- Now that I've seen Nicholas Ray's film, I think I can safely identify precisely why Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) finds himself in the movie's eponymous lonely place. It's because he's a misanthropic jerk with a terrible temper. While I had seen Bogart deliver convincing versions of gangster heavies, disillusioned detectives, noble war veterans, and even a drunk riverboat captain, never did I imagine him as a sour screenwriter. But of course he handles the role of Dixon Steele better than anyone else I could imagine. Perhaps the truly good actor is one who can make the audience want to see more of even a completely unpalatable character.
- I should note that several of In a Lonely Place's other characters feel the same way I do. His best friend (Robert Warwick) is a perpetually inebriated actor whom we gather likes Steele because he buys the drinks. His next closest thing to a chum is Detective Brub Nicolai (Frank Lovejoy) who thought Steele made a fine commanding officer in the war, even if he is a little prickly by civilian standards. Steele's agent (Art Smith) tolerates his abuses because it's his job, and a naive hatcheck girl named Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart) follows Steele home one night because she would just love to help such an esteemed screenwriter with his writing. When Miss Atkinson's body is found dumped out of a moving car the next morning, you can bet Steele is the prime suspect.
- At this point, you might assume that Steele would be concerned about Miss Atkinson's death. For that matter, you would think he would express some regret over it at all. As the police captain (Carl Benton Reid) notes, all Steele appears to feel is "petulance at being questioned." Fortunately, Steele's coy neighbor, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), can attest to the fact that Miss Atkinson left Steele's apartment alone and alive. As Gray and Steele fall in love, however, she begins to have her doubts about him. After all, Steele was morbidly obsessed with making Nicolai and his wife (Jeff Donnell) reenact the details of Miss Atkinson's death. And then there's the matter of Steele's temper. When he isn't socking his agent in the face for releasing a manuscript early, he's causing car accidents and nearly braining the other driver with a rock. You'd think even a woman who didn't want to be rushed would happily rush away from this one. Maybe it's time for Gray to resume her practice of ditching the man in her life without leaving a forwarding address.
- Given In a Lonely Place's superb reputation, I found myself strangely disappointed in what I had hoped would be one of the great films noir. At least Grahame and Bogart are terrific, as they always are, even if their characters leave a lot to be desired. Ray's dedication to realistic driving sequences is impressive, too, but such scenes probably shouldn't be the directorial high points of the film. The real issue for me, however, is that there is a weird meta-narrative here addressing life in Hollywood, but I have trouble refining it any further than everyone there is terrible. As a matter of fact, that's also the film's literal interpretation, so maybe it's not that "meta" after all. Since the film has relatively few truly likable characters and little else in the way of deeper messages, all we're really left with are some occasional eruptions of clever dialogue and an appropriately bleak ending. Maybe this is why Steele never sees the pictures he writes.
- Based on the novel by Dorothy B. Hughes.
