic past, and Laurel grows irritated, kicking her out of the apartment. At a beach party with the Nicolais, Sylvia inadvertently reveals Laurel's follow-up meeting with Lochner; Dix furiously storms off. Laurel follows and gets into Dix's car; he drives erratically and at speed until they sideswipe another car. Nobody is hurt, but when the other driver accosts him, Dix beats him unconscious and is about to strike him with a large rock when Laurel stops him.

Dix goes to the police station and attempts to clear his name, inadvertently meeting Mildred's boyfriend Henry Kesler, who works at a bank. Dix remarks to Nicolai that Kesler is a better suspect as he has a motive. At the Nicolai residence, Laurel asks Sylvia about Dix prompting the Nicolais to re-enact the murder, and tells her about Dix's roadside assault.

Eventually, Laurel's doubts about Dix's innocence result in her being unable to sleep without taking pills. When he asks her to marry him, she accepts, but only because she is scared of how he might react if she refuses. Mel comes over to celebrate while Dix is away, only to find out that Laurel does not want to go through with the marriage and is making plans to escape to New York. She urges Mel to bring Dix's completed script to a producer.

At a dinner to celebrate the engagement, Dix is annoyed to learn that Mel has submitted his script without his consent. Dix then intercepts a telephone call meant for Laurel at the table, angrily discovering it is Martha and slugging Mel when he tries to intervene.

Back at Laurel's apartment, Dix flies into a rage when he sees that she has removed her engagement ring. After briefly calming down, Dix answers the phone, learning of Laurel's intended flight to New York. He again becomes violent, almost strangling Laurel before regaining control of himself when the phone rings again. It is Nicolai, who informs Dix and Laurel that Kesler has confessed to Mildred's murder, with Lochner apologizing for fixating on Dix. However, both Dix and Laurel realise that it is too late to salvage their relationship. Laurel watches in tears as Dix slowly walks away across the courtyard to his apartment.

Cast

Background

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. North's treatment was not used.[12]

Andrew Solt developed the screenplay with regular input from producer Robert Lord and director Nicholas Ray, and the result is far different from the source novel. Solt claimed that Bogart loved the script so much that he wanted to make it without revisions – Solt maintains that the final cut is very close to his script – but further research shows that Ray made regular rewrites, some added on the day of shooting. In fact, only four pages of the 140-page script had no revisions. The film was produced by Bogart's Santana Productions company, whose first film was Knock on Any Door (1949), which was directed by Ray and starred Bogart and Derek in the leading roles.

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.

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 character'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.[13]

The original ending had Steele strangling Gray to death in the heat of their argument. Sgt. Nicolai comes to tell Steele that he has been cleared of Mildred's murder but arrests him for killing 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". This scene was filmed halfway through the shooting schedule, but Ray hated the ending he had helped write. Ray later said,

"I just couldn't believe the ending that Bundy (screenwriter Andrew Solt) and I had written. I shot it because it was my obligation to do it. Then I kicked everybody off stage except Bogart, Art Smith and Gloria. And we improvised the ending as it is now. 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. Huh! And I thought, shit, I can't do it, I just can't do it! Romances don't have to end that way. Marriages don't have to end that way, they don't have to end in violence. Let the audience make up its own mind what's going to happen to Bogie when he goes outside the apartment."[14]

Bacall, Rosalind Russell, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman and Ginger Rogers were considered for the role of Laurel Gray. 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. Rogers was the producers' first choice but Ray believed that his wife Gloria Grahame was right for the part. Even though their marriage was troubled, he insisted that she be cast. Her performance today is unanimously considered to be among her finest.

Grahame and Ray's marriage was starting to come apart during filming. Grahame was forced to sign a contract stipulating that "my husband [Ray] shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct and even command my actions during the hours from 9 AM to 6 PM, every day except Sunday ... I acknowledge that in every conceivable situation his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine and shall prevail." Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him." The two did separate during filming. 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. Grahame played along with the charade and nobody knew that they had separated. Though there was a brief reconciliation, the couple divorced in 1952.[15][16]

The film was one of two Nicholas Ray films to be scored by avant garde classical composer George Antheil (1900–1959). The production began on October 25, 1949, and ended on December 1, 1949.

Reception

Critical response

At the time of its original release, the reviews were generally positive (in particular many critics praised Bogart and Grahame's performances), but many questioned the marketability given the bleak ending. The staff at Variety magazine in May 1950 gave the film a good review and wrote,

In In a Lonely Place Humphrey Bogart has a sympathetic role though cast as one always ready to mix it with his dukes. He favors the underdog; in one instance he virtually has a veteran, brandy-soaking character actor (out of work) on his very limited payroll ... Director Nicholas Ray maintains nice suspense. Bogart is excellent. Gloria Grahame, as his romance, also rates kudos.[17]

Gloria Grahame and Bogart

Bosley Crowther lauded the film, especially Bogart's performance and the screenplay, writing,

Everybody should be happy this morning. 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 melodrama. 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. 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. Thus Dixon Steele remains as much of an enigma, an explosive, contradictory force at loose ends when the film ends as when it starts.[18]

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. 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. 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.

"I was born when I met you. I lived while I loved you. 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.

— Film historian Andrew Sarris in "You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet.": The American Talking Film History & Memory, 1927-1949.[19]

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. In the end, their love resembles a rehearsal for the next and hopefully less complicated romance. This is the existential endgame of one of Ray's smartest and most devastating masterpieces."[20]

Curtis Hanson is featured on the retrospective documentary of the DVD release showing his admiration for the film, notably Ray's direction, the dark depiction of Hollywood and Bogart's performance. This was one of the films which he showed to actors Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce in preparation for filming L.A. Confidential. He said, "I wanted them to see the reality of that period and to see that emotion. This movie, and I'm not saying it's the greatest movie ever made, but it represents many things that I think are worth aspiring to, such as having character and emotion be the driving force, rather than the plot. ... When I first saw In a Lonely Place as a teenager, it frightened me and yet attracted me with an almost hypnotic power. Later, I came to understand why. Occasionally, very rarely, a movie feels so heartfelt, so emotional, so revealing that it seems as though both the actor and the director are standing naked before the audience. When that kind of marriage happens between actor and director, it's breathtaking."[21]

In 2009, film critic Roger Ebert added In a Lonely Place to his "great movies" list.[22] Eddie Muller listed it as one of his Top 25 Noir Films: "This incredible rethinking of Dorothy B. Hughes' disturbing serial killer novel is as close as a studio film ever got to 'personal filmmaking.' No noir iconography, just a profound darkness of the soul."[23]

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 96% of critics gave the film positive reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10, based on 49 reviews. Its 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."[24]

The 1986 song "In a Lonely Place" by the Smithereens, from the album Especially For You, was inspired by the film. 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.[25]

In Season 2, Episode 1 of the TV show Frasier (1994), an author reads from his book lines echoing the film's: "I budded when you kissed me. I withered when you left me. I bloomed a few months while you loved me."[26][better source needed]

Comparisons to novel


In a Lonely Place was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Dorothy B. Hughes. Some controversy exists between admirers of the film and admirers of the novel (who view the film as a watered down adaptation), as Edmund H. North's script takes some elements of the novel but is ultimately a different story. Hughes was not bothered by the changes made by North and praised Grahame's performance as Gray.

Gloria Grahame and Bogart, from the film's trailer

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 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. Steele is a charlatan who pretends to be a novelist while sponging money from his overbearing uncle. While still receiving what he perceives as a small monthly allowance from his uncle, Steele murders a wealthy young man and assumes his identity, in a manner similar to Patricia Highsmith's later Tom Ripley. The film follows the question of whether Steele finally went too far in his anger and committed the murder to a tragic end. Even though he is proved innocent, his rage at the cloud of suspicion has driven the woman he loves away for good. 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.

Curtis Hanson, in the DVD featurette 'In A Lonely Place Revisited', further analyses the similarities and differences between the novel and the film. 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. He also notes that a difference between Steele in the film and Steele in the novel is their respective treatment of women. In the novel Steele pursues women and the first chapter details his pursuit of a woman. In the film, Steele is pursued by women.

Hughes' novel was out of print for decades, until re-released by The Feminist Press at CUNY in 2003, which edition was still in print in 2010. Penguin Books published a paperback edition in the UK in 2010 as part of their Modern Classics imprint, and the Library of America included it in the first volume of their "Women Crime Writers" collection. The novel has been available from New York Review of Books Classics since 2017.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels:

High Sierra (1941)

 

High Sierra is a 1941 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh, written by William R. Burnett and John Huston from the novel by Burnett, and starring Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Its plot follows career criminal Roy Earle who becomes involved in a jewel heist in a resort town in California's Sierra Nevada, along with young former taxi dancer Marie Garson (Lupino).

Parts of the film were shot on location at Whitney Portal, halfway up Mount Whitney. The screenplay was co-written by John Huston, Bogart's friend and drinking partner, adapted from the novel by William R. Burnett (also known for, among others, the novel that was adapted into the film Little Caesar and the script for Scarface).[3] The film cemented a strong personal and professional connection between Bogart and Huston,[4] and provided the breakthrough in Bogart's career, transforming him from supporting player to leading man. The film's success also led to a breakthrough for Huston, providing him with the leverage he needed to make the transition from screenwriter to director, which he made later that year with his adaptation of The Maltese Falcon (1941), starring Bogart.

The film contains extensive location shooting, especially in the climactic final scenes, as the authorities pursue Bogart's character, gangster Roy Earle, from Lone Pine to the foot of the mountains. The novel is also the basis of the western Colorado Territory (also directed by Walsh, starring Joel McCrea & Virginia Mayo) and the scene-by-scene remake I Died a Thousand Times (directed by Stuart Heisler with Jack Palance as Roy and Shelley Winters as Marie).

Plot summary

Humphrey Bogart in High Sierra

An aging gangster, Big Mac M'Gann, is planning a robbery at a fashionable resort hotel in the resort town of Tropico Springs in the Sierra Nevada. He wants the heist led by convicted bank robber Roy Earle, whose recent release from an Indiana prison was engineered by Big Mac's bribing the governor. Roy drives cross-country to an abandoned logging camp in the mountains to meet with the three men who will assist him in the heist: Louis Mendoza works as a clerk in the hotel, while Red Hattery and Babe Kozak are living at the camp. Babe has brought along his girlfriend Marie Garson, a "dime-a-dance girl" from Los Angeles.

Deriding Marie's involvement, Roy at first insists she return to Los Angeles, but after some discussion he agrees to let her stay. At the camp, Algernon, a handyman, introduces Roy to Pard, a small dog to whom he takes a liking, and Roy decides to adopt the dog. Meanwhile, Marie falls in love with Roy, but he does not share her feelings. In Tropico Springs, Roy witnesses a minor car accident involving Ma and Pa Goodhue and their granddaughter Velma, a young woman with a clubfoot who walks with a limp. Swiftly enamored with Velma, Roy pays for corrective surgery to allow her to walk normally, despite her grandfather's warning that Velma is engaged. While she is recovering, Roy asks Velma to marry him, but she refuses, explaining that she is devoted to her fiancé back east.

The group execute the heist at the hotel, but it goes awry when they are interrupted by a security guard. Roy makes his getaway with Marie and a stash of jewelry from the hotel safe, but Mendoza, Red, and Babe are involved in a car accident in which Red and Babe die. Mendoza is captured by the police who question him. Roy and Marie drive to Los Angeles with the jewels, only to find that Big Mac has died of a heart attack and that Jake Kranmer, an ex-policeman, has taken over the operation. Kranmer tries to force Roy to give him the jewels, but a defiant Roy shoots him dead.

Back in Los Angeles, Roy visits Velma, having promised her he would come to see her when she is able to walk. He then meets with Art, a fence who is to pay for the stolen jewels, but Art tells Roy he cannot pay him the $30,000 immediately. While Art holds onto the jewels, Roy gives Marie an engagement ring. He and Marie go into hiding at a hotel, but they panic when Roy's name and face make newspaper headlines, and the stories mention both Marie and even Pard, based on what Mendoza has told the police.

Deciding that he would be safer on his own, Roy sends Marie and Pard to Las Vegas by bus. He returns to Los Angeles to get paid for the jewelry. Figuring on collecting immediately, he has given all his ready cash to Marie. When his car runs low on gas, Roy risks a small town stickup and is immediately recognized. Roy is pursued by police back into the mountains, where he is forced to abandon his car and flee on foot. Marie hears a news broadcast about the chase. She is then interrogated by investigators, who try to persuade her to lure Roy out of hiding. She refuses, knowing that Roy would rather die than return to prison. The police force her to accompany them on their search in the mountains. Meanwhile, Roy hides out behind a large rock on the mountainside.

At dawn, Pard escapes the police encampment and locates Roy, who is suddenly distracted by the dog's barking. Assuming Marie has found him, Roy runs out onto a precipice, calling her name, and is killed by a sharpshooter. Marie watches in horror from below as Roy's body topples down the mountainside. Followed by officers, Marie rushes to Roy's body, as does Pard, who lies down next to him. As Marie is escorted away with Pard, she takes small comfort in knowing that Roy will not be returning to prison.

Cast

Themes

Luke Goodsell, writing for Senses of Cinema, writes that High Sierra presents its heist narrative as "something of a grasp for the fabled new America. Here, the Old West has been replaced by health spas and diets and a clean-living California; not coincidentally, a land that flourished in tandem with the aspirational illusion of Hollywood."[5]

Production

George Raft was intended to play Roy Earle, but Humphrey Bogart, who took a great interest in playing the role, managed to talk Raft out of accepting it.[6] Raoul Walsh tried to persuade Raft otherwise but Raft did not want his character to die at the end of the film.[7] FilmInk said Raft "turned down High Sierra because it was another gangster part, despite the excellent source material and Raoul Walsh directing (admittedly Paul Muni rejected the role first for the same reason… but Muni was a proper actor, well established in a variety of parts and Raft wasn’t)."[8]

Bogart had to persuade director Walsh to hire him for the role, because Walsh envisioned Bogart as a supporting player rather than a leading man, although writer John Huston saw potential in Bogart that others in the studio did not perceive. Ida Lupino had received good publicity in connection with her performance in They Drive by Night, and this caused producer Mark Hellinger to suggest to executive producer Hal Wallis that Lupino be billed over Bogart, who to that point had only starred in "B" movies; in later releases of the film, Bogart got top billing. Bogart's portrayal of Roy Earle in High Sierra made him a star, and changed the way Warner Bros. saw him.[9][10]

Pard, the dog of Bogart's character Roy, was portrayed by Zero. Zero was erroneously believed by some to be canine actor Terry (Toto from The Wizard of Oz) and also erroneously rumored to be Bogart's own dog. Newspapers of the period, though, indicate that Zero was owned by Rennie Renfro, who was one of the most significant supplier of dog actors in Hollywood at the time.[11] In the final scene, Buster Wiles, a stunt performer, plays Roy's corpse. His hand is filled with biscuits to encourage Pard to lick Roy's hand.[12]

Many key shots of the movie were filmed on location in the Sierra Nevada, including Big Bear Lake and Lake Arrowhead in California.[9] In a climactic scene, Bogart's character slid 90 feet (27 m) down a mountainside to his just reward. His stunt double, Wiles, bounced a few times going down the mountain and wanted another take to do better. "Forget it," said Raoul Walsh. "It's good enough for the 25-cent customers."[13] Special effects were by Byron Haskin[14] and H. F. Koenekamp.[9]

Release

Box office

High Sierra opened theatrically in Los Angeles on January 23, 1941.[1] According to Warner Bros. records, the film made $1,063,000 in the U.S. ($23.3 million in 2025 terms) and $426,000 ($9.3 million in 2025 terms) in other markets.[2]

Critical response

The New York Times critic Bosley Crowther liked the acting in the picture, and wrote "As gangster pictures go, this one has everything—speed, excitement, suspense, and that ennobling suggestion of futility, which makes for irony and pity. Mr. Bogart plays the leading role with a perfection of hard-boiled vitality, and Ida Lupino, Arthur Kennedy, Alan Curtis, and a newcomer named Joan Leslie handle lesser roles effectively. Especially, is Miss Lupino impressive as the adoring moll. As gangster pictures go—if they do—it's a perfect epilogue. Count on the old guard and Warners: they die but never surrender."[15]

Time reviewed the film when released as having "less of realistic savagery than of the quaint, nostalgic atmosphere of costume drama." The reviewer noted, "What makes High Sierra something more than a Grade B melodrama is its sensitive delineation of gangster Earle's character. Superbly played by Actor Bogart, Earle is a complex human being, a farmer boy who turned mobster, a gunman with a string of murders on his record who still is shocked when newsmen call him "Mad-Dog" Earle. He is kind to the mongrel dog (Zero) that travels with him, befriends a taxi dancer (Ida Lupino) who becomes his moll, and goes out of his way to help a crippled girl (Joan Leslie). All Roy Earle wants is freedom. He finds it for good on a lonely peak in the mountains."[16]

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a critic score of 91%, based on 22 reviews.[17]

Home media

Warner Home Video released High Sierra on DVD in November 2003.[18] On October 12, 2021, The Criterion Collection released a new edition of the film on Blu-ray and DVD.[19]

Adaptations

Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)