In A Lonely Place: Bogart’s Best Performance

A post that made me happy to read. Good screenshots, snippets of dialogue … It’s a favorite of mine- not as well-known as i think it should be. I think it’s Bogart’s finest acting. Seriously – even with all the great roles – this one is the most pained and explosive … He’s fanTASTIc.

I wrote about In a Lonely Place here in one of my many unfinished blog-series: Under-rated Movies.

Other under-rated movies in my wee series:

Four Daughters

Searching For Bobby Fischer

Joe vs. the Volcano

Something’s Gotta Give

Truly, Madly, Deeply

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13 Responses to In A Lonely Place: Bogart’s Best Performance

  1. ted says:

    I don’t know that I’ve ever seen In a Lonely Place. But I think Truly, Madly, Deeply has got to be one of my all time favorites.

  2. Brendan says:

    Something’s Gotta Give is one of those movies that carries all of its weight in the story. None of the filmmaking calls attention to itself but what happens is unforgettable.

    Nicholson breaking into tears after they make love??? Holy mackerel.

    Also, I was all geared up to disbelieve the whole Keaton/Reeves coupling and found that I couldn’t. And that I was actually a bit sad that it worked out the way it did!

    Anyhoo, fantastic. Can’t think about it too much or I’ll cry at work. Oo say drak.

  3. red says:

    Ted – you’re the one who made me see Truly, Madly, Deeply! What a movie!!

    And you have to see In a Lonely Place, too – such a smart dark movie about Hollywood. It rivals The Player in its cynicism. Greatest Bogart role ever

  4. red says:

    Bren – ha! I hate it when I cry at work!!

    Yes – it’s just a movie that works, quietly, on every level it needs to work. Amanda Peet is wonderful – the director said she cast her because in the audition Peet teared up, as she told her that the script reminded her of her own relationship with her mother. And the director said that most starlets she had seen “seem like they don’t have mothers” – which, damn, is such a true statement.

    Nicholson has never been better – and Keaton’s 5 day long crying jag is worth the price of admission.

  5. red says:

    Oh, and I’m not a big Keanu Reeves fan (except for Parenthood) but I thought he was wonderful in this – and I totally bought that that serious young doctor would set his sights on someone of Keaton’s caliber, regardless of her age. It totally made sense, I thought.

  6. Joe Valdez says:

    I would like to put in a request for more articles about under-rated movies, Sheila. You made a number of really sharp calls here. You also made me add Truly Madly Deeply to my rental queue, sight unseen. This is the mark of a really good critic.

  7. Jay says:

    Searching for Bobby Fischer. I love that movie. It brings to mind the question of why I don’t have it in my DVD collection.
    Another similar movie from about the same time that I like quite a bit is Little Man Tate. I guess I just like movies about nice kids who are really sharp at something. Well, that and super intense, aggressive and realistic war movies. Now if only someone would make a movie about a modest but super smart kid who is an expert at CQB and takes out hordes of terrorists in the labyrinth of a middle eastern neighborhood.

  8. red says:

    Jay – I think you need to write the screenplay of that movie you described. (In all your free time you have over there!!)

  9. red says:

    Joe- hey, thanks for the vote of confidence! I have about 10 more movies in the backlog of the series – and yes, I do need to get back to the series – I will!!

    Truly, Madly, Deeply is a small gem – I hope you enjoy it.

  10. Tom says:

    Sheila, are you aware that the Library of Congress has named IN A LONELY PLACE as among 25 films to be preserved in 2007 for the National Film Registry?

    http://www.loc.gov/film/nfr2007.html

  11. red says:

    Yes! I couldn’t be more pleased. It’s a personal favorite of mine.

  12. Ruby says:

    Sheila, reading your words on the deeply noir, hauntingly romantic film IN A LONELY PLACE always make me smile; I also consider it Bogart’s greatest performance and I’ll even go as far as say that his Oscar win for THE AFRICAN QUEEN was a consolidation for not being nominated here. And the signature lines “I was born when she kissed me…” are even more romantic and carry far more emotional weight than any terrific one-liner from CASABLANCA (my favorite film of all time).

    I have one question: what essay by Bogdanovich did you refer to (the one that consistently mentions IN A LONELY PLACE) in your underrated movies essay, and where can I find it? It’s always nice to read a rave review and/or analysis to my 3rd favorite movie of all time (behind CASABLANCA and VERTIGO).

  13. red says:

    Ruby – Bogonavich has a huge chapter on Bogart in his great book Who The Hell’s In It – or is it called Who The Devil Is In It … something like that. And he covers In a Lonely Place there.

    And I have a documentary on Bogart – narrated by lauren bacall – and a bunch of people talk about him and his career – and Bogdonavich is one of the talking-heads, and he brings up In a Lonely Place repeatedly.

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