Starring two of my favorite actors, Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, In a Lonely Place is a story about Dix Steele, a screenwriter with a bad attitude and a volcanic temper. Turns out Dix is a World War II veteran which seems to be the root of his rage and cynicism. I’m reminded of the Alan Ladd character in The Blue Dahlia, another story of a disillusioned war veteran.
Back to Dix. He gets picked up for questioning about a young woman’s murder. She’s the hat check girl Dix hired the night before to tell him about the novel she’s just read and that he needs to write a screenplay for. The audience knows that although Dix is not the most chivalrous dude in the world, he didn’t hurt her. Dix becomes a suspect because of his smart ass attitude and his lack of sympathy for the girl’s death. He’s saved from being jailed by his neighbor who witnessed him sending the girl home.
The neighbor is Gloria Grahame as Laurel Gray. Dix and Laurel quickly fall in love. He tells Laurel, there she is, the one that’s different. She’s not coy or cute or corny, she’s a good guy. I’m glad she’s on my side. She speaks her mind, she knows what she wants.
I love that he calls the romantic lead a “good guy.” Again, it reminds me of The Blue Dahlia where Veronica Lake plays the good guy role. Lauren Bacall in Dark Passage and Jean Hagen in The Asphalt Jungle also play the good guys.
In most film noir, the wife and mother is as important to the story as wallpaper. The damsel in distress is often treated with a large dose of cynicism and the career woman often doubles as seductress. In film noir the seductress is despised. Either the protagonist doesn’t realize he’s being played and the audience despises her, (think Out of the Past, The Asphalt Jungle, Double Indemnity, On Dangerous Ground.) Or the protagonist is on to her and she disgusts him (think The Maltese Falcon, Murder My Sweet.)
The woman-as-good-guy is not like most romantic roles. Her primary task is not lover, mother or domestic but pal and help-mate. In each of these stories the woman’s goal is believing in and helping the protagonist stay out of jail. Gloria Grahame’s role In a Lonely Place is sexier and more traditionally feminine than the other films I’ve listed. Another way her role is different from the other stories is that her belief in Dix is conditional. Her trust is undermined by the police, by Dix’s friends and by witnessing his rage first hand.
The story turns on whether the lovers can survive as a couple long enough for the murder to be solved. If you’re expecting a happy ending, you don’t know your noir.