Released: 1950

Dir.: Nicholas Ray

First time viewing reaction.

I received a DVD copy of In a Lonely Place the other day for my birthday and completes my collection of essential Humphrey Bogart films. It’s also a film that has eluded me for years, often overshadowed by Bogart’s many other great films. It’s also a film I’ve read very little about, so it came as a great surprise to me what I saw and felt.

Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a seemingly washed-up Hollywood screenwriter, who desperately needs to get back into the game. Dix is offered a chance to adapt a popular trash novel, that will hopefully put him back on top.  However, Dix has an anger management problem, that contributes to making it difficult for him to get hired. After having belted a guy for insulting a friend, Dix has a lot to prove, but one producer is willing to give him that chance. It may be Dix’s last chance.

Dix hasn’t read the novel, but hatcheck girl, Mildred Atkinson (Martha Stewart) has just finished it and with Dix having little intention of actually reading the book, Mildred offers to tell Dix the story. They go to Dix’s apartment, and after some awkward moments of what Dix’s intensions may be, Mildred tells Dix the plot of the novel, nothing inappropriate happens and she leaves.

The next morning, Dix is awoken by Dix’s cop friend Brub Nicolai (Frank Lovejoy), but it isn’t a social call. Mildred has been found dead, apparently tossed from a moving car, and Dix needs to come to the station for questioning. Dix’s behavior, while being questioned, is strange to say the least. He is glib, indifferent and uses dark humour that really doesn’t help matters. Fortunately, Dix has an alibi courtesy of his neighbor Laurel Grey (Gloria Grahame), who saw Dix in his apartment at the time of the murder. Dix thanks Laurel, and they fall in love.

In a Lonely Place is not really about the murder of Mildred. It’s about Dix and his psyche. It goes unspoken, but I believe Dix is suffering from shell shock, what we now know as PTSD.

We learn that before the war Dix was a top Hollywood screenwriter, then either enlisted or was drafted, and commanded a company of men, including his pal Brub. He was a fine leader, who was well liked by his company. We don’t know if he fought in Europe or the Pacific, but I would imagine he and his men saw some awful things. As far as his war experience, this is all we learn, and Dix doesn’t talk about it, which was quite common with WW2 veterans.

Returning home, Dix develops a drinking problem, drastic changes in his behavour manifest themselves, and his work suffers for it. The films he writes flop, and fewer and fewer producers are willing to hire him. The post-war years are not kind to him.

The behavior that is the focus of Dix’s problems is his going from a lighthearted, likable friend, who appears to not take the world too seriously, to flying into a violent rage. As someone who has experience with PTSD, this seemed very clear to me.

My experience with PTSD can in no way compare to that of someone who has experienced war. I was victim of a robbery, and suffered mild symptoms of PTSD, including paranoia, and becoming angry over very small things. Imagine violently sweeping everything off your desk because your internet isn’t loading fast enough. Extreme reaction to something that really isn’t important. Dix is more extreme, in a couple of cases perhaps anger is understandable, but violence is not at all called for. Some of his situations are even of his own making, putting himself and Laurel in danger then blaming and taking it out on someone else. This is common symptoms of undiagnosed and untreated PTSD.

I have no way of knowing if that was the intention of the filmmakers. What little I do know is that both director Nicholas Ray and Humphrey Bogart drew from their own experiences with alcoholism and terrible incidents from their personal lives to draw out the emotion and tone of the story. This is a terrific, and under-rated performance from Bogart, where he is strangely both a good guy and bad guy, but not in the way you would imagine.

In this film, I saw a brilliant representation of port-war trauma woven into the sub-text which makes for a very rich viewing experience, making In a Lonely Place a special film to me, for I have had a small taste of what that lonely place is like.

In a Lonely Place is available on DVD and Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection and is currently steaming on the Criterion Channel.