This past weekend was a noir watching time for me and a friend. We often watch movies after the end of board and card games and following last weekend movie The Big Combo I wanted to watch The Big Heat on Friday night. That put me in a mood for more Gloria Grahame and on Saturday I rented In A Lonely Place a noir I have heard about but had never actually seen.

The story centers on Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) a Hollywood screenwriter with an explosive temper that often spills over into violence. We are introduced to Dixon when a pause at a traffic light turns heated and he climbs out of his car in the middle of the street to start fighting. After a hatcheck girl that Dixon brought to his home to assist him with a screenplay is found murdered Dixon is brought in by the police for questioning. Dixon tells the police that a neighbor in his open-air apartment complex can vouch for his story and they bring in Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame.) She confirms his account of the evening and following this introduction Dixon and Laurel begin a romantic affair. However, the police are not convinced of Dixon’s innocence, he already has a long record of fights and attacks that only amplify their suspicions. With the police pressuring Dixon and other warning Laurel of his violent outbursts fear creeps into their relationship along with the possibility that Dixon actually did murder the young woman.

In A Lonely Place made for an excellent follow-up to The Big Heat providing a fine example of Gloria Grahame’s range as an actor. The film is also a good vehicle for Bogart to stretch his preforming wings and om scenes where Dixon’s sanity is called into question you can see hints of his upcoming classic portrayal of Queeg from The Caine Mutiny being planted. In A Lonely Place also represented the final collaboration between Grahame and her husband director Nicholas Ray before their separation and divorce. The scripts original ending was too dark for Ray and working with Bogart and Grahame they improvised the final scenes with its ambiguous ending.

I very much enjoyed watching this film and throughout its run time never felt absolutely certain of where the filmmakers were taking it. I do feel that this might have been an even better and more powerful film had our viewpoint character been restricted to Laurel with more of Dixon’s nature being recounted second-hand leaving us in the dark even more to what really transpired between Dixon and the hatcheck girl. Still, this is one worth seeking out and watching.