In a Lonely Place

 

                                      

         

                                        This tremendous Humphrey Bogart film has been on my radar to watch since November of last year and it was supposed to be a Noirvember like tribute to film noir genre although that got replaced with my November recommendation, which was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. In a Lonely Place is one of those great film noirs’ where you begin dating a guy and you slowly begin to see whether he's a psycho killer or everyone is feeding you lies and don't know the real person. And perfect timing since we're in the month of February aka Valentine's Day because like the movie Laura this has a unique theme of a loving couple beginning a standardize relationship where the man is accused with murder and the woman is slowly beginning to think that his boyfriend maybe a psycho killer or everyone around you is feeding you garbage. 

                                      Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) and his neighbor Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) are just getting to know each other romantically when the police begin questioning Dixon about his involvement in the murder of a girl he met once. Certain her new love interest is innocent, Laurel stands by Dixon, but as the police department continue pressing him, Dixon begins to act increasingly erratically. The blossoming love affair suffers as Laurel begins to wonder if Dixon really the killer might be.

                                      I'm not going to lie when I say this that I actually love majority of Humphrey Bogart's work ever since I watched Casablanca I always look at that man as one of the greatest actors who could do just about anything when it comes to acting, he always does a fantastic job at playing the anti-hero at times is a great charmer but most importantly is excellent when it comes to the film noir genre especially detective and mystery films. And when it comes terass movie Bogart really does a fantastic job playing the charming man that you can trust, but most importantly does a tremendous job playing this psycho of a character that has a huge anger problem, and before I go any further this is one of those movies that has a lot of the "what if" scenarios that you as an audience member will be like yeah why don't this happen or why doesn't he go get help, well to be honest this is a movie that tells a story of the thin lines between love and suspicion and you really have to dive deep into these characters shoes and struggles in what they're going through moreover if you want a great example Billy Martin who was a famous Baseball manager and a great student of the game always had an alcohol problem and nobody told the man to seek help from Mickey Mantle to Rickey Henderson, none of the man's closest friends ever thought of dragging him to a hospital and dry out, so really if you watch this movie just think about that, I mean let's be honest it's the fifties and everyone was smoking so if you were living in the forties and fifties there was no running from smoking, I mean we should thank those era's for not talking about cancer. Now getting back to topic, both Bogart and Gloria Grahme both do a tremendous job delivering great performances that give a deeper look into their characters motivation through the course of the movie, Gloria Grahme in fact was the big time flirt to Jimmy Stewart in It's a Wonderful life and seeing her in this movie she really does a fantastic job showing more of her character's psyche as well as her struggles in staying faithful Bogart as well as having the belief in him not being the killer. The film itself is actually based on a book by Dorothy B. Hughes for which the story has a much different ending then the movie, and having learned this upon reading the reasons why Nicholas Ray chose to shoot a different ending I actually liked the ending in the film much better than the book, despite not having read or listen to the book but have knowledge as to what happens in the book for many reasons I feel it's more a bleak ending as to having a typical ending where we know what happens to Bogart's character then not having to know what happens to Bogart's character by the end of the movie moreover not knowing what's going to happen to him after it was all said and done. Now I've officially going to stop taking about the film because I don't want to spoil anything about what makes this film worth seeing from start to finish, bottom line it's a fantastic who done it movie that really hammer's deep into the thin line of love and suspicion as well as the character's psyche as well. As a fan of Humphrey Bogart's films this film without a doubt is up there in the top ten best of his career, and even if or haven't seen any of Bogart's work I would highly recommend starting off with this movie, especially since where in the special holiday of love and In a Lonely Place is a great example of both love and not sure if the person you're dating is the one for you.