Designing The Movies: IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) – New 4K Restoration!

 

 

 

Humphrey Bogart delivers what many consider his finest performance in this dark gem by Nicholas Ray. Bogie plays Dix, a washed-up screenwriter with a short fuse who’s suspected of murdering Mildred, a hatcheck girl he’s taken home. Supreme film noir dame Gloria Grahame is Laurel, the alluring next-door neighbour who provides his alibi. The two begin a love affair but the atmosphere soon becomes paranoid as Laurel witnesses Dix’s outbursts, and the police continue to suspect and investigate him. The story is loosely based on the haunting Dorothy B. Hughes thriller, and offers commentary on the capacity for male violence as well as Tinseltown’s enduring self-mythology. The central setting of a Los Angeles garden apartment complex is an impressive piece of production design essential to the hothouse tale.