"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." (Dixon Steele, In a Lonely Place)
In 1950 two films took somewhat scathing looks at Hollywood. The better known of the two movies was Sunset Boulevard (1950), which is still well-known even to the average person. While In a Lonely Place (1950) might not be as famous as Sunset Boulevard (1950), the film is also a somewhat critical examination of the film industry as it was at the time. And like, Sunset Boulevard (19500, it is also a classic film noir.
In a Lonely Place (1950) centres on screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart), who hasn't had a hit since before World War II. He drinks a bit too much and he has a violent temper. Having been hired to adapt the novel Althea Bruce as a film, Dixon Steele takes hat check girl Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart) to his apartment so she can tell him the plot of the novel so he doesn't actually have to read it. Unfortunately, Mildred is murdered after having left Dix's apartment, and Dix is a suspect. It is at the police station that Dix meets his neighbour, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), with whom he begins relationship.
It was in 1948 that Humphrey Bogart formed his own production company, Santana Productions. For Santanta's very first film, Knock on Any Door (1949), Humphrey Bogart hired director Nicholas Ray, fresh from his success with They Live By Night (1948). Humphrey Bogart and Nicholas Ray's next collaboration would be very loosely based the 1947novel In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes. The novel differed a good deal from the film. While Dixon Steele served in World War II in both the novel and the film, in the novel he is not a screenwriter and, what is more, he is an outright serial killer who has been strangling women around Los Angeles.
Edmund North, who had written such films as Dishonored Lady (1947) and Flamingo Road (1949), was hired to adapt the novel In a Lonely Place as a film. While Edmond North made some changes, his initial script stayed closer to the novel than the movie would ultimately be. Andrew Solt developed the screenplay based on Edmund North's previous adaptation into the film we now know. In turn, director Nicholas Ray rewrote Andrew Solt's work. In fact, Nicholas Ray reworked the original ending of the movie, in which Dixon Steele strangles Laurel Gray to death. Nicholas Ray couldn't bear to end the movie, and so he dismissed everyone from the set except Humphrey Bogart, Art Smith (who played Dixon Steele's agent Mel Lippman), and Gloria Grahame, and they extemporized the ending as we now know it. Ultimately,what had been an ex-airman turned killer in the novel In a Lonely Place became a Hollywood screenwriter with a violent temper in the movie In a Lonely Place (1950). It is a bit of an in-joke in In the Lonely Place (1950) that the fictional screenplay Dixon Steele wrote for the fictional novel Althea Bruce departs from the book in much the way the movie In a Lonely Place (1950) departs from the novel.
If it had been up to Humphrey Bogart and screenwriter Edmund North, In a Lonely Place (1950) might have had a slightly different cast. They wanted to cast Laurel Bacall, then married to Humphrey Bogart, as Laurel Gray. As it turned out, Jack Warner, Bogey's former boss, refused to loan her out for the film. The role of Laurel Gray then went to Gloria Grahame, who was married to director Nicholas Ray at the time. Gloria Grahame and Nicholas Ray's marriage was coming apart even as they were making In a Lonely Place (1950) and they actually separated during the production of the film. Gloria Grahame and Nicholas Ray eventually divorced in 1952.
As to the remainder of the cast, Art Smith, who played Dixon Steele's agent Mel Lippman, had appeared in such films as Brute Force (1947), T-Men (1947), and Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948). Frank Lovejoy, who played Dixon Steele's friend and police detective Brub Nicolai, was best known for his work in radio when he made In a Lonely Place (1950). He had worked on such radio shows as Gay Nineties Revue, Gang Busters, and This is Your FBI. Jeff Donnell (birth name Jean Marie Donnell) played Brub's wife Sylvia and had appeared in movies from My Sister Eileen (1942) to Roughshod (1949).
For the most part, In a Lonely Place (1950) was filmed on sound stages at Columbia/Sunset Gower Studios. Paul's Restaurant was not an actual location, but a set inspired by the real-life Beverly Hills restaurant Romanoff's. Similarly, the Beverly Patio Apartments of the film were based on Villa Primavera in West Hollywood, where director Nicholas Ray had lived at one time. While most of the scenes at the Beverly Patio Apartments were filmed on a sound stage, the exterior of Villa Primavera actually does appear in some scenes in the movie. Other real-life locations in the film include Beverly Hills City Hall and Will Rogers State Beach.
For the most part, In a Lonely Place (1950) received positive reviews. Jerry Cahill, writing in the Martinez News-Gazette from Martinez, California, wrote of the film, "The picture's over-all effect suffers a bit from the episodic nature of the script, and a moderately paced second half while the romance unfolds, but it winds up 100 per cent a Bogart vehicle, and that is the requirement. The Variety staff wrote, "ector Nicholas Ray maintains nice suspense. Bogart is excellent. Gloria Grahame, as his romance, also rates kudos." Even Bosley Crowther of The New York Times liked In a Lonely Place (1950), writing, "Humphrey Bogart is in top form in his latest independently made production, In a Lonely Place, and the picture itself is a superior cut of melodrama."
While In a Lonely Place (1950) received mostly good notices from critics, it did not perform particularly well at the box office. It only made $1.4 million. For the year 1950, this placed it at no. 85 of the 100 top grossing films of 1950 according to the Wednesday, January 3, 1951, issue of Variety. It seems possible that part of the blame for the film's poor performance at the box office may have been its promotional campaign. The film was promoted more or less as a mainstream suspense film, with such slogans as "The Bogart suspense film with the surprise finish," "Suspense! Intrigue! Suspicion!," and "Suspense...mounting to an exciting surprise finish!" While In a Lonely Place (1950) is most certainly what would come to be known as "film noir" and can certainly be counted in the crime, thriller, and suspense genres, the film is so much more than that. Indeed, audiences may have gone into theatres expecting a straightforward suspense film only to be confronted with a study of a complex character (Dixon Steele) and a critique of the film industry.
Indeed, in some ways In a Lonely Place (1950) is even more critical of the film industry than its contemporary Sunset Boulevard (1950). In In a Lonely Place (1950), a writer (or an actor or director) is truly only as good as his last picture. Early in the film director Lloyd Barnes (Morris Anktrum) makes not of the fact that Dix has not had a hit since before World War II, to which Dix replies that Barnes hasn't had a flop in twenty years "...because you've made and remade the same picture for the last twenty years. You know what you are? You're a popcorn salesman." Lloyd then informs Dix that he is pretty much a popcorn salesman as well. Alcoholic actor Charlie Waterman (Robert Warwick) is an even worse position than Dixon Steele is. At what time an idol of the silent matinee, Charlie now finds it hard to get jobs. While Dix still respects him, no one else does. It is clear that a producer/director nicknamed "Junior" (Lewis Howard) only has his position because he is the son-in-law of a studio executive. While there is some concern that Dix's adaptation of the novel Althea Bruce may depart too much for the source material for producer Brody's liking, it turns out the producer loves Dix's screenplay anyway. The general impression of Hollywood in In a Lonely Place (1950) is that it is a place where the emphasis is placed on making money, not making art.
Of course, even if Hollywood in In a Lonely Place (1950) wasn't a lonely place, chances are good that Dixon Steele might still have problems. Dix has a volatile temper, and he assaults more than one person throughout the film. Despite the fact that its most famous line (""I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.") is one of the most romantic lines in movie history, I suspect most people would be hesitant to describe Dix and Laurel's relationship as a romance. While Dix and Laurel appear to love each other (at the very least, they are very attracted to each other), Dix is often downright abusive to Laurel. Although the movie never explicitly states that Dix has a mental disorder, it seems obvious that he probably does. Dixon Steele's behaviour could fit either borderline personality disorder or bipolar II disorder.
While In a Lonely Place (1950) did not perform particularly well at the box office, it has since grown in reputation to become considered one of the greatest film noirs of all time. It certainly has had an impact on pop culture. The Smithereens' song "In a Lonely Place" from their 1986 album Especially for You was inspired by the movie and even paraphrases its most famous line with its chorus, ", "I was born the day I met you, lived a while when you loved me, died a little when we broke apart." Electronic music duo Goldfrapp's song "Laurel," from their 2013 album Tales of Us, was inspired by Laurel Gray from In a Lonely Place (1950). In the Frasier episode, "Slow Tango in South Seattle," the opening lines of author Thomas Jay Fallow's book is a parody of the most famous lines from In a Lonely Place (1950), "I budded when you kissed me. I withered when you left me. I bloomed a few months while you loved me." The film has been referenced in movies from Barton Fink (1991) to L.A. Confidential (1997) to Mulholland Dr. (2001).
In a Lonely Place (1950) was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2007. It has also appeared on several lists of the greatest films of all time, including Time Magazine's "Best Movies of All Time" and Slant Magazine's "100 Best Film Noirs," A very good argument can be made that it features one of Humphrey Bogart's best performances and one of Gloria Grahame's best performances. A critique of Hollywood as it was in 1950, a relationship drama between two damaged people, a crime film, In a Lonely Place (1950) is all of this and more.
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