 |
 First edition | |
| Author | Dorothy B. Hughes |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Genre | Mystery |
| Publisher | Duell, Sloan and Pearce |
Publication date | 1947 |
In a Lonely Place is a 1947 novel by mystery writer Dorothy B. Hughes. Nicholas Ray directed a classic film noir under the same title, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame, in 1950.
In post World War II Los Angeles, Dix Steele is an ex-airman who roams the city at night. He offers to help a police detective friend, Brub, solve the case of a serial killer—risking revealing that he himself has strangled women on a monthly basis since arriving in LA. Eventually, actress Laurel Gray and Brub's wife Sylvia become suspicious of Dix and they aid the forces of justice to close in on the killer without him being aware of it.
The film differs from the novel in several substantial ways. Mostly notably, in the film, despite being a violent man with a hot temper, Steele is innocent of the murder he's suspected of committing, and is sincere in his desire to be a successful screenwriter; in the novel, he is a misogynistic, sociopathic killer who claims to be a crime novel writer in order to sponge off of a wealthy uncle. [1] [2]
Philip Morris Playhouse presented In a Lonely Place March 16, 1952. Joseph Cotten and University of Kansas student Mary Lou Jukes co-starred in the 30-minute adaptation. [3]
Suspense presented In a Lonely Place March 6, 1948. Robert Montgomery and Lurene Tuttle starred in a one-hour adaptation of the full plot.
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American film noir. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression.
Raymond Hart Massey was a Canadian, later American, actor, known for his commanding, stage-trained voice. For his lead role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1940), Massey was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his most well-known roles were Dr. Gillespie in the NBC television series Dr. Kildare (1961–1966), Abraham Farlan in A Matter of Life and Death and Jonathan Brewster in Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
James Myers Thompson was an American prose writer and screenwriter, known for his hardboiled crime fiction.
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Dorothy B. Hughes was an American crime writer, literary critic, and historian. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place (1947) and Ride the Pink Horse (1946).
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The Criminal Code is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic crime drama film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Walter Huston and Phillips Holmes. The screenplay, based on a 1929 play of the same name by Martin Flavin, was written by Fred Niblo Jr. and Seton I. Miller, who were nominated for Best Adaptation at the 4th Academy Awards but the award went to Howard Estabrook for Cimarron.
And Then There Were None is a mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, described by her as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 November 1939, as Ten Little Niggers, after an 1869 minstrel song which serves as a major plot element. The US edition was released in January 1940 with the title And Then There Were None, taken from the last five words of the song. Successive American reprints and adaptations use that title, though American Pocket Books paperbacks used the title Ten Little Indians between 1964 and 1986. UK editions continued to use the original title until 1985.
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Andrew Peter Solt was a Hungarian-born Hollywood screenwriter for film and television. Born as Endre Peter Strausz, he began his career as a playwright in Budapest. Solt is best known for writing the screenplay for In a Lonely Place (1950), a critically acclaimed film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart and Gloria Grahame. The film is on the Time magazine "All-Time 100 Movies" list of greatest films since 1923. In 2007, it was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
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