directed by Nicholas Ray
Laurel Gray (Grahame), an actress, falls for Dixon Steele (Bogart), her neighbor. The police question him after a woman he took home with him turns up dead. She winds up being his alibi. He has a history of having a violent temper and has been arrested before. Her feelings for him become conflicted when his behavior makes her afraid of him. Her fear makes him angry. In the end it turns out that he didn't kill the dead woman but his behavior and her fear of him makes it impossible for them to return to the way things were before.
I had a hard time enjoying this movie. I wasn't sure what it was about but I thought it was film noir. It is not. It is shot in B&W but it feels more like a psychological drama than it does a film noir.
Laurel's relationship with Dix comes together and ends so quickly that I had a hard time buying into it. It lacked the sort of nuance that I like to see in a movie.
One thing that I was drawn to was Gloria Grahame's eyes. She does some acting with her eyes on more than one occasion that caught my attention. I wasn't as moved by Bogart's performance. He just seemed out of control and liable to anger easily. There didn't seem to be much else to his performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment