Search - In a Lonely Place on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children Movie Release: 1950 DVD Release: 03/18/2003 Format: DVD - Black and White - Closed Captioned Edition: Restored/Remastered Audio Tracks: English, French Subtitles: English, French, Japanese, Korean, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 33 mins Studio: Columbia TriStar Members Wishing: 16 Genres: Drama, Romantic Drama, Psychological Drama, Film Noir, Crime Drama, Showbiz Drama

A haunting work of stark confessionalism disguised as a taut noir thriller, In a Lonely Place -- Nicholas Ray's bleak, desperate tale of fear and self-loathing in Hollywood -- remains one of the filmmaker's greatest and most deeply resonant features. It stars Humphrey Bogart as Dixon Steele, a fading screenwriter suffering from creative burnout; hired to adapt a best-selling novel, instead of reading the book itself he asks the hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) at his favorite nightclub to simply tell him the plot. The morning after, the girl is found brutally murdered, and Steele is the police's prime suspect; however, the would-be starlet across the way, Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame), provides him with a solid alibi, and they soon begin a romance in spite of Gray's lingering concerns that the troubled, violent Steele might just be a killer after all. During production, Ray's real-life marriage to co-star Grahame began to crumble, and his own vulnerability and disillusionment clearly inform the picture; the brooding, bitter Steele -- a role ideally suited to Bogart's wounded romanticism -- is plainly a doppelganger for Ray himself (the site of his first Hollywood apartment is even employed as the set for Steele's home), and the film's unflinching examination of the character's disintegration makes for uniquely compelling viewing. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Humphrey Bogart - Dixon Steele
Gloria Grahame - Laurel Gray
Frank Lovejoy - Brub Nicolai
Carl Benton Reid - Capt. Lochner
Robert Warwick - Charlie Waterman
Jeff Donnell - Sylvia Nicolai
Art Smith - Mel Lippman
Martha Stewart - Mildred Atkinson

Columbia-TriStar's DVD of Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, starring Humphrey Bogart, is a double treat -- the movie looks, for want of a more appropriate word concerning so dark and troubling a film as this, gorgeous. The image is clean and sharp, the image detail and depth is downright enticing, and the clarity is an absolute wonder, without a blemish to be seen or heard; even the pitch on the audio has been adjusted for minuscule variations caused by edits. It's all a far cry from the dark and worn, less-than-perfect prints that were seen in the film's relatively rare TV showings, which should also be a source of serious embarrassment to Warner Home Video -- none of its three Bogart DVD titles in release (as of spring 2003), including Casablanca, was remotely as well produced or as loaded up with extras as In a Lonely Place. That, in itself, should attract people to this title, which was one of Bogart's most challenging films, a difficult dramatic piece in which the star looks troubled and, at times, downright ugly. Included on the disc is a 20-minute featurette devoted to the film and its origins; it is one of the best analytical studies of its kind, and worth the price of the DVD alone. Someone at Columbia obviously respects this movie, and director and fan Curtis Hanson does a superb job of walking us through the film. The accompanying account of the movie's restoration by studio executive Grover Crisp also reveals the level of work needed to get the movie to look and sound up to 21st century standards. The film, itself, is divided into 28 chapters and the menu is triple-layered, although very easy to navigate. In addition to a French audio track and English captions, subtitles in Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Japanese are offered. Finally, the same five-minute Bogart Collection montage that appears on The Harder They Fall is also included here. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide