A tenacious blogger, bitter over the performance of his blog compared to other more established websites, and out of work due to alcoholism and belligerence, publishes a list of Top Ten Film Noirs without giving due consideration to his list.
In a series of flashbacks and dream sequences, we see the blogger remembering the many films he has omitted from his list, including the work of undisputed genius that is Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place (1950), starring Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame and Frank Lovejoy.
In a universe filled with ironies accidents and absurdities, the blogger faces the ultimate condemnation. Locked in the prison cell of his own dreams, he must face the fact that in tangling with film noir, he will be doomed to replay his own doubts until his will gives in, and he chooses the immoral path back to regular cinema.
In the meantime, this is something of an apology, or a confession. I did wake up in the night thinking 'how in the hell could I have composed a Top Ten of Film Noir, and exclude In a Lonely Place?'
A murderous omission, yes, but this was just a Top Ten Film Noir and made no attempt to offer itself as the Top Ten Film Noir.
But like its title, In a Lonely Place is strange and sad, and yearns for romance when all it's going to get is a slug in the guts. It's a great film, and a classic noir, and it belongs on that list, I tells ya, it belongs on that list. But who ever heard of a Top Eleven?
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