MovieChat Forums > Lady in the Lake (1947) Discussion > But where was the Lake?

But where was the Lake?

posted 11 years ago by waldenpond88
4 replies | jump to latest

It's a nice little film noir, but not nearly as great as "Reckless Moment", "My Name is Julia Ross", "Conflict" or "Dark Passage", but nice to watch.

The camera has been used like that in "Dark Passage" where the whole story is seen with Humphrey Bogart's eyes until the end when we finally get to see him without the bandages on his face.

The one thing that really disappointed me is the fact that the lake is never shown. Those could have been quite spooky scenes. I wonder why the title is "Lady in the Lake", but the audience actually never gets to see that lake.

I love outdoor locations as in "Reckless Moment" (filmed on Balboa Island, CA) or "Dark Passage" (where San Francisco plays a big role) and outdoor scenes would have enhanced this film noir a lot!

[–] longshanks-5 11 years ago

The lake is in the mountains. The story is set just before Christmas, so the lake would have ice and be surrounded by snow (they mention a couple of times that the lake area is snowy). They don't show Marlowe at the lake probably because it would have been too much trouble and expense to dress up wintery sets.

[–] waldenpond88 11 years ago

Hello longshanks,

You are probably right, the outdoor scenes would have been too expensive.
I also heard a few months ago in the bonus material from "Mystery Street" (1950, with Ricardo Montalban) that Hollywood did not really start making movies with outdoors locations before the late 40's.
Hitchcock and John Ford made outdoor locations more and more popular.

Cheers,

Chrissie

[–] bababuiforu 8 years ago

No....the lake is Big Bear Lake in. SoCal and it is never frozen over. Read the excellent novel.

[–] RobbieCalifornia 8 years ago

Humphrey Bogart took off the bandages halfway through Dark Passage, not at the end. That camera trick would never have worked through the whole movie, which depended heavily on the terrific chemistry between Bogart and Bacall.

They showed Bacall taking his bandages off his face, and he remarked how much older he looked after the plastic surgery. That was funny, since Bogart really was 25 years older than her. She was a grownup girl though!