In A Lonely Place (the Nicholas Ray-directed film not the Joy Division song)

You’re ganging up to deny her agency!

does she lie? I thought she, like we the viewers, did see the girl leave, but can't be sure of what happened after. Why was he still dressed etc. ?

without going back to watch i can't be certain but i'm sure she makes the alibi stronger than what she actually could have seen, because she already finds Dix interesting - which isn't denying her agency! it's more that she starts the relationship already knowing that, at least, he has a propensity for "trouble"

this film is really something. it's very clever in how it first positions Dix as a wrongly accused, misunderstood suspect in a vicious murder, and puts us reflexively on his side, but then in a parallel fashion as he fights to clear his name, it shows what kind of monster he is.

He's a very violent, abusive, cruel man. His life is a tragedy, for somewhere in there is a good man who is completely destroyed by his anger and vicious streak. And it's only due to pure luck (a cry of protest, a timely phone call) that he winds up not being a killer. Narratively that initial set up (and then pulling the rug out from under the audience) is terrific.

Rewatched this for the first time in years, again in connection to James Harvey's Movie Love in the Fifties.

Morbidly fascinating for sure, although I wouldn't quite put it in my first rank of '50s American films (On the Waterfront, Sweet Smell of Success, Paths of Glory). Dix is another one for that Ethan Edwards/Scottie/Dave Bannion borderline psycho list.

Harvey doesn't mention something I just assumed: that Laurel was planning to run off with Martha the masseuse at the end. There are clear intimations of this, I think.

Not sure if this comes up in the thread, but according to Harvey, Ray's original script (all but four pages of which were altered) had the film end with Dix murdering Laurel, then having his friend arrive at the apartment to clear him of the other murder.

"Dix Steele"--that's like one Hays Code warning away from Johnny Wadd.

this is one of the best movies ever made imho

this is certainly Graham's best and that's saying something!

My fave Bogie performance (even if it isn't the most Bogie performance).

This is a good movie.

this is one of the best movies ever made imho
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Monday, May 25, 2020 12:32 PM (yesterday0

This.