Runtime: 94 minutes
Directed by: Nicholas Ray
Starring: Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame, Frank Lovejoy, Carl Benton Reid, Jeff Donnell
From: Columbia
This movie has a tremendous line of dialogue, but you can find that in many other reviews & the movie has acres of great dialogue. Believe it or not, despite loving some of Bogie’s films and the same for some of Nicholas Ray in the director’s chair, it wasn’t until last night that I finally checked out this famed noir from Bogart’s production company, from when TCM played it during their day devoted to the lead. In hindsight, I was a blind, knuckle-headed squirrel for not viewing this MUCH sooner.
Bogie plays a sardonic Hollywood screenwriter w/ the amazing name DIXON STEELE who is accused of murder as the dame he asks to tell him about a trashy book--she ends up dead after leaving his place. Thankfully for him, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) is his neighbor and gives him an alibi. Of course they fall in love, but… right away the viewer discovers that Steele is an incredibly dark character who has a hair-trigger temper and is his own worst enemy. The hook is that along w/ Gray, the viewer does not know if Dixon is the killer or not; despite having a police officer friend with the even funnier name of BRUB NICOLAI, evidence is in abundance which could make the viewer think he could be guilty.
What a hell of a film this is. Between the plot, the stellar lead performances, the supporting characters, the lighting and other tricks used to make Bogart quite menacing in certain scenes, the mystery, the climax… this is all-time great, and not just as a film noir, but as a film in general. It’s even a cynical look at Hollywood. Speaking of cynical, I was a little bummed reading the film’s Wiki page and discovered that not only was this character allegedly uncomfortably close to Bogie in real life, it was not hard to understand why Grahame soon ended her marriage to Ray; apparently he was abusive & controlling. It’s depressing thinking of those talents in a non-idolized manner…
In any case, don’t let those details dissuade you from checking out the movie, especially if you love the genre, the director, and/or its leads.
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