In a Lonely Place (1950)

This is a movie made by Humphrey Bogart's Santana film company as he was working to establish himself as an independent film commodity and to distance himself from Warner Bros as several actors had before him.  Bogart, as actor, had learned his craft churning out Warner Bros actioners by the dozen and had advanced to superstar status but still wanted to make his own movies.  He chose Nicholas Ray to direct this story and if Warner's would not lend Lauren Bacall, he could still use Gloria Grahame, who was Nicholas Ray's wife at the time, for leading lady.

The story he chose was based on a hit novel by Dorothy B Hughes, screen written by Andrew Solt, and further adapted by Edmund H North.  I haven't read the book, but from the comments on the DVD featurette by Curtis Hanson (director of LA Confidential), it seems the movie deviated quite a bit from the book; if that is important, you can still read the book, but in this case I thought the movie as adapted was pretty good.

Bogart had made his bones in small potatoes roles playing criminals, police, and detectives in potboilers over the preceding two decades, actually coming into his own as a leading man with The Maltese Falcon, an early film noir and establishing a fruitful working relationship with writer/director John Huston which ultimately earned him his lone Oscar for his performance in The African Queen.  It's funny how Bogart, whose films are so treasured today now that he is dead and gone, was so little recognized during his life. Such it often is with artists, it seems.

In a Lonely Place is an unusual role for Bogart as it portrayed him in an unfavorable light - that of a Hollywood screen writer with psychological problems and moreover one who is accused right off of killing a young lady he was seen with.

The movie starts out showing how hard drinking Dix Steele - say that name out loud to get the full impact - that's the name of Bogart's character; he is a screenwriter of good repute but hasn't had a hit lately.

He meets his cronies at their usual watering hole and is offered a job to rewrite a novel for the screen. The coat check girl is reading Dix's copy on the job and asks to keep the book while he is in the restaurant. He agrees. When he is ready to leave she gives him the book and makes some facile remarks about the story. He lets everybody disperse then offers to let her tell him the story at his house, since he really doesn't want or intend to read it. It is about midnight but she breaks a date with her beau to tell Steele the story. He lets her tell him the plot and gets seen by his neighbor (Gloria Grahame) who sees him let the girl out with cab fare because he is going to bed.  At 5 a.m. the police are at his door rousing him from his sleep and he gets taken to the station where he learns he is suspect numero uno in the death of the coat check girl who has been found murdered in a nearby canyon.

Now as luck would have it, the neighbor lady (Gloria Grahame) is found and she corroborates Bogey's story and he gets released. He tries to put the make on her but she fends him off at first and that's about the last we hear of the checkroom girl.  Her role was just to get the two of them together and is soon forgotten as Bogart and Grahame have an affair and she works for him as stenographer, typist, and probably a few more things without pay.

Alfred Hitchcock was the moviemaker who first described the McGuffin - a thing unimportant in itself but interesting enough to build the plot around. Once the plot is launched, however, the McGuffin can be conveniently discarded.  The McGuffin serves to launch the story and get you interested but then the filmmaker can throw you a curve and present his real story thereby fooling the audience who always seems to want to get ahead of the story.  And that was exactly what the check girl was - a McGuffin, whereas in this case the real story is the corrosive love between the two misfits and the unhappy ending that brings home the knowledge of how barren some lives turn out to be.

The movie serves the further purpose of being an exposé of the tawdry lives of the rich and famous in tinseltown somewhat akin to the Broadway exposé Sweet Smell of Success.  I am certain this movie did not gain Nicholas Ray or Bogart any fans in the Hollywood establishment which made it either a courageous or foolhardy task.  Which category it is, I leave to your judgment.

The Columbia DVD contains a restored copy of the 94 minute black and white movie in 1.33:1 theatrical format.  There are a few extra features including the featurette with Curtis Hanson discussing some of the interesting aspects of the movie. There are several clips and spoilers in there so wait until you've seen the movie before you watch the featurette. There is also a restoration featurette that shows some of the considerable damage that the restorers fixed.  I was very impressed with the amount of both video and audio they were able to bring back to a badly deteriorated movie.

Although the movie was one part crime and one part melodrama I thought it was well presented and recommend it to all film buffs.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV