In a Lonely Place (1950)
In a Lonely Place, made in 1950 by Nicholas Ray, is a classic noir, with Humphrey Bogart in one of his finest creations. Louise Brooks would write that this role came closest to the real Bogart she knew: a fascinatingly complex character whose pride, selfishness, drunkenness, lack of energy stabbed with lightning strokes of violence, were defining also the actor. He plays here a thriller author who comes as a prime suspect in a murder. A lady (splendidly played by Gloria Grahame) who lives in an apartment nearby provides a strong alibi that clears him. The two fall in love and intend to marry, however the dark side of Bogart's hero will slowly discourage the woman, down to the point of terror. Is he ultimately innocent or not? When I die I'll go to heaven because I did my time in hell, as the old song goes.
The movie is loosely based on a novel written by Dorothy B. Hughes in 1947. There is a major difference between book and movie: the hero is certainly a criminal in the book, while in the movie the doubts remain up to the end.
Speaking about the end of the movie, they initially chose a spectacular solution: though not guilty in the initial murder, the hero will strangulate the woman he loved, in an outburst of fury, jumping then on the typewriter to describe the scene on the last page of his thriller. They eventually renounced to this outcome, in favor of something more nuanced. I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me
---------
Here is the movie. The author of the videos mistakenly mentioned Alfred Hitchcock as the film director. It was actually Nicholas Ray.
You put your arm around her neck. You get to a lonely place in the road, and you begin to squeeze...
(Filmofilia)
Labels: Humphrey Bogart
posted by Pierre Radulescu at
11:16 AM
|
0 comments
