In a Lonely Place (1950)
Trivia
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Spoilers (3)
In her essay "Humphrey and Bogey", Louise Brooks wrote that more than any other role that Humphrey Bogart played, it was the role of Dixon Steele in this movie that came closest to the real Bogart she knew.
Producer Robert Lord was worried about having Nicholas Ray and Gloria Grahame, then husband and wife whose marriage was on the rocks, working together. He made Grahame sign a contract stipulating that "my husband shall be entitled to direct, control, advise, instruct, and even command my actions during the hours from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., every day except Sunday. I acknowledge that in every conceivable situations his will and judgment shall be considered superior to mine, and shall prevail." Grahame was also forbidden to "nag, cajole, tease, or in any other feminine fashion seek to distract or influence him."
The pianist and singer in the film is Hadda Brooks. While she originally came to prominence with boogie woogie, she was best known for ballads and, unusual for singers of her day, she wrote many of her own songs. She continued to perform into the 1990s.
Gloria Grahame and husband and Director Nicholas Ray quietly separated during filming, keeping it a secret for fear that one of them would be replaced. Ray slept on the studio set, saying that he needed to work late on preparation for the remainder of the film. It worked, and nobody suspected that their marriage was on the rocks.
Gloria Grahame, at the time, was estranged from her husband, Director Nicholas Ray. She would subsequently go on to marry her stepson, Ray's son from a previous marriage.
The apartment complex in which Dixon (Humphrey Bogart) and Laurel (Gloria Grahame) live in was a replica of Nicholas Ray's own residence when he first moved to Hollywood.
Lauren Bacall and Ginger Rogers were considered for the role of Laurel Gray. Bogart naturally wanted his wife to play opposite him, but Warner Brothers refused to release her from her contract. Rogers was reportedly the producers' first choice, but Nicholas Ray convinced them that his own wife, Gloria Grahame, would be the right choice for the role.
The "Horse's Neck" drink referred to by Mildred in Dixon's apartment is the non-alcoholic version. The version with Brandy or Bourbon was referred to as a "Horse's Neck with a Kick" or a "Stiff Horse's Neck".
Robert Warwick and Humphrey Bogart worked together in 1922 in the stage play "Drifting." Producer and star Bogart never forgot the kindness Warwick showed to him as a young actor, and made Andrew Solt write a role for Warwick, who was then struggling.
There is a moment in the trailer for the film that doesn't appear in the final cut. As Laurel is talking to the detective at the end of the film, Dix starts to leave. In the "lost moment", Laurel calls out Dix's name and they have one last embrace on the steps before he descends.
When Edmund H. North adapted the story, he stuck close to the original source, and John Derek was considered for the role of Dix, because in the novel, he was much younger. North's treatment was not used, and Andrew Solt developed the screenplay with regular input from Producer Robert Lord and Director Nicholas Ray. The end result is quite different from the source novel. Solt claimed that Humphrey Bogart loved the script so much, that he wanted to make it without revisions. Solt maintains that the final cut is very close to his script, but further research shows that Ray made regular re-writes, some added on the day of shooting. In fact, only four pages of the one hundred forty page script had no revisions.
The 1986 song 'In a Lonely Place' by American rock group Smithereens is inspired by the film. The lyrics contain lines from the movie dialog.
Henry Kesler is the name of the Associate Producer of the film, as well as Mildred's boyfriend in the movie.
The thespian Charlie Waterman (Robert Warwick) is quoting from Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 when he comes over to Dixon Steele's (Humphrey Bogart's) apartment.
Long time character actor Davis Roberts plays the flower shop employee (Uncredited) who takes the order for 2 dozen roses.
Although Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame were twenty-four years apart in age, they both died at the age of fifty-seven.
The inside joke is that Dix's screenplay does not follow the plot of the novel. Nicolas Ray's movie also does not follow the plot of Dorothy B. Hughes' novel, "In A Lonely Place."
David Bond, as the doctor, has the first part of his one line dubbed by another actor, with a non-American accent, while the remainder of his line is in Bond's own very American voice.
There is a thematic line in the movie when Steele at around the 1:02 mark says "I was born when she kissed me. I died the day she left me, but I lived while she loved me" which inspired the hit song in 2000 by Country band Rascal Flatts "While You Loved Me". Laurel then repeats the last part of the phrase as the final line in the movie.
The film is included on Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" list.
In the opening sequence, after the other driver pulls away Steele decides to make a left turn and holds his left arm straight out to signal his turn. Although electronic turn signals in some form were available for cars since the early 1900s, they were still optional equipment in the U.S. at the time this film was made. The use of hand signals was more commonplace. More consumers began buying optional electronic turn signals for their cars in the early 1950s, but it would be almost ten years before electronic turn signals would be standard equipment on American cars.
While preparing a grapefruit for Laurel, Dix straightens out the curve in her grapefruit knife, not knowing that it's supposed to be curved. This is quite understandable. Conklin Products Corporation filed a patent application for a grapefruit knife in 1947, just three years before the film takes place. The patent was granted in 1953.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
This is the fourth of the seven films by Bogart's production company, Santana Pictures, and the second Santana film directed by Nicholas Ray. The first was Knock on Any Door (1949).
In 1979, Orion Pictures announced a remake of " In a Lonely Place " with Lindsay Anderson, but it failed to materialise.
This is the second film where Humphrey Bogart plays opposite a character named Effie. Ruth Warren plays the uncredited maid named Effie in this film. Lee Patrick plays Effie Perrine in "The Maltese Falcon" (1942).
According to the January 3, 1951 issue of Variety, the film was 85th in gross box office for 1950, at $1,375,000 (the equivalent of $16.9 million in 2022).
The group Goldfrapp wrote a song based on the character Laurel Gray from the film/book. It is on their album Tales of Us and is entitled Laurel. The song evokes Laurel's appearance, Dix's cold character and the fog that subsumed the action of the story. "Looking for light A golden light With your red red hair Your almond eyes Strange how he's cold Behind the smile An angry mind Don't wait for tonight Fear is a fog Rolling in and around"
The masseuse, Martha, occasionally calls Laurel "Angel". Gloria Grahame was in "The Greatest Show on Earth" two years later, and her character was named Angel in that film.
Michael Romanoff (real name Harry F. Gerguson, born Hershel Geguzin in Lithuania) made a career out of passing himself off as Russian "Prince Michael Romanoff". That was widely regarded as untrue, but accepted humorously. He was also owner of the popular Hollywood restaurant "Romanoff's", from 1941 to its close in 1962. It was the originator of Noodles Romanoff (egg noodles, sour cream, and Parmesan cheese).
Spoilers
Though the title and characters are based on Dorothy B. Hughes' novel, the biggest difference between the book and the movie is that in the movie, Dixon Steele, though violent, is only accused of being a murderer, while in the book, he is a serial killer and rapist. Director Nicholas Ray claimed that he made the change because he was "more interested in doing a film about the violence in all of us, rather than a mass murder film, or one about a psychotic." Hughes was never bothered by the changes from her novel, and praised Gloria Grahame's performance.
In the original ending and the final shooting script, Dix actually did kill Laurel in the heat of their argument. Martha comes and discovers the body as Dix silently types his script. Later, when his detective friend comes to arrest him, Dix says that he's almost done with his script. There is a close-up of the last page of the script, echoing the words Dix said in the car to Laurel: "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I live a few weeks while she loved me." It is said that this scene was filmed, but before it could be shown to a test audience, Director Nicholas Ray shot a new ending because he wasn't pleased with the scripted ending. He didn't want to think that violence was the only way out of this situation. He cleared the set, including Lauren Bacall, who was visiting her husband on-set at the time, except for Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, and Art Smith, who ended up not being used in the final scene filmed, plus the camera and sound men. They improvised the ending that is seen in the final cut.
