In a Lonely Place
This is now my favorite Bogie film. Not just because of his performance, although I think he hits that perfect balance between humor and threat that I love so well. I love this film, first, because the script is so smart. There are a number of unexpected turns, and the dialogue just crackles. The pacing and development of the central relationship was just perfect. And the fact that the film can put us in the place of Laurel Gray-- not knowing whether to believe Bogie, even though we saw the truth with our own eyes.
Simply brilliant. I don't know why it took me so long to watch this one. 5/5
The Killing
That Kubrick fellow, he's got a future!
The film is mostly a heist procedural. We see the preciseness of the timing, the careful planning and the precise execution. Of course, not everything can go as planned.
I loved how each character is completely realized, even small roles like the parking lot attendant. In many heist films, it is easy to mistake one character from another, or to distinguish them simply by their role, in an Ocean's Eleven manner. Here, each character acts in a completely different manner, and all have their weaknesses and motivations and hopes.
Kubrick is the master of tension. He makes you wait and wait for the other shoe to drop. And drop it does. I am shocked when it finally begins to go wrong and I experienced a deep sense of pleasure at the final scenes at the airport. This is a great movie to show how a great director can make the difference between a mediocre film and a very good one. 4.5/5