Saturday, 21 April 2012

In a Sweet and Lowdown Place



In a Lonely Place
In a Lonely Place (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)
After some hill climbing on the Downs in the morning I was ready to put my feet up in the evening and
grateful, as usual, when film night arrived as a package in the form of Arthur, some DVDs and tapes, bottles of beer and a large Melton Mowbray pie.

WARNING POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD

The first part of this week's double bill was a film neither of us had seen before: In a Lonely Place. This starred a luminous Gloria Grahame and the wonderful Humphrey Bogart who has been absent from my screen for too long.

I can't describe this Nicholas Ray film as the "B" film because it clearly was of much higher calibre than that: A complex psychological piece with all parties acting their socks off and no "cop-out" in the ending. I was very impressed and amazed that I had not been aware of it.






Bogart's character in this is not a sympathetic one, though one does feel his pain at times.

We want to find out what has made him the complicated, tormented and angry man that he is and his is such an edgy, powerful performance that it is easy to understand what makes Grahame, at once drawn to, and extremely afraid of him.


Description: Low-resolution reproduction of sc...
Description: Low-resolution reproduction of screenshot from trailer for the movie In a Lonely Place (1950), featuring stars Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Bogart is an uncompromising screen writer, by the rather risqué-novel-esque name of "Dixon Steele" who, despite pre-war success has only had a disastrous flop to his name since returning from war service where he was the C.O. of one of the investigating officers. He still has friends (one long-suffering one his agent) ready to go to any lengths for him and we see a compassionate and loyal side to his nature through them, we also see bursts of passion and blind rage that are clearly beyond his control.

At the beginning, a "hatcheck" girl is murdered after being at his apartment for an odd but innocent reason. Bogart is the prime suspect and Grahame provides an alibi of sorts. Did he do it though? Even his friends have their doubts, though in at least one case would still support him even if it was true. These include Robert Warwick one of Bogart's revered mentors and a former silent star and matinee idol, who plays a burned out "thespian" lush who Dix still respects and supports with touching loyalty. Grahame meanwhile provides the muse that unlocks his talent and he works furiously on a great new script at the same time as her fears grow. It is made clear that he is capable of such uncontrollable anger that killing is not beyond him.


This is a superb film of its type and fearlessly uncompromising in a way that is uncommon today. I rate it high up among the best thrillers of the era and am very glad to have had the chance to see it.

We also watched one of the extras on the DVD which had, Curtis Hanson, director of one of our recent watches, Wonder Boys, talking admiringly of the production, outside Ray's old home, the inspiration for the main set. One interesting insight was into the parallel between the actual film and the fictional one that Bogart's character was scripting. Dixon Steele is tasked with adapting what sounds like a terrible book and in fact simply uses it as a springboard to something else and the actual film does the same with a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, although she was apparently happy with the result.

I don't want to give any more away as, if you like films of this type and era, you will be well rewarded by watching it, but I would like to quote a couple of lines from the fictional screenplay, which are also quoted at key points in the film: "I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me"

Screenshot from trailer for the movie In a Lon...
Screenshot from trailer for the movie In a Lonely Place (1950), featuring stars Gloria Grahame and Humphrey Bogart. Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


Grahame was Ray's own wife at the time although they separated during the shooting, others considered for the part were Bogart's wife Lauren Bacall and Ginger Rogers. Grahame certainly made the part her own.

Alternative endings were shot, though the film was always very different from he book where "Dixon Steele" was a serial killer and rapist. Dix is a volatile and troubled character and his violent nature leaves the director room to decide what he has or has not done. Rather disturbingly, Louise Brooks has written that of all his roles Dixon Steele was the closest to the real-life Bogart she knew.

Anyway a great start to the evening and "You can't whack a Bogy" as Arthur, rather ambiguously, declared afterwards, in a statement which may puzzle any wheeltappers amongst you.


Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet and Lowdown (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)


The second feature, accompanying by the pie and beer, was another in our series of Woody Allen films. This was one we saw together in the cinema at the end of the 90s and afterwards declared a little masterpiece.

It seemed to have been unfairly neglected in our eyes and when we watched it again we were not disappointed or moved to change our opinion. This is "Sweet and Lowdown" a mock documentary about a fictional jazz guitar player of considerable talent but dangerously large ego, obnoxious and arrogant, he is well aware of his talent and has an opinion of his place in the world inconsistent with his personality and actual achievements. He acknowledges only one better guitarist: Django Reinhardt who he idolises to the extent that he allegedly faints on each of the few occasions their paths cross.

It is a bittersweet tale of might-have-beens and self-delusion.




Emmet Ray the great musician is played by Sean Penn in an uncharacteristic but beautifully acted comic role which is among his very best performances in my opinion. Allen himself and a number of others pop up as talking heads offering their opinion on the life and work of the guitarist, while the love of his life (though he doesn't really acknowledge it) is Hatty, a mute, beautifully played by Samantha Morton, whose sweet expressive face is one of the haunting things I carried away from the film the first time. I truly think that this is one of Woody's gems and deserves a place in the top ten of this prolific director's films. It is whimsical and funny but also very sad and unsurprisingly has some great music, particularly if you like the work of the "French gypsy" worshipped by Emmet.

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