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In a Lonely Place



In a Lonely Place (1950)

Director:Nicholas Ray
Writers: Andrew Solt (screenplay)
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame
Genre: Film-Noir Drama

Premise: Dixon Steele, a down and out Hollywood screenwriter (Humphrey Bogart) is accused of murdering a young woman that he took back to his apartment one night. A woman who lives in another apartment (Gloria Grahame) vouches that she had seen him that night, which gives him an alibi. She then falls in love with Dixon, but soon realizes he's a violent man and begins to wonder if he might actually be the murder.

Review: In A Lonely Place is unlike any other film noir. Its subject matter was very dark and disturbing for the time, even for a noir. Humphrey Bogart plays a controlling, unsavory character and does so with gusto. This is one of Bogart's best performances. And that's saying a lot because Bogart was legendary. He's able to play this violently disturbed man, without going over the top.

Gloria Grahame who rose to fame in It's a Wonderful Life, is marvelous in this too. She shines in the second half of the film where she plays a woman torn by her fear of Dixon Steele and her love for him. She's very believable in the emotions she portrayed.

In A Lonely Place, sets a premise and then builds on the tension until the final climax. The story and acting is superb.

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