A Hollywood screenwriter on the skids, Dix Steele takes on the adaptation of
a hideously banal romance novel. Rubbing salt in his elitist wounds, he invites
a sweet, dumb hatcheck girl home to share her take on the book --
... more she's charmed
by the trash, arrogant in her ignorance. When she turns up dead, the
short-tempered writer who never suffers philistines easily looks like a suspect.
Skinning back his upper lip, shuddering like a sparking live wire, Bogart burns
with blind rage, a furious contempt for anyone who crosses him. But the love of
the beautiful woman (Gloria Grahame) who alibis him temporarily levels out Dix's
free-floating fury at Tinseltown's lowbrow conformity and exploitation. A writer
whose most powerful work has its roots in his violent, sometimes uncontrollable,
passions, Dix Steele is his own Fight Club. Unable to resist blowing up his
world, he loses love but pulls pure poetry out of the ruins: "I was born when
she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me."
(Everett Collection)Close
Hotmail
