Limitless aspiration combined with profound alienation is the condition suffered by the hero of BIGGER THAN LIFE, Ray’s most powerful film; and if his rendering of this anguish occupies a special place in his work, this is largely because it succeeds in attacking the roots of this condition rather than remaining on the level of its various symptoms. IN A LONELY PLACE, containing many elements of an autocritique, is an earlier foray into a similar form of investigation: set in an extremely deglamorized Hollywood, it deals with the uncontrolled violence of a scriptwriter (Humphrey Bogart) and its tragic consequences, his gradualalienation from everyone he feels closest to.