Directed by Nicholas Ray • 1950 • United States
Starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame
When a gifted but washed-up screenwriter with a hair-trigger temper—Humphrey Bogart, in a revelatory, vulnerable performance—becomes the prime suspect in a brutal Tinseltown murder, the only person who can supply an alibi for him is a seductive neighbor (Gloria Grahame) with her own troubled past. The emotionally charged IN A LONELY PLACE, freely adapted from a Dorothy B. Hughes thriller, is a brilliant, turbulent mix of suspenseful noir and devastating melodrama, fueled by powerhouse performances. An uncompromising tale of two people desperate to love yet struggling with their demons and each other, this is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, and a benchmark in the career of the classic Hollywood auteur Nicholas Ray.
Up Next in Megan Abbott’s Adventures in Moviegoing
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Megan Abbott on THE NAKED KISS
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The Naked Kiss
Directed by Samuel Fuller • 1964 • United States
Starring Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley, Michael DanteThe setup is pure pulp: A former prostitute (a crackerjack Constance Towers) relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But in the strange, hallucinat...
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Megan Abbott on PERSONA