In a Lonely Place

‘I was going to take you home. My home’ – says screenwriter Dix Steele (Humphrey Bogart) to his assistant at the beginning of In a Lonely Place. Contrary to appearances, Nicholas Ray’s film is much more than just one of many cinematic collections of cheeky bon mots and brilliant retorts, disguised as film noir. Bogart, who plays the part of a failed artist accused of murder, challenges his own myth with surprising insight. Seemingly smug, but actually very insecure, Steele proves that protagonists we like to perceive as eloquent and tough are often slaves to patterns of toxic masculinity. The director keeps pace with Bogart’s skill. Throughout the film, Ray creates a dense atmosphere full of understatements that brings to mind the recent Anatomy of a Fall, and over twenty years ago became the inspiration for Curtis Hanson when he worked on LA Confidential. 

Piotr Czerkawski

Nicholas Ray (1911–1979) was one of the outstanding creators of post-war American cinema. His films often portrayed young, forlorn outsiders fighting for survival in an unforgiving world. His best-known film is the cult classic Rebel Without a Cause (1955), which endowed James Dean with legendary status. He deconstructed American myths and reinterpreted classic genres, such as the western in Johnny Guitar (1954). Late in his career, he directed many spectacular Hollywood productions, including King of Kings (1961).