Nicholas Ray was adept at putting together fascinating character studies with a social basis. His most famous is of course Rebel Without a Cause, but his real achievements are the smaller movies with bold themes - Bigger than Life, The Lusty Men, They Live by Night, On Dangerous Ground, Bitter Victory. Even awkard pictures like Wind Across the Everglades tend toward the unique, interesting end of filmmaking. A dull Nick Ray film is a rarity.

Dixon Steele is one of Bogart's most complicated characters. He's a decent man with an artistic temperament and a contrary habit of supressing his feelings beneath a sometimes-unstable surface. He's unpatronizingly cordial to the slightly dense hat-check girl, whose fate seems as unjust as that of the then-sizzling Black Dahlia murder case. Dix likes to behave as though the police investigation doesn't affect him, and enjoys riling the cops with his lack of emotion and 'I'm more sophisticated than you are' put-downs. But the murder definitely does disturb the secret man inside, the one Dix himself does not know. Without his being aware, the crisis brings out his frustrated, violent nature.

Steele is far from perfect, and needs a nurturing, creative existence to counter his essential isolation and proclivity for violence. He doesn't like the world much, as he shows by his willingness to brawl when provoked. His motto might be, 'I'm a Stranger Here Myself', Nicholas Ray's recurring personal motto.

Dix is also a romantic who appreciates Laurel and openly declares his love for her in no uncertain terms. He's crazy about her, and there's a period where they seem to be a match made in heaven. But the investigation he pretends to slough off affects him in other ways, bringing out resentment and paranoia. Theirs could have been a timeless love, but for bad timing and impossible pressures.

What we get for a twist at the conclusion, is a revelation. Relationships are delicate animals - they can be killed by the wrong words, the wrong actions. Dix and Laurel are madly in love with one another, but the trust that demand is destroyed when her terror and his rage go over the edge. It doesn't matter that he's innocent, or that they are both in intense remorse over what happened. It can't be taken back, and the romance is finished. Both will have to go back to their personal 'lonely places.'

Ray doesn't overwhelm the picture with expressionistic touches. Burnett Guffey provides the hint of a Detour -like eyelight when Bogart goes into his excited description of the murder (which occurred, the scene's dialogue goes, in 'a lonely place'). There's a killer off-kilter composition in one shot showing Bogie and Gloria looking over their shoulders while seated at a bar, that Fritz Lang seems to have borrowed for Gloria and Lee Marvin in The Big Heat. Most of the film plays out in the romantic courtyard of some faux-Spanish apartments copied from Ray's first Hollywood residence on Harper Avenue. There's enough location shooting to evoke the hazy dawns in Beverly Hills, with the characteristic police station a recurring location. In a Lonely Place has a nice Hollywood ambience, with Dix's regular pals (a buffoonish silent actor, a director (Morris Ankrum) and Dix's agent (Art Smith)) hanging out at Steven Geray's watering hole. It's the kind of place that Dix busts up from time to time, when he goes over the edge.

Perhaps the most sensitive scene in the picture is Dix's moment in the men's room with his agent Mel, after striking him. The ever-submissive Mel has reached the limit of his patience, and as part of his apology, Dix stands guiltily before him, exuding atonement and respect. It's very touching and more delicate than a similar scenes in The Big Knife.

Columbia's DVD of In a Lonely Place does justice to this very special noir. The film restoration is commemorated in a short subject with Columbia restoration VP Grover Crisp, showing the repair of frames that have been torn in the film for decades. The overall polish job is a fine one, with the breathless fadeout hitting just the right note of surprise- without the usual reel-end damage to give it away. The sound has also been given a wonderful scrubbing, as demonstrated on the featurette, making songstress Hadda Brooks' vocal at the piano bar something for Bogie and Gloria to cuddle over.

Another short subject uses director Curtis Hanson to tell the story of Ray's film from the actual Harper Avenue courtyard that inspired the film set. It's a bit long on clips from the film, and a deadly spoiler for anyone unfamiliar with the picture, but it gets the job done. Writer Andrew Solt makes an appearance as well. Not bad for a docu on a picture without a surviving star or director. The doc doesn't dwell on the fiery relationship between Ray and his once-wife Grahame; you'll have to run to the library for the lowdown on that. Grahame later married Ray's son, resulting in some very strange familial relationships ... 'Hey, I'm my own uncle.'

The disc cover art is so handsome, I'm setting it atop my monitor until something better comes along.

On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, In a Lonely Place rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements: New featurette, restoration demo, trailers
Packaging: Keep case
Reviewed: March 22, 2003