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Monday, April 7, 2014

Tuesday's Overlooked Films: IN A LONELY PLACE starring Humphrey Bogart

This 1950 crime noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame with Frank Lovejoy in a minor role as a cop detective consistently places on the best-of lists for the film noir subgenre. Bogart is often credited for the best performance of his acting career in his playing the role of Dixon Steele, a washed up Hollywood screen writer. He is accused of murdering a hat check girl who he brings back to his apartment to give him the plot summary of a prosaic novel he's supposed to adapt into a film script. He then sends her off to the cabstand with twenty dollars. The next morning she is found murdered as a dump job. Of course, Steele is regarded as the lead suspect. His neighbor Gloria Grahame (perhaps also her best role) becomes his love interest who is unsure if he is the killer or not. Bogie looks a little worn around the edges, but it fits the rugged, proud, and lonely character he plays. There is lots of cigarette smoking. Unfiltered cigarettes, I believe. I'm used to seeing it in film noir, but this time I saw it more it seemed. At any rate, I immensely enjoyed watching IN A LONELY PLACE and can't really add anything to what has already been said. It is choice film noir, and I am curious enough to now want to read Dorothy B. Hughes' novel. I've already read a few of her works like The So Blue Marble and remember liking them. 

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