When people talk about the quintessential film noirs, In a Lonely Place isn’t a movie that I’ve
ever heard mentioned before. But that’s a shame, because it stands comfortably
next to all the classics. Not only is it anchored by a classic Humphrey Bogart
performance, but it also is a film full of clever dialogue, memorable characters,
and a deep, disturbing moral ambiguity that feels as if it should have been too
controversial for 1950. But, apparently it wasn’t. Bogart stars as Dixon
Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter who has been accused of murder and must find a
way to prove his innocence. But is he really innocent? And does he even care to
come off as such? Steele seems like a nice enough guy, but he is prone to fits
of murderous rage, and he does know quite a bit about killing people (something
he attributes to his screenwriting expertise). In a Lonely Place slowly unfolds, revealing layers like an onion,
and it ultimately leaves you in a place where you don’t know who to root for,
even though the murder mystery at its center seems to get wrapped up in a neat
little package. Maybe we are all monsters. Or maybe it just takes a slight bit
of misinformation to make us seem that way. In this film perception seems to be
reality, or at least it has a manipulative affect over it. Also, I should
mention that actress Martha Stewart plays the victim of the film, and while she
only really gets one scene to shine, she charmed the pants off of me.
Literally, I’m sitting here in my underwear as I write this. I’ve never heard
of Stewart before, but I’ll be looking for more stuff that she’s in now. And
she seems to have been in at least a couple of beach party pictures. Score one me.
