Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is an on edge Hollywood writer with a hair trigger temper. He hires a hat check girl for a night to give him an outline on a book he finds worthless book. The task completed he tells her she can grab a cab around the corner and she leaves. The next mornign she's found dead and he becomes a prime suspect. Neighbor Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) vouches for him but he remains a suspect. A romance on shaky grounds then begins between the two but Laurel begins to have her doubts about Dixon and his erratic behavior.
Bogart's Dixon is a difficult protagonist to sympathize with. He flares up into rages nearly half a dozen times, blames everyone but himself for his anger and has difficulty with apologizing when he does. It is a dark and powerful performance from Bogart that has you on edge like the rest of the film's characters waiting for him to explode. He has his soft moments but his cynicism is always nearby, coldly displaying it during his interrogation with a touch of levity in light of the gruesome topic. Hardened by the war, sick of the Hollywood artifice? Dixon is a difficult character to figure out. Even if unresolved by pictures end, he's well worth following.
Ray's direction is economical and claustrophobic grouping his players close to the volatile Dixon, initiating tension before saying a word. The somewhat enigmatic Laurel is welled played by Grahame who portrays her uncertainty for the "bad boy" type with both fear and desire.
A subplot of ex an Army pal, (Frank Lovejoy) now a detective is much too convenient while a stereotypical supporting cast comes across both flat and over the top, far from where Bogart is with in A Lonely Place.
Bogart's Dixon is a difficult protagonist to sympathize with. He flares up into rages nearly half a dozen times, blames everyone but himself for his anger and has difficulty with apologizing when he does. It is a dark and powerful performance from Bogart that has you on edge like the rest of the film's characters waiting for him to explode. He has his soft moments but his cynicism is always nearby, coldly displaying it during his interrogation with a touch of levity in light of the gruesome topic. Hardened by the war, sick of the Hollywood artifice? Dixon is a difficult character to figure out. Even if unresolved by pictures end, he's well worth following.
Ray's direction is economical and claustrophobic grouping his players close to the volatile Dixon, initiating tension before saying a word. The somewhat enigmatic Laurel is welled played by Grahame who portrays her uncertainty for the "bad boy" type with both fear and desire.
A subplot of ex an Army pal, (Frank Lovejoy) now a detective is much too convenient while a stereotypical supporting cast comes across both flat and over the top, far from where Bogart is with in A Lonely Place.