The film begins in medias res - in a car roaming on the street at night - to indicate 'a place' echoing the title but also to keep the audience wondering where the place is until the middle of the film. But the director keeps vague about what 'in a lonely place' exactly means. Does it suggest that the male protagonist's heart is lonely because he is erratic and irratable? Perhaps we can then put 'love' before the title, because it is a love story ending up in a 'forlorn place'. The female character eventually suspected that Steele commited the crime and thus distanced herself from him. Ray managed to mix a crime with a romance and created a unique genre (or 'film noir') having a particular allure. What stricks me most is how the director could keep the audience's heart in suspense all the time. It is a psychological thriller in its fullest sense.
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