In a Lonely Place (Nicholas Ray, 1950)

 

Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart

What a curious film. Hollywood movies, at least those of the 1950s, were not expected to end without any resolution. In this one, the hero, Dixon Steele, played by Humphrey Bogart, is a screenwriter with a propensity to violence. He is implicated in a murder, which he did not commit, but the suspicion is enough to make him lose his cool at any moment. He falls in love with a neighbour, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), but her love isn’t enough. At the end of the film, he is cleared of the murder … but walks away, into the night.

Why would Bogart make such a film? Even more astonishing, the film was made by his own production company, so he couldn’t claim he accepted an inferior part. The part was written for him. 

My suggestion is that Bogart recognized the new dimension in his acting role, a dimension that is the reason why we watch his films today. As a private detective, Bogart (whether Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, or Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep), played a loner who nonetheless remained principled. He represented, for the audience, a point of integrity in a world full of evil and corruption. Bogart must have felt that this role suited him, and if David Thompson is to be believed, he was far more successful in these roles than he was as an out-and-out villain (with more than 28 films as the baddie). 

So, to Bogart’s credit, he was one of a handful of actors who could play good or evil roles. Cary Grant, for all his accomplishments, was a hopeless villain (and I don’t imagine Charlie Chapin would have made a convincing villain either). In this role, as Dixon Steel, he retains his integrity and principles, but he is so adamant about not following compassion that he appears as a oddball, a misanthrope, as well as a misogynist. In other words, he attempts to carry the private eye role into another area. I assume Bogart’s intention was that we, the viewers, admire Dixon Steele, but we recognize he is difficult to deal with (and presumably nowadays would regard him as a classic case of PTSD). Implicated in a murder, Steele talks to the police captain with an incredible insouciance, comparing himself to the dead woman’s boyfriend, the other suspect: 

Dixon Steele: It was his story against mine, but of course, I told my story better.

Of course, Dick Steele is also a misogynist, but that is what I would expect of a film made in 1950. This is part of the baggage of the time, and not worth complaining about now. Unfortunately, the film shows its age by the abrupt about-turn in Gloria Grahame’s character. For the first couple of scenes, where she and Bogart are flirting, there is a magic in her dialogue and character that is only rivalled by the best screwball comedies. Her lines are assertive and adventurous, but not simply subservient:

Dixon Steele: How can anyone like a face like this? Look at it...

[leans in for a kiss]

Laurel Gray: I said I liked it - I didn't say I wanted to kiss it.

Dixon Steele is the man of truth. He is asked to write a screenplay based on a book he knows h  isn’t going to like, gets a clerk to read the book for him and retell it to him, and then refuses to congratulate himself when the director likes the resulting script. Presumably acceptance of the script means success, income, and reassurance: but not for Dixon Steele, the man of principle, in the middle of Hollywood (the last place you would expect to stick to your principles).

So at the end, when Bogart walks out on the girlfriend, on happiness, on being settled, we respect him, yet we hate him. He is a monster, let’s face it; it would probably be the same if the private detective ever married any of his lady friends. But in the detective films, the question never arises. Part of writing a successful film script is not to include the uncomfortable moments: it kills the fantasy. Elliott Gould, at the end of The Long Goodbye (1974), doesn’t marry anyone either, but we don’t mind or care. Perhaps we feel instinctively that Gould would never strike anyone in uncontrollable anger, while Dixon Steele looks to be perfectly capable of unwarranted violence at any moment. It makes for uncomfortable viewing.