‎In a Lonely Place (1950) directed by Nicholas Ray • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

In a Lonely Place

1950 Directed by Nicholas Ray

The Bogart suspense picture with the surprise finish -

An aspiring actress begins to suspect that her temperamental boyfriend is a murderer.

Humphrey Bogart Gloria Grahame Frank Lovejoy Carl Benton Reid Art Smith Jeff Donnell Martha Stewart Robert Warwick Morris Ankrum William Ching Steven Geray Hadda Brooks Ruth Gillette Michael Romanoff Ruth Warren

94 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by davidehrlich ★★★★★ 6

"I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me."

of course, but so many other immortal lines here. one of the rawest films the studio system ever produced.

Scenes from a Noir Marriage

or as Netflix might categorize it: "existential romance"

this is what we talk about when we talk about Bogart.

poor Ray & Grahame... i thought those crazy kids were gonna make it.
Review by trolleyfreak ★★★★★ 63

5 Reasons why this film is a masterpiece:

1. It's the best film Nicholas Ray ever made; a noir-tinged drama rendered in dark visuals of exhilarating beauty.

2. It showcases probably the greatest performance of Bogie's career as the short-fused screenwriter Dix Steele, a character he imbues with a neurotic edge that is frightening in its intensity.

3. This dialogue: 'I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me'.

4. Gloria Grahame is in it.

5. It just 'is', OK?!
Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★ 4

A paranoid phantasmagoria of broken people, shattered Hollywood dreams, violent American character, Bogart and Grahame personals, New Deal and shifting political space of the era, romantic longing cut short. One of the most perfect bad trip movies, probably because it is also one of the most romantic.
Review by Anna Imhof 🌸 ★★★★★ 7

Dear In a Lonely Place,

Now that we've known each other for quite a while, I would like to ask you: Do you want to marry me? Because you're beautiful, brilliant, funny, mysterious, soulful, emotional and sexy—everything I like in a film, and I fear I cannot live without you anymore, nor do I want to.

Until death do us part?
Anna
Review by Luke McCarthy 2

"Yesterday, this would've meant so much to us. Now it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all."

Bogart's wry charm is transformed into something much more toxic here, a supposed carelessness born from such deep-rooted insecurity that his character's toxic, repressed rage almost becomes a character in and of itself. This performance is somehow matched by Grahame's, who's expert navigation of the film's central arc turns what in anyone else's hands might be turgid melodrama into operatic tragedy.
Ray continually singles in on the melancholy, the sadness and the raw sense of longing which seems to permeate every fleeting glimpse of human connection we see on screen. When these small moments of hope eventually sour, it feels like the cinematic…
Review by Jake Cole ★★★★★ 1

1950. Two genre-defining noirs follow Hollywood's postwar darkness to its logical conclusion by setting their stories among Tinseltown's decayed soul. Sunset Boulevard is one of Billy Wilder's expertly crafted closed loops, a vision of Hollywood as an empire not merely in decline but founded upon an ideal of constant obsolescence, locking its brightest luminaries into grotesqueries of opulent rot as fame left with age. Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, however, is open-ended, going so far as to abandon its original tidy, if nasty, coda in favor of a grim ambiguity that suggests cycles broken into new and even more terrifying iterations.

Ray films Hollywood not from its rotten core but its desiccated, metaphorical outskirts. It gets underway in a…

Recent reviews

Review by Scott Southard ★★★★

Trippy tension what the heck is happening.
Review by JackOscar ★★★★½

I can't think of a more perfect ending to a movie than this. More specificity I suppose is I kind think of a more cleanly executed ending to a movie than this. Manages to squeeze every last bit of emotion and drama there is from its premise and in so little time - not a single moment is wasted. I feel completely drained and am left staring at the screen thinking about what I just watched, with nothing but the Columbia Lady to keep me company.
Review by jonass728 ★★★★

Amazing to see such real characters on a studio set. It’s so obviously a “big picture” production yet there’s such honesty in the acting.
Review by bnagle17

Bogart is surprisingly terrifying here, more akin to the mania of third-act Fred C. Dobbs (or perhaps the villains I've read he played before he ascended to leading man-status––I still have yet to see any of his pre-Maltese Falcon flicks) than the jaded Rick Blaine. His washed up Hollywood writer is a man tainted by violence (it is treated as minor by the film but the effect of the war shouldn't be overlooked): it begins as just a dark seed, but the darkness grows, invading their giddy romance, and eventually overtaking it and tearing it apart. In the end (*spoiler?*) it doesn't even matter that Bogart wasn't the murderer. His innocence of that crime is ultimately meaningless. Unable to suppress his own violence he wreaks havoc on himself and those around him.

Lots of great Nicholas Ray flourishes, namely that shot in the bar, where Grahame whispers into Bogart's ear. It's breathtaking!
Review by Anwesha

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

?????the man was a sociopath irrespective of whether he committed the murder or not????? the relationship was inevitably meant to end because of what a massive asshole he was from the very beginning????? how the fuck is this film so loved
Review by Michael_Elliott ★★★½

An aging Hollywood screenwriter (Humphrey Bogart) is accused of killing a woman but that doesn't stop his neighbor (Gloria Grahame) from falling in love with him. This is a very hypnotic film noir type film from director Nicholas Ray that has a wonderful mystery and a pretty good love story, although it begins to drag a bit towards the end. The real highlight here is the incredible performance from Bogart, which certainly ranks among the best of his career. Bogart does a brilliant job at showing the characters depression and his ugliness but he also manages to show why the woman would love him.
Review by Cogerson ★★★½

The first time I watched this "cult classic" I was not too impressed. Figured I would give it another chance. Second viewing went much better. I liked Humphrey Bogart's character much more this time around....as he came across as jerk the first time...but a tragic hero this time. Gloria Grahame is outstanding as the love interest. More of a character study than a thriller...maybe it took two viewings to understand that. Final thought: Liked it more...but still far from being a Bogie favorite.

Ranked 31st of 71 movies on our Humphrey Bogart Movie Ranking Page. www.ultimatemovierankings.com/humphrey-bogart-movies/
Review by Tuosma ★★★★

155/250 Letterboxd Top 250

In a Lonely Place failed to wow me, which is not that surprising since many of the movies from that era fail to elicit strong emotions out of me, but I can absolutely see the greatness in this one.

For starters when thinking about the general crime film sphere of the era, In a Lonely Place does many things which go against convention. Our lead isn't a criminal nor is he looking into a crime. He's a screenwriter who is accused of a murder. Now that by itself is already an interesting setup for a movie, but to make it more interesting the movie has him cleared because his neighbor witnessed the victim leave his house…
Review by Adel Kabeel ★★★★

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