Truly one of the great noirs, "In a Lonely Place" was directed by Nicholas Ray and stars Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Jeff Donnell and Martha Stewart. Bogart plays Dix Steele, a well-known Hollywood screenwriter who is very choosy about what he writes. He's asked to adapt a book, and instead of reading it, he invites the coat-check girl (Stewart) to tell him the story, as she's just finished the book. She has a date; she cancels it for the opportunity. He takes her to his place, where she acts the book out long enough for him to decide it's a piece of junk. Exhausted, he gives her money for a cab and sends her to the stand around the corner. Several hours later, an old friend (Lovejoy) who is a police detective, appears at his door. The girl has been found dead in the canyon. Dix, known for his violent temper, becomes a suspect. A beautiful woman (Grahame) who lives across the courtyard from him saw the girl leave and becomes his witness - and his girlfriend. They're madly in love, but his sometimes dark moods, his quick temper and his predilection for fistfights makes her wonder if he isn't guilty of the murder after all.

This is a fantastic film with a wonderful, biting script, great direction and superb performances. More than a murder mystery, it's a psychological drama about two scarred people who come together somewhat late in the game - but is it too late? Bogart plays a basically good man who has some demons but in loneliness is willing to open himself up to love. He's such a complete character - vulnerable, passionate, angry, generous - full of contradictions - this is one of Bogart's best roles, if not the best. The look on his face when he tells Laurel that he's been without someone for so long - incredible. Grahame's Laurel is sexy, mysterious, flirtatious and cautious - yet she finds herself totally engulfed in her love affair with Dix, though she fears he isn't quite right. "Why couldn't he be normal?" she asks, as if she would have been attracted to him if he had been. Dix's edginess comes with a price - the question is whether she's willing to pay it.

The rest of the cast is excellent: Art Smith as Dix's long-suffering agent who loves the guy in spite of everything: Frank Lovejoy as his detective friend, who can't help liking him even if he is a suspect for murder: and Jeff Donnell, who plays Lovejoy's wife, a woman who knows real love when she sees it.

What a movie - you really can't ask for more. "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." When was the last time you heard a line like that?

A scorching performance from Bogey makes this film a real classic, his Dixon Steele one of the great screen characters. In this more biting version of the plot of Hitchcock's suspense/comedy Suspicion, Bogart is a kind and loving screenwriter with a violent streak of temper waiting to break out and a taste for a drink or two, wooing Gloria Grahame's pretty young actress next door. The death of a young girlfriend of his hangs over him throughout the movie, as Graham at first believes him to be innocent, then later, having fallen for his charms, begins to suspect he may have had something to do with the girl's death after all, as his temper becomes more and more uncontrolled and frightening. The police circle around, making his nervous anger worse; the relationship begins to crumble into a mess of fear, lies and misunderstanding. Through all this Dixon Steele emerges as a great and brilliant creation, a highlight even in a career as illustrious as that of Bogart, a charming and witty man when happy, a black and vengeful man when roused to anger, a man of contradictions that only seems the more real, heroic, and ultimately tragic. Bogart's performance is brilliant, but the setting works well too, Grahame is great as the sassy girl he falls for, then frightens, the story chugs along at a fair lick, but allowing plenty of time for the many fun minor characters to develop well, and the script is a corker - wonderful stuff.

This was a very interesting role for Humphrey Bogart, and was a bit of a production code buster on several levels.

Bogart plays Hollywood screenwriter Dixon Steele, who is in somewhat of a writing rut. He also has a quick temper and a paranoia complex. He picks fights with people over the most routine matters and these fights commonly come to blows. He is indeed "in a lonely place" of his own making. Steele has a chance to write a screenplay based on a book, but the author wants him to read the book and give him his opinion in just a matter of a few days. At the restaurant where Steele has talked with the author, the hat check girl says she has just read the book and loves it. Steele invites her to come over to his apartment and tell him about the book to save him the trouble of reading it. This is all very innocent in what Steele intends and in what actually happens. In fact, Steele's reaction, unseen and unheard by the hat check girl, to her semi-literate oral book report is wickedly funny. This shows us Steele's charming and funny side. After the girl tells her story, she leaves. Neighbor Laurel Grey (Gloria Grahame) sees her leave. However, the next day, the girl's strangled body is found next to a road. The police quickly find their way back to Steele's place where, due to his violent past and nonchalant reaction to the murder, he is under immediate suspicion. He finds an alibi in his neighbor Laurel, and this is how they formally meet.

Almost immediately the two begin a relationship that gets serious fast. Laurel finds Steele attentive and interesting. Thus at first Laurel thinks Steele is innocent of the murder, but one by one her doubts grow. Steele explodes over little things, even eventually punching out his own agent over nothing. In fact, Steele's agent is his only real friend and actually is a bit of an enabler for his bad behavior. You always see Steele show his idea of remorse for his actions, even anonymously sending money to a guy he has beaten up over a traffic accident. However, the question that is left to be answered is - exactly what is going on with this guy? Could he have stalked and killed the girl over his anger at something else or someone else entirely? And if he didn't kill the hat check girl, will he eventually kill someone else? Laurel is asking these same questions as she begins to wonder - is it more dangerous to try and run away from Steele, or is it more dangerous to stay? One should never consider saying "yes" to a marriage proposal if it comes down to what is less dangerous.

Laurel is not exactly a finished book herself. Apparently she had a serious relationship with a well-off man just prior to this, and ended it for really no tangible reason. Then there is a kind of gay subtext going on between herself and her masseuse, Martha. They only have one scene together but it certainly throws out more questions than answers, just like the rest of this film.

If you like noir, if you like Bogart, if you like being challenged, watch this film.