| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Film about a woman attracted to violent men - ostensibly because she wants to help them but really because she wants to run away from her own personal demons. But is her lover a serial killer?
Humphrey BOGART is the ultimate interesting-faced actor since, despite the fact that he is not the greatest-looking guy in the history of cinema, he usually gets the best-looking and most adoring women. This is no mere wishful-thinking for ugly males, but the result of his undeniable star charisma that is seen here to best effect as an example of untamable-yet-attractive. BOGART is also excellent at playing the kind of social misfit he depicts here.
This is a compelling film about the kind of loneliness coming purely from within; making the central neurotic love-story believable. BOGART is in fine form as the angry, middle-aged writer who cannot control his nasty temper and so rages at the world for leaving him in his lonely place even though his living there is really his own responsibility.
The script is also a clever indictment of the kind of film it could have been if it had been faithful to the source novel. It self-reflexively comments on the poor quality of the original book by having a writer trying to adapt a trashy novel into a screenplay and then loudly (in the dialogue) criticizing anyone whom would do such a thing. A rare example of a movie that is better than the book since it has more to say than the original.
The film’s problem is Gloria GRAHAME’s character who is a largely unexplored woman-who-might-be-in-peril. In a former century, this would have been the story of a painter and his naked muse who, albeit briefly, provides him with a reason to live, to love and to paint.
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