In a Lonely Place

Halfway through Casablanca, we learn why Rick Blaine is so cynical, angry, and embittered; we also feel glad at the end when he takes off his armor and begins that beautiful friendship. But how would we respond if we never learned why Rick acted as he does? The answer is that he’d be Dixon Steele, whom Bogart portrays so well in Nicholas Ray’s 1950 thriller In a Lonely Place. Join Mike and Dan for a conversation about a Bogart film they think deserves a wider audience and how it predicts what Martin Scorsese would do twenty-six years later with Taxi Driver. William J. Mann’s Bogie & Bacall: The Surprising True Story of Hollywood’s Greatest Love Affair, is a thoroughly interesting dual biography about the movies’ most enduring power couple. Dan recently interviewed William J. Mann for the New Books Network: listen to it here. Follow us on Twitter or Letterboxd. Incredible bumper music by John Deley.