Ten of the Best Quotes from Film Noir

Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart in In a Lonely Place (1950)

Film noir is known for its visual style and the cynicism that often pervades its plots. It is also known for its dialogue. Some of the greatest lines in movie history come from film noirs. With this being Noirvember, I thought that it would be a good time to list ten of what I considered the best quotes from film noirs. I limited myself to only one line per movie, as otherwise the whole list might be composed entirely of quotes from Double Indemnity (1944) and Sunset Boulevard (1950). Billy Wilder does have a bit of an unfair advantage when it comes to great lines! Also, the quotes are in no particularly except for the last one, which is my number one favourite movie line, period. Without further ado, there are ten of the best quotes from film noir. 

"My, my, my! Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains! You know, you're the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail." Humphrey Bogart as Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep (1944) in response to yet another gun pointed at him.

"In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention." Clifton Webb as narcissistic newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944).

"Isn’t it a pity? The wrong people always have money.” Elsa Lanchester as Louise Patterson as The Big Clock (1948)

"Hate is a very exciting emotion. Haven't you noticed? Very exciting. I hate you too, Johnny. I hate you so much I think I'm going to die from it. Darling...I think I'm going to die from it." Rita Hayworth as Gilda in Gilda (1946) in conversation with Johnny Farrell (Glenn Ford)

"With my brains and your looks, we could go places.” John Garfield as Frank Chambers from The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946) commenting to Cora Smith (Lana Turner)

"Well, build my gallows high, baby." Robert Mitchum as Jeff in Out of the Past (1947) to  Kathie (Jane Greer)  

"I am big. It's the pictures that got small."  Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in response to Joe Gillis's (William Holden) remark that she used to be big 

"That was only the first half of the speech. The rest of it goes like this: I hate their women, too - especially the 'big league blondes.' Beautiful, expensive babes who know what they've got... all bubble bath, and dewy morning, and moonlight. And inside: blue steel, cold - cold like that... only not that clean." Ann Shirley as Anne Grayle in Murder, My Sweet (1944) in response to Helen Grayle (Claire Trevor)

"I  picked you for the job, not because I think you're so darn smart, but because I thought you were a shade less dumb than the rest of the outfit. Guess I was wrong. You're not smarter, Walter... you're just a little taller." Edward G. Robinson as Barton Keyes in Double Indemnity (1944) in response to Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray)

"I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me." A line from Dixon Steele's screenplay which he quotes in In a Lonely Place (1950).

Mildred Bailey, Al Rinker, Charles Rinker, and Miles Rinker: A Musical Native American Family

When people think of Native American musical artists, Kay Starr, Link Wray, or the rock group Redbone might come to mind, but earlier in the 20th Century four remarkable music artists emerged from one family. What is more, they were siblings. Mildred Bailey, Al Rinker, Charles Rinker, and Miles Rinker each left their own mark on jazz music. 

Their mother was Josephine Rinker, a citizen of the Skitswish, also known as the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Music ran in her family. Josephine Rinker herself played piano. Her grandfather, Bazil Peone, had been a song leader and head speaker among the Skitswish. Their father, Charles Rinker, was also musically inclined. He played fiddle and called square dances as well. It was then natural that Mildred, Al, Charles, and Miles would take up music. Mildred went with her mother to traditional Skitswish ceremonies, and learned many of the traditional songs. The family would also host get-togethers on Saturday nights on their farm near rural Tekoa, Washington for the local ranchers and farmers, with the family members providing the music. Sadly, Josephine Rinker died at age 36 from tuberculosis. Their father eventually remarried, and their stepmother did not get along with the children at all.

Mildred then left home at 17. She married and divorced a man named Ted Bailey. Given her musical background, it was inevitable that she would become a singer. She established herself as a blues and jazz singer on the West Coast before her recording career. Although she made her first recordings in the late 1920s, her first real hist was her version of "For Sentimental Reasons," which peaked at no. 18 on the singles chart in 1936. She would follow it with many more hits, including "Trust in Me (which went to no. 4 in 1937), "Where Are You (which went to no. 5 the same year), and "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" (which went to no. 8 in 1938." Her biggest hit was "So Help Me," which peaked at no. 2 in 1938. Sadly, Mildred Bailey suffered from diabetes and had problems with her health throughout her life. She died when she was only 44 from heart failure.

Al Rinker was Mildred Bailey's eldest brother, and he had as notable a career as she did. It was in 1925 that Al Rinker began performing alongside Bing Crosby and Harry Barris as The Rhythm Boys. The group had a good deal of success and even appeared in the movie King of Jazz (1930) before breaking up due to Bing Crosby's desire for a solo career. Al Rinker later created the radio show The Saturday Night Swing Club with Bob Smith and produced the show as well. Al Rinker was not only a musical performer, but a song writer as well. He wrote "You Can't Do Wrong Doin' Right" and  "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" from the movie The Aristocats (1970) with Floyd Huddleston.

Younger brother Charles Rinker would also become a songwriter. He co-wrote several songs with Gene de Paul. Miles Rinker was a saxophonist and clarinetist. He later became a booking agent. 

Although not particularly well-known today, Mildred Bailey, Al Rinker, Charles Rinker, and Miles Rinker had an impact on musical history in the early 20th Century. Indeed, without Al Rinker, Bing Crosby's career may have been very different. While their music did not draw a great deal upon Coeur d'Alene tradition, the fact that they were Native Americans at a time when there were only a few in the entertainment industry is significant. They certainly paved the way for others.

In a Lonely Place (1950) at 75

"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. 

In a Lonely Place (1950) premiered in New York City on May 17, 1950. Afterwards, it gradually opened throughout the United States over the next few months. For instance, it opened in New Jersey, Indiana, and elsewhere in June 1950 and in Missouri, Illinois, and elsewhere in July 1950.  It would be in August that In a Lonely Place (1950) would open in the city in which it was set, Los Angeles. Interestingly enough, some theatres other than those owned by Paramount and RKO decided to show In a Lonely Place (1950) together with another movie critical of Hollywood, Sunset Boulevard (1950), as a double feature. An example of this was the Lux Theatre in Oakland, California.

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.

A Pictorial Tribute to Rock Hudson on His Centennial

It was 100 years ago today that Rock Hudson was born Roy Harold Scherer Jr. in Winnetka, Illinois. Rock Hudson would go onto become one of the top leading men of the Fifties and Sixties. From 1957 to 1964, he ranked each year in th Quigley poll of the top ten money making stars. While no longer the major star he was in the Fifties and Sixties, in the Seventies, Rock Hudson found success on television on the TV series MacMillan & Wife, as well as TV movies and mini-series. Sadly, Rock Hudson contracted the HIV virus and died on October 2, 1985, at the age of 59. He was the first major American celebrity to die from an AIDS-related disease. 

In tribute to Rock Hudson, here are some photos from throughout his career.

Rock Hudson made his film debut in uncredited part in the movie Fighter Squadron in 1948. Here he is with Walter Reed in a still from the movie.

Rock Hudson's first starring role was as legendary Old West outlaw John Wesley Hardin in The Lawless Breed in 1953. Here he is with Julie Adams.

It would be with Douglas Sirk's remake of the 1935 melodrama Magnificent Seven (1954) that Rock Hudson would achieve stardom. Rock Hudson had worked with Douglas Sirk before and would work with him in further melodramas, such as All That Heaven Allows (1955), which also reunited him with his Magnificent Seven co-star Jane Wyman.

Giant (1956) would be the highest grossing film of Rock Hudson's career, grossing  $454 million when adjusted for inflation. The film was still being shown on network television and it may have well have been where I first saw Mr. Hudson (the other possibility was his TV show MacMillan & Wife, which I will get to shortly).

As much money as Giant (1956), many people may best know Rock Hudson for Pillow Talk (1959), the first of three sex comedies he made with Doris Day. The other two, Love Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) also proved very successful, and established Rock Hudson as an actor firmly identified with the sex comedy genre. The two stars certainly got along, and Rock Hudson and Doris Day remained friends until he died.

Pillow Talk (1959) established Rock Hudson as a star of romantic comedies. One of favourites is Come September (1961) with Gina Lollobrigida. 

Rock Hudson appeared in more than melodramas and sex comedies. Seconds (1966) was a science fiction psychological horror movie directed by John Frankenheimer. 

Rock Hudson also appeared in an espionage thriller. Ice Station Zebra (1968) remains one of his most popular films among men of a certain age.

Rock Hudson's movie carer having declined, in the Seventies he turned to television. McMillan & Wife debuted in 1971 as part of the wheel show NBC Mystery Movie. It starred Rock Hudson as Police Commissioner Stuart "Mac" McMillan and Susan Saint James as his wife Sally. It proved to be one of the most popular parts of the NBC Mystery Movie. Susan Saint James left in 1976 due to a contract dispute, and the series continued as simply McMillan, but it wasn't the same.

Following the cancellation of McMillan, Rock Hudson appeared in TV movies and miniseries such as The Martian Chronicles. It was in 1982 that he starred in another series, albeit one that was short-lived The Devlin Connection starred Rock Hudson as Brian Devlin, a former military intelligence officer and private eye who finds himself assisting his long lost son, private eye Nick Corsello (Jack Scalia). It only lasted 13 episodes.

Rock Hudson's last role was on the night-time soap opera Dynasty, where he played Daniel Reece, a wealthy horse breeder and a love interest for Krystle (Linda Evans). He appeared in nine episodes before having to drop out due to his declining health.