Some have described this film as Humphrey Bogart's best performance and frankly it's hard to argue with that.
Screenwriter Dixon Steele (Humphrey Bogart) is accused of murdering a woman but is given an alibi by his neighbour Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame) who saw him from her apartment. After meeting at the police station the pair work on a screenplay together and enter into a relationship but as she discovers his violent nature she begins to wonder if he did commit the murder after all.
Bogart rarely strayed from playing the same sort of character, a likeable rogue. Whilst most of them have questionable morals, none of them are quite so unsettling as Steele who is prone to bouts of neurotic violence. Bogart is genuinely disturbing here, taking the dark side that most of his characters have to another level.
Whilst the murder investigation is the trigger for the events of the film, after a while it blends into the background because actually it doesn't matter if Steele committed the murder- it's clear he is capable of doing so. Despite it's age, this is a film that feels very relevant today, depicting a certain type of toxic masculinity that many of us have encountered at some points in our life. Bogart has a sadness behind the eyes in his depiction of Steele that earns the character some sympathy but it's difficult to find much for him. This is certainly a guy that needs some therapy.
An increasingly tense drama with a best ever Bogart performance.
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