He says that the film “flips [Laurel] from potential whore to Madonna in the instant of a dissolve,” while comparing this to VERTIGO. For one, IN A LONELY PLACE was made for a far lower budget than Hitchcock’s film and on Bogart’s dollar (he was the silent producer), and Ray (unfortunately) never got the prestige of Hitchcock–this is a film that had to be made in a rush and couldn’t afford the leisurely pace of Hitchcock’s film. Second, despite the casting of Gloria Grahame, Laurel is not a femme fatale, and she doesn’t fit neatly into such a black-and-white category as Madonna the Whore–she openly admits to Dix that she runs out of relationships she thinks are sinking. Both she and Dix are good people at heart whose flaws lie in their romantic insecurities, which is what drives them to the pessimistic end. And lastly, the speed of their relationship is actually commented by Laurel, worried that they’re moving too fast, and Dix’s anxious behavior doesn’t allow the relationship to take its time, another factor that will ultimately destroy their relationship. I for one would’ve like to see just one more scene between Laurel and Dix, but of course that’s only because Bogart and Grahame have such a magnetic chemistry.

It’s pretty obvious why.

But a year or two ago, I discovered In a Lonely Place, They Live By Night, On Dangerous Ground, and Johnny Guitar. Suddenly I could see why the French critics adored Ray so blindingly – and that problem I had with foregrounding subtext began to seem like a virtue. I’m still not sure if it works in Rebel (I’d have to see it again) but In a Lonely Place is my favorite Ray film, and it’s because he takes Bogart’s raw, wounded rage and pain (which is also, presumably, his own) and lays it all out there for the viewer to partake in. If imagery and tone sometimes seem extreme, it’s because the director’s identification with the hero and his worldview is unmitigated: what I find so moving about Ray is his ability to shatter genre and classical film conventions with the sheer emotion of his work.

MovieMan0283
http://thedancingimage.blogspot.com/

Ray’s greatest film remains REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, with his debut THEY LIVE BY NIGHT as the runner-up.

Ray’s climb in stature as a director means “In a Lonely Place” is climbing in stature as a noir. I think I tend to come down on the side of “In a Lonely Place” being closer to great than merely good, but I think your concerns and criticisms are certainly not without merit. (On a basic cinematic level, there has always felt to me like something small was missing from completely complicating the Dix/Laurel relationship.) It has always made me a little uncomfortable to know that those close to Bogart always considered Dix Steele to be his most unveiled performance – the character who, out of all his characters, was perhaps closest to his own personality. Yikes.

And although this might not be a sufficiently academic reason to enjoy the film, I can’t help but love any noir where the lead character is a writer.

This picture is an atypical noir, where the psyche of a “creative” outsider is explored. This is a movie in which the title has a real deep meaning. In a lonely place: those of you who have suffered from or been close to someone who has suffered major depression, will also find this story a painfully accurate portrayal of how a depressed person battles with his demons. Many creative artists are linked with depression or bipolar disorder, where anger is at a trigger point. Ray explores the effects of frustration and anxiety on the creative psyche within the grid-lines of noir.

James Naremore has written:

“François Truffaut wrote that the essential theme of Ray’s films was ‘moral solitude’, and Jacques Rivette argued that Ray was concerned with ‘the interior demon of violence, which seems linked to man and his solitude’.”

These themes are clearly evident in In a Lonely Place, where a creative outsider is imprisoned by his interior demons. The mood of the film is alienating too, with the protagonist kept at an emotional distance from the audience. The Bogart character is not only lonely, torn, and alienated, but amoral in his self-obsession. He leaves the hat-check girl to find her own cab alone late at night on the streets of LA, and so is partly responsible for what happens to her. When he learns of her murder the next morning, he cannot connect emotionally with the event – even when he is shown graphics photos of the crime scene – and he has no real remorse. As an afterthought he callously orders some flower to be sent to the girl’s home, but can’t be bothered to find out the address himself.

Nicholas Ray uses powerful imagery to visualise this alienation. Dixon Steeles’ apartment is on a lower level to his lover’s. He must walk up to see her and when he leaves for the last time, he must walk out and down a stairway. The strongest imagery is in the design of Steele’s apartment where prison-like bars are virtually everywhere – even in the patterns of curtains.

And in almost all interior scenes having the view from windows obscured by the lateral bars of closed venetian blinds reinforces the mood of alienation.

I remember discussing this film with you after you reviewed On Dangerous Ground, and the relationship between the two films (particularly their endings). In this instance, the ending was originally much more upbeat, and Ray changed it, apparently saying something like, “Why do romantic stories always have to end that way?” and opting for the much more downbeat conclusion. Whereas, with the Ryan-Lupino film, rumor is that Ray, very much sick at the time, let Lupino direct the conclusion and she and Ryan gave that film a much more copacetic ending.

The ending of In a Lonely Place, to me, supersedes and perhaps corrects the probable flaw you detail here, that of the Bogart and Grahame characters becoming so close so fast, and in that way illustrates just how wrong both characters were to become so involved with one another with such alacrity to begin with.

Interestingly, most historic pieces on Bogart contend that he was a “strange” man to become such an enormous movie star, possessing offbeat features and not having the best of looks by traditional standards, but I agree that his stardom is quite understandable. His tweaking with his persona was much more robust than he has usually been given credit for.

Knock on Any Door is a “social message” film, and while Bogart and Ray doubtless elevate the fairly one-dimensional material, it’s not particularly effective.

In a Lonely Place is one of my favorite Bogart performances and it’s my favorite Ray… As you say, Chuck, Ray’s focus within noir was always on the tragic implications of the characters’ actions (which makes the conclusion to On Dangerous Ground all the more apparently the work of someone else). They Live by Night and this film both have that in spades.