Out of the Past (1947)The past is an undertow with no real way to pull free from it entirely. Out of the Past (1947) is a film noir detective story, about gas station owner Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), formerly Jeff Markham and one-time detective. Jeff is living under an assumed name in Bridgeport after an investigation went bad three years ago, involving a lovely lady named Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) who steered him wrong. When Jeff's one-time employer and Kathie's one-time lover, Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas)--who Kathie did try to kill--dragoons Jeff into coming back into the fold, Jeff learns that some breaks are never clean.
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Roughly the first third of Out of the Past is a flashback, a story told by Jeff to his beloved, a young woman from Bridgeport named Ann Miller (Virginia Huston). Jeff's relationship with Ann is a welcome alternative to his rocky romance with Kathie years before--the extent of the drama here comes from a mild rivalry for her affections with a local policeman named Jim (Richard Webb). But the ugly truth must come out after Whit's gangster henchman, Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine), discovers Jeff in hiding and makes him an "offer he can't refuse" to come visit Whit at Lake Tahoe for one more job. Jeff reveals his past to Ann while wearing a trenchcoat, as if his flimsy disguise of a humble gas jockey was no more than smoke dispelled by a slight wind, his true persona of a hardened detective accustomed to wandering dark corridors populated by criminals and deceivers reemerging. It is strange that he tells this story of his haunted affection for Kathie to Ann, and with enough detail that it should make her uncomfortable. It might be that he is doing so because he wants to push her away from him, convinced that he is no good for her anymore. Jeff is a clever man who is not shy about playing his cards to his advantage, but alternately, this might be the inevitable confession which Jeff feels obligated to share if he has any interest in his relationship with Ann going anywhere meaningful. Jeff makes it clear how he was made a sucker by the sensual Kathie, a woman so entrancing that even Whit was willing to overlook her ostensible theft of forty-thousand of his dollars to get her back. Perhaps a part of Jeff believes that a slick gambler/entrepreneur/gangster like Whit wouldn't hurt Kathie, but once Jeff and Kathie become intimate in Acapulco, despite her protestations about taking the money, he puts it best: "Baby, I don't care." The first moment that Jeff lays eyes on Kathie is concentrated film noir. Half-drunk on Mexican beer while staking out La Mar Azul, Jeff watches Kathie enter the saloon, the hot sunlight blazing behind her, looking the quintessential femme fatale. It's obvious that Jeff sees what Whit sees in this moment, and he becomes putty in her skillful hands. Unlike other film noir protagonists who are ready to sell their soul for a fine-looking woman with a dubious past, Jeff only goes so far as to lie to the already untrustworthy Whit and Joe when they check up on him in Mexico while preparing to go incognito with Kathie. Jeff finally realizes just how much of a fool he had been when his one-time partner in the private investigator racket, Jack Fisher (Steve Brodie), ends up dead. This gives the now-reunited Whit and Kathie an advantage over Jeff three years later, dangling the past over him like the proverbial Sword of Damocles.
It has been half-jokingly said that Out of the Past should come with a warning from the Surgeon General, considering just how often characters in the film smoke. Jeff even teases this at one point when Whit offers him a cigarette, when he already has one lit. (Jeff even stops briefly after knocking out a corrupt nightclub manager to steal one of the fellow's smokes on his way out.) Characters in Out of the Past exist within the hazy nicotine vapors they generate, puffing out the smoke like dragons, or players of a complex game of poker, all seated around a green felt table, bluffing and raising the ante. Out of the Past is regarded as one of the most emblematic of film noir classics from the 1940s. Aside from the predominance of smoke-filled back rooms where tense and suspenseful encounters occur, and a traitorous love interest for our hero, Out of the Past is a mystery and a detective story--two, in fact. Out of the Past is set in the dark alleys and glitzy high-rises of San Francisco, and the sweaty, remote bars of Acapulco, bursting with seedy characters for the private eye protagonist to go toe-to-toe with. After the first-act flashback, Jeff is pushed by Whit into doing him "another favor"--to apprehend some tax documents in the possession of his own corrupt attorney, Leonard Eels (Ken Niles); it is a job that the clever Jeff knows is a frame, but he begrudgingly plays along to discover to what end. After being given the rundown by the alluring secretary to the attorney, Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming), Jeff pulls some sophisticated gumshoe tricks from up his sleeve, and starts laying his own traps--just as Whit and his crooked company have been doing to him. Jeff generally plays it cool when it comes to this nest of vipers, knowing when to merely stir the pot to turn one against another. At the head of the pack is Whit, who is an interesting antagonist: arrogant and always beaming with the assurance of someone who believes he is entitled to all life has to offer. Whit never appears rattled by Jeff's not-so-subtle jabs to provoke him, as if he viewed Jeff--and everyone else--like they were beneath him...that they were possessions to him, property to be managed. The dialogue of Out of the Past is punchy and witty, especially between Jeff and Kathie, who bat their banter back and forth like a shuttlecock in a game of verbal badminton. They are superficially coy with their flirting at first, but eventually needle one another with lies--seeing what sticks and what falls flat. Robert Mitchum--often regarded as the "bad boy" of Forties-era Hollywood--is perfectly cast as the nigh-lackadaisical gumshoe who is once bitten, twice shy after being betrayed by Kathie before. Mitchum's slightly bemused expression is a perfect poker face in this deadly game of deception with a gang of crooked underworld players, keeping the audience guessing just how long Jeff can sustain his feints and get away from his dangerous past.
Recommended for: Fans of a classic film noir with the kind of mood and look that made the genre into what it is. Directed by the prolific Jacques Tourneur, Out of the Past has a complex plot and engaging characters with snappy dialogue that makes it stand out as a highlight of the burgeoning film style.
It has been half-jokingly said that Out of the Past should come with a warning from the Surgeon General, considering just how often characters in the film smoke. Jeff even teases this at one point when Whit offers him a cigarette, when he already has one lit. (Jeff even stops briefly after knocking out a corrupt nightclub manager to steal one of the fellow's smokes on his way out.) Characters in Out of the Past exist within the hazy nicotine vapors they generate, puffing out the smoke like dragons, or players of a complex game of poker, all seated around a green felt table, bluffing and raising the ante. Out of the Past is regarded as one of the most emblematic of film noir classics from the 1940s. Aside from the predominance of smoke-filled back rooms where tense and suspenseful encounters occur, and a traitorous love interest for our hero, Out of the Past is a mystery and a detective story--two, in fact. Out of the Past is set in the dark alleys and glitzy high-rises of San Francisco, and the sweaty, remote bars of Acapulco, bursting with seedy characters for the private eye protagonist to go toe-to-toe with. After the first-act flashback, Jeff is pushed by Whit into doing him "another favor"--to apprehend some tax documents in the possession of his own corrupt attorney, Leonard Eels (Ken Niles); it is a job that the clever Jeff knows is a frame, but he begrudgingly plays along to discover to what end. After being given the rundown by the alluring secretary to the attorney, Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming), Jeff pulls some sophisticated gumshoe tricks from up his sleeve, and starts laying his own traps--just as Whit and his crooked company have been doing to him. Jeff generally plays it cool when it comes to this nest of vipers, knowing when to merely stir the pot to turn one against another. At the head of the pack is Whit, who is an interesting antagonist: arrogant and always beaming with the assurance of someone who believes he is entitled to all life has to offer. Whit never appears rattled by Jeff's not-so-subtle jabs to provoke him, as if he viewed Jeff--and everyone else--like they were beneath him...that they were possessions to him, property to be managed. The dialogue of Out of the Past is punchy and witty, especially between Jeff and Kathie, who bat their banter back and forth like a shuttlecock in a game of verbal badminton. They are superficially coy with their flirting at first, but eventually needle one another with lies--seeing what sticks and what falls flat. Robert Mitchum--often regarded as the "bad boy" of Forties-era Hollywood--is perfectly cast as the nigh-lackadaisical gumshoe who is once bitten, twice shy after being betrayed by Kathie before. Mitchum's slightly bemused expression is a perfect poker face in this deadly game of deception with a gang of crooked underworld players, keeping the audience guessing just how long Jeff can sustain his feints and get away from his dangerous past.
Recommended for: Fans of a classic film noir with the kind of mood and look that made the genre into what it is. Directed by the prolific Jacques Tourneur, Out of the Past has a complex plot and engaging characters with snappy dialogue that makes it stand out as a highlight of the burgeoning film style.