Movie Review: In A Lonely Place (1950)

Tania Says:

This movie is the reason I wanted to do this project. I haven’t seen nearly enough old movies and I really did want to see more. This is the perfect example of an old movie that I never would have seen without this list and I am glad that we got to watch it.

In A Lonely Place is about a washed up Hollywood screen writer played by Humphrey Bogart who is accused of a murder. In the process he meets his new neighbor and they fall in love in like 2 weeks and she stands by him and believes in him and what not. Then she sees some behavior that concerns her and she starts to question whether he is guilty or innocent.

Humphrey Bogart is good as the screenwriter (and it is fine to do imitations of him while watching the movie!) He reminded me of Dr. House but more like Dr. House with paranoid schizophrenia. He is a seriously messed up dude with anger management issues so it is hard to sympathize with him when his life gets messed up. Gloria Grahame plays Laurel, his love interest. She starts off as this sassy woman who seems totally ahead of the time in which this was made. However, then she gets all wifey and old school and just starts taking care of Bogey. It’s a weird transition but I guess a common one – where a woman gives it all up for her man.

Like I said, he is messed up but I think that works for the film because you spend it questioning his guilt or innocence along with everyone else in the film. The ending is a little contrived but as a whole I enjoyed the movie and I was glad I watched it. Ah – a much simpler time!

Josh says:

The acting in this movie, from the two leads, Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame is fantastic.

The problem that I had with the movie was that the story was extremely choppy and difficult to navigate.

The last half hour, in particular becomes very convoluted as they (I guess the writer and the director are both guilty here) somewhat frantically attempt to contrive the ending that they're looking for.

Come to think of it, the entire story is pretty contrived, I mean, these two fall in love in like 24 hours after meeting at the police station where Bogey is being quesitoned for murder (what woman could resist an accused murderer). There's like one person in the world that thinks that Bogey could possibly be the killer, until one completely forced and unrealistic road rage scene (who knew they had road rage in the 50's?). Yet the movie essentially revolves around that accusation and they're undying love.

It still manages to say some interesting things about humanity and the fragile self and like I said, the acting is great, overall, if you're a huge Bogey fan it's worth watching for that but the more I think about it the story, while a good one to tell is very poorly executed from start to finish. I'd almost like to see a........'shudders'......remake.