| In a Lonely Place [Region 2] |  | Director: Nicholas Ray
Actors: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Art Smith
Category: DVD
Buy New: $34.75
Rating:  61 reviews
Sales Rank: 191872
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Original Language), Arabic (Subtitled), Dutch (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Hindi (Subtitled), Italian (Subtitled), Portuguese (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5035822065635
ASIN: B00007JGKS
Theatrical Release Date: May 17, 1950
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new factory sealed! Region 2, PAL (*non-USA standard Region). English edition. Ship next day!
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Amazon.com essential video
One of Humphrey Bogart's finest performances dominates this unusual 1950 film noir, which focuses less on the murder mystery at the center of its plot than on the investigation's devastating effect on a fragile romance. For Bogart, already a noir icon, the Andrew Solt script afforded an opportunity to explore a more complex and contradictory role--an antiheroic persona in line with the actor's most accomplished and absorbing triumphs throughout his career. For maverick director Nicholas Ray, the film posed the challenge of taking crime dramas beyond their usual formulas and into a more mature realm, as well as a chance to cast a jaundiced eye on the film industry itself. Its protagonist is Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter with an acerbic wit and a violent temper. Tasked with adapting a bestseller, he meets a hatcheck girl who's read the book, hoping to glean its highlights before writing the script. When she's found murdered, Steele becomes the prime suspect, and a tightening knot of suspicion forms around the writer. Steele's only, inconclusive witness is a pretty new neighbor, Laurel (Gloria Grahame), and the couple fall in love even as the pressure mounts. At first the new relationship is a tonic to the hard-boiled writer, who plunges into his script with a renewed vigor and discipline. But as the police continue to shadow him, Steele's own penchant for violence erupts against friends, strangers, and even Laurel herself, whose feelings are increasingly eclipsed by suspicion that her lover is a murderer, and fear that he'll harm her. Bogart conveys Steele's world-weariness and underlying vulnerability, and manages the delicate task of making both his romantic yearning and sudden, murderous rages equally convincing. Ultimately, that performance and Grahame's sympathetic work elevate In a Lonely Place into what has been called "an existential love story" more than a crime drama. --Sam Sutherland
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| Customer Reviews: Read 56 more reviews...
 Quality Bogart flick November 18, 2008
Chris Wood (UK)
Bogart plays a mean drunk scriptwriter, and it's one of his best performances. There's a good plot to this and some great scenes, but in places the plot gets a little lost, so it loses a star.
Still well worth seeing, though.
 One of Bogie's best -- one of Bogie's least remembered October 30, 2008
Annie Van Auken (Planet Earth)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Far and away my favorite Humphrey Bogart movie is the superb film noir, IN A LONELY PLACE (1950).
Bogie is Dixon Steele, a brilliant screenwriter with an unpredictable violent temper who hasn't had a hit film in a decade. Assigned by a producer to transcribe a trash novel, Dix learns that the hatcheck girl at a restaurant where Hollywood insiders gather is familiar with the book, so he invites her home to tell him the story. The resulting interplay between them is the movie's only bit of humor (and it's deftly handled by both).
After becoming annoyed with the girl's run-on description and mispronunciations, Steele wanders over to a window where he observes a negligee-clad woman (Gloria Grahame) who's watching him from a nearby apartment balcony; Dix closes the blinds. He sends the hatcheck girl off with $20 and instructs her to walk around the block to a taxi stand, then he goes to bed.
Steele's awakened at 5 AM by a friend, Det. Sgt. Brub Nikolai (Frank Lovejoy), who wants him to come to HQ for questioning. Under grilling from Capt. Lochner (Carl Reid) Dix is nonchalant when he learns that the girl last seen with him has been found murdered-- tossed from a moving car "like a cigarette." The captain suspects Dix is the killer based on his uncaring manner and a long record of assaults (he even broke a producer's jaw).
A witness is called in-- the woman on the balcony: Laurel Gray. She tells the police that she saw the dead girl leave Steele's apartment ALONE-- a lie, as he'd closed the blinds. Released from further questioning, a grateful Dix gives Laurel a ride home. This unusual way of being thrown together leads to the inevitable-- the two fall deeply in love.
Laurel is brought back to police HQ for further questions; Capt. Lochner tells her of his suspicions and warns her to be careful. Steele's later violent explosions make Laurel begin to wonder if maybe her lover DID kill the hatcheck girl?
Bogart and Grahame are absolutely brilliant in this movie. They both display so many emotions: passion, fear, longing, anger, joy, vulnerability, impatience, paranoia, confusion. If you haven't yet experienced "In a Lonely Place," don't hesitate-- it's a truly great picture!
"In a Lonely Place" is also available on DVD.
Bogart's next project, THE ENFORCER (1951), was loosely based on the Murder Inc. story. (VHS edition) (DVD edition)
Parenthetical number preceding title is a 1 to 10 viewer poll rating found at a film resource website.
(7.9) In a Lonely Place (1950) - Humphrey Bogart/Gloria Grahame/Frank Lovejoy/Carl Benton Reid/Art Smith/Jeff Donnell (uncredited: Ruth Warren/Billy Gray)
 Clumsy. But sincere. April 7, 2008
blockhed (UK)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
There's something darn odd about Nicholas Ray's films. I'm thinking about this one, and Rebel without a Cause. Perhaps it's just that most movies in the 1950s were not much cop. You couldn't really call them good, let alone great. In this one the scaffolding supporting Bogart's performance as Dixon Steele (what a phony name) is quite mediocre, scarcely up to B-movie standard. The script is clunky, the dialogue poor, the second-string acting, especially the completely wooden cops and the ridiculous and permanently drunk thespian, downright ordinary, and the shooting just isn't anything to write home about, in spite of Curtis Hanson's panegyric. However, Bogart's performance is compelling, like Dean's in Rebel. There's something accurate and genuine about his psychology, and the feeling comes across as unusually real. I've known people precisely like this: their own worst enemies; strong tendencies to violence combined with ultra-sensitivity, almost paranoia, whose bizarre behaviour invites suspicion, even though they haven't done anything wrong. Something to do with an extreme egocentricity, and an inability to see things as others see them. This personality dysfunction may also be linked to a certain kind of creativity, but a basically second-rate kind. Bogart carries the story, which is otherwise presented in a very pedestrian and unsubtle manner. In one or two scenes Gloria Grahame just about matches him; although I frankly could never take to her. She always seemed to me highly unattractive-looking, unsexy, and I could never figure out why she got so many high-profile parts. There's no mystery to the plot. In fact, there's no plot at all: the whole thing is a character-study; and there's not one ray of hope for this particular character. Very depressing.
NICHOLAS RAY, OPUS 4 March 11, 2008
wdanthemanw (Geneva, Switzerland)
***** 1950. Loosely based on Dorothy B. Hughes's In a Lonely Place (Femmes Fatales : Women Write Pulp), this film was directed by Nicholas Ray. A screenwriter, violent by nature, is suspected to have murdered a young woman he received in his apartment. Soon, his new girl-friend doesn't know anymore whether he's guilty or not. Superb movie about Hollywood and exceptional performance of the couple Humphrey Bogart-Gloria Grahame. Among the bonus, there is an interesting featurette which allows director Curtis Hanson to give some valuable thoughts about this movie which is a true masterpiece. Indispensable.
Very good Noir January 24, 2008
R. Swanson (New Mexico)
This is a good film. We see the "noir" side of a charming, talented screen writer, who apparently is suffering from what we might today label post traumatic stress disorder. His propensity for violent outbursts are tempered by acts of unexpected generosity. No wonder the beautiful blond neighbor finds him "interesting" and then falls completely in love with him.
Bogart and Grahame are a great match. Bogart is wonderful, as always and Grahame certainly holds her own with him. In many ways I found the movie was more about her dilemma than his. She is the one who has to make the hard decisions. She is smart, independent and probably lost and confused enough herself to fall for such a man. There is great on screen chemistry. I found the scene at the piano bar where the two of them were obviously enjoying each other, mostly unscripted, quite charming.
The plot is good. The direction is tight and effective. All of the supporting actors do very good jobs. It's a flawless piece of period movie style. I'm not a huge fan of all films noirs but this is a very good one.
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