Every now and then I watch a movie and then immediately want to watch it all over again. It’s hard to predict when it’ll happen. Last year it definitely happened with Laura. I think I watched it about four times. On Friday night I rented In A Lonely Place and then tonight I just had to see it again. I’d only seen it once before; while I was living in L.A. it was shown on a double bill with Knock on Any Door at this cool little theater in West Hollywood called The Beverly. It’s been very hard to see for a long time and only recently came out on DVD.

Anyhow, this movie is absolutely haunting. There’s something about Bogart and Gloria Grahame that’s deeply mysterious. It reminds me a lot of On Dangerous Ground. The way Nicholas Ray uses shadowing, foregrounding and perspective creates very subtle effects that colors the story but never allows your focus to wander from the people onscreen. What’s between the lines stuns you because you can’t get your fingers around it.

In A Lonely Place [1950]
1. Bogart makes a Bloody Mary. Into the glass goes a few shakes of salt and a few shakes of pepper. No celery.
2. He picks up the rock, ready to smash in the man’s head. A layer of dirt falls off the rock as he picks it up.
3. “Yesterday this would have meant so much to us. Now it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all.”