“Anger Management Issues”

By Raymond Benson

A character makes an excuse for the bad behavior of Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter played by Humphrey Bogart, by saying, “He’s a writer—people like him can afford to be temperamental.”

Released in the same year as Billy Wilder’s acerbic film noir attack on Tinsel Town, Sunset Boulevard, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s similar assault on show business, All About Eve, Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place was nowhere near as popular—but it was just as scathing. It may not have been a box office success, but the picture’s reputation has grown considerably over the decades, mainly because Bogart’s performance as a bitter, angry movie scribe ranks among his best onscreen personas. But it’s not pretty. The guy has anger management issues, the likes of which probably had not been seen in a mainstream film prior to the picture’s release.