In a Lonely Place
1950
Bogie plays Dixon Steele. With a name like that, I figured there HAD to be gun play. Not. He's just a violent domestic abuser from back in the day when you can certainly punch a fella, and often get away with punching a dame. No guns tho. There is a murder, but that was by strangulation.
Not even the cops have guns.
Well, dang.
Acceptable levels of public interpersonal violence have changed in 65 years. At least in Hollywood, but I think in society as a whole as well. Sock someone now and you much more likely to be tattled on if you don't make yourself scarce. Provided no one knows who you are.
Bogart is a relatively famous screen writer in this movie, but it's be a while since his last hit picture. So he's wrestling with that, looking for love instead of mere lust (which he seems accustomed to satisfying at will) and you get a lot of stress on a volcanic character. Stress leads to outbursts. But apart from the outburst Bogie plays what could have been a awful person as a very sympathetic protagonist. They guy had acting chops, fo' sho.
Oh, and Violet, the harlot from It's a Wonderful Life, is his love interest in this movie.
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