In a Lonely Place

It requires a mere two albeit pithy paragraphs (from London's Observer) to second my notion that the film, IN A LONELY PLACE, is worth your viewing time. (For link, see sidebar, notable films.)

"Three Hollywood legends were involved in the production of In a Lonely Place, and yet it is the most underrated film any of them ever made. Its director, Nicholas Ray, is now best know for Rebel Without a Cause; Humphrey Bogart was already famous for his romantic pairings with Lauren Bacall; and Gloria Grahame remains an underrated actress altogether. The plot revolves around a screenwriter suspected of murder, and contains two flawlessly powerful scenes. In the first, Bogart meets Grahame for the first time, in the police station where he is being held. Grahame - a new neighbour of his - is interrogated about him in his presence, and what she says gets him out of jail. They sit side by side facing the police inspector; she never addresses Bogart directly. And because of this distance between them it is one of the sexiest pick-up scenes in the history of cinema.

"The second flawless moment comes right at the end. Bogart has been under investigation throughout the film. Meanwhile, their relationship reaches such a pitch of broken trust that by the time Grahame gets the call from the police to say he is innocent, it's too late. Whether or not he's a murderer has become irrelevant. What matters is that he has killed off what there was between them. So what began as a thriller turns out to be a love story of the least sentimental kind. Perhaps the greatest: harsh and sexy and warm and bitter and true."