I was born when she kissed me.
I died when she left me.
I lived a few weeks while she loved me.
If you’re a noir fan, you may recognize these lines, spoken by Humphrey Bogart’s character Dixon Steele in 1950’s In a Lonely Place, directed by co-star Gloria Grahame’s then-husband Nicholas Ray. These are the lines I’ve chosen for The Flapper Dame’s Classic Quote Blogathon.
Dixon is an angry, violent screenwriter who finds respite from his worst tendencies, for a time, with neighbor-turned-lover Laurel Gray (Grahame). She’s a tough cookie herself, but falls hard for the older man (24 years between the actors) and enjoys the change she seems to make in his demeanor. When Dixon recites the lines above, they are driving in his car and the words are for his current script project. He thinks they may be the best he has ever written. If not the best, we as viewers know they certainly speak the truth about his relationship with Laurel. He does seem a new man, reborn when they began their relationship. We wonder if he will survive if she goes. But his wild temper and possessiveness may indeed result in loss of her, and it will be his own fault. Thus, when Dixon asks Laurel to repeat the lines back to him, she does so, quietly, and stops after the second, seeming not to remember — or not be willing to say — the third. The guilt of responsibility for Dixon’s well being is a heavy burden she should not have to bear.
The more immediate context of these memorable lines is as important as their general reflection of the characters’ relationship. Dixon has just run out in anger from a dinner party in which he learned his friends have been talking about him behind is back. Laurel follows and he drives off, recklessly, and, when he runs a high-school football star off the road, he blames the kid wrongly and beats him almost to death. Only Laurel crying out stops Dixon from crushing the boy’s skull with a boulder. It is this moment that leads Dixon to his sudden revelation of the best lines he has ever written. The lines are pivotal for both characters: Laurel knows she cannot control Dixon, and Dixon knows he cannot control himself without her.
The macabre content and context of this famous quotation is pure noir. Though In a Lonely Place comes late in the cycle and may say as more about Grahame and Ray’s marriage than it does about the subjects of love and violence more generally, I find the lines haunting and the film more darkly compelling because of them.
March 4, 2016 at 12:38 AM
An interesting angle from which to approach what’s one of my very favorite noirs — many thanks!
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March 4, 2016 at 1:30 AM
Glad you enjoyed the post.
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March 4, 2016 at 2:27 AM
I love your take on this quote. its almost as if these lines break the fourth wall- intended for Bogie’s screenplay (the story within the story) but really its almost like a voice over to us the audience! Nobody does a noir like Bogart- he’s truly one of the genre’s best!
Thank you for so very much for writing up a post for my first blogathon and I hope that in the future we can each participate in each other’s Blogathons! -Emily
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March 4, 2016 at 3:33 AM
Thank you for your kind response. Glad you enjoyed the post and will be happy to participate in future blogathons.
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March 4, 2016 at 2:28 AM
PS if you want to change your link to the Blogathon page you can now do so –
theflapperdamefilm.wordpress.com/2016/03/03/its-here-the-classic-quote-blogathon/
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March 4, 2016 at 3:32 AM
Will do!
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March 5, 2016 at 12:06 AM
Great post. The line really is pure noir.
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March 5, 2016 at 2:41 AM
Many thanks!
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March 5, 2016 at 1:09 AM
Great lines…also the title is a good song by joy division/new order
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March 5, 2016 at 2:42 AM
Great memory. I was always puzzled by how New Order song names never reflected content directly. So I never knew song names when I’d sing along.
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March 5, 2016 at 2:50 AM
Good point…they loved to name check stuff they liked
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March 6, 2016 at 2:07 PM
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this fab film, but I remember these lines. Loved your analysis of this film and the relationship between Bogart’s and Grahame’s characters. I suspect you may be right, about the film saying more about the Ray-Grahame relationship. I’m going to keep that in mind the next time I watch it, which will be soon.
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March 6, 2016 at 4:30 PM
Thanks so much for the comment and the praise. I also love the film for its feminist implications: some men are violent and it’s right for women to get the hell away from them.
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