Out of the Past (1947) Reviews

• Dickie Moore Rocks

  HalfCentury2005-09-17

  Everyone quite rightly mentions the great work of the main cast of this film. And they are all great. But to me the cherry in the ensemble is Dickie Moore's deaf mute character. For whatever reason "the Kid" has this deep, unquestioning loyalty to Jeff. And in spite of his handicap, he definitely has Jeff's back. I've got spoiler on this comment because I'm mentioning the fly-fishing moment. That is one of my favorite scenes of all time. The way Moore plays it, he just turns into a bird dog, his focus so complete he's a statue. And zip, so long pal. Of course you got to love the end. The Kid can tell the truth about Jeff, or lie for the girl's happiness. And this quiet little character makes the tough classy decision. Then the goodbye wave. No lip pursing, or beetling of sad brow. Moore plays it perfect.

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• A desert island movie

  imogensara_smith2007-03-21

  How do I love it? Let me count the ways...First, like a few perfect jazz albums, OUT OF THE PAST has a distinctive, coherent sound developed through various moods and tempos and melodies. Robert Mitchum is the lead soloist who dominates the score; the sound of the film is his sound, cool and weary and knowing. Though he doesn't sing in this one, no performance better demonstrates Mitchum's musicality, his sense of rhythm, pace and inflection. He referred to his dialogue as "the lyrics," and treated it that way, delivering his lines behind the beat, the way Sinatra sings. Jane Greer contributes her gorgeous dry contralto and Kirk Douglas adds a light, sneering counterpoint to an inspired group improvisation on the theme of disillusionment. Mitchum is Jeff Markham, alias Jeff Bailey, an ex-private eye who made a big mistake by falling for Kathie (Jane Greer), the gangster's mistress he was hired to track down. Splitting up after he discovers she's a liar and a killer, he hides out in a small town, taking up with a nice girl named Ann, knowing it's just a matter of time before the past catches up with him. His narration and dialogue carry the film along on a laid-back high, like a series of perfect smoke rings. He sums up his philosophy of life in a casino when Kathie asks, "Is there a way to win?" and he answers, "There's a way to lose more slowly." When she says she's sorry the man she shot didn't die, he murmurs dreamily, "Give him time." His enveloping pessimism is strangely elated; Jeff knows the score and savors it like some private hipster knowledge. "She can't be all bad. No one is," Jeff's nice girlfriend says of Kathie, but he returns, "She comes closest." Kathie Moffat is the greatest of all femmes fatales, because she's the least caricatured. She's not a scheming black widow, just a totally selfish, cowardly woman who feels no remorse for anything she does, and who happens to be beautiful and alluring enough that we can believe any man, even a smart and tough one, would fall for her. Jeff and Kathie's romance is genuinely rhapsodic, nothing like the usual mating of temptress and chump; they're both so sexy and smart and wised-up, always getting the joke together. The disillusionment wouldn't be so compelling if the illusion weren't so lovely. When Kathie shoots Jeff's partner, Mitchum—in a reaction shot lasting all of two seconds—shows Jeff realizing, and instantaneously coming to terms with, the fact that the best thing that ever happened to him is also the worst thing that ever happened to him. He looks simultaneously shocked to the core, and as though he'd expected it all along. Jeff Bailey is a paradox: you'd think nobody could put anything over on this guy, yet he acts like a sucker; he exemplifies both cynical pride and romantic blindness. Does he know what he's getting into and deliberately delude himself? Is he drawn to Kathie because she can rouse him from his torpor of indifference, because he can only really care about his life when he's in danger of losing it? You're never sure, but Mitchum knows how to hold your interest without explaining himself. His essential "Mitchumness" lies in hidden depths, those hints of melancholy, amusement and cold violence that seep through his impassive surface, the suggestions of menace and compassion and old wounds. He gives the movie a core of mystery that's eternally captivating. Like great American popular music, it's sublime hokum, so well-crafted that it stays eternally fresh and means more to you the more you hear it. Here is a world in which every throwaway gesture—ordering a cup of coffee, checking a briefcase—has drop-dead style, every word spoken is a wisecrack or a line of pulp poetry. Even minor characters and incidental scenes are rich and unforgettable: Theresa Harris as Eunice the maid in her fabulous Billie Holiday hat in the Harlem nightclub; the check-room clerk at the bus station, witness to who knows how many noir entanglements, with his hollow-man motto: "I always say everyone's right"; Joe Stefanos's black overcoat appearing like an ink-spot in the clean white town; the signs the mute Kid flashes to Jeff by the glittering lake, as the sky clouds over… The movie floats from place to place, blending real landscapes and studio sets, expressionistic stairwells and Ansel Adams mountains. The episodes run together fluid and compulsive as a dream. Sometimes there's nothing but music and movement: Jeff prowling cat-like around Meta Carson's apartment while boogie-woogie piano plays in the next room. The cinematography is distractingly gorgeous, drifting into glistening abstract patterns of black and white, like the web of bare tree-branches projected onto the bodies of Jeff and Ann at their last meeting. A seamless blend of romance and cynicism, drama and humor, OUT OF THE PAST is not only a perfect Hollywood studio product, it's a definitive movie experience. It's supersaturated, yet it never feels overworked, never tries too hard. It just seems to happen, almost by casual serendipity; the wit and elegance and glamour are so unforced and alive. You succumb to it instantly and helplessly as Jeff succumbs to Kathie's magic. The spell breaks for him, but not for us. Disenchantment may be the theme of OUT OF THE PAST, but the movie itself is a source of perennial wonder.

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• Scheming dame

  jotix1002005-01-20

  Jacques Tourneur will probably be remembered best for this film, even though he had an extensive career in Hollywood. Working with Daniel Mainwaring, the author of the novel in which this movie is based, he created one of the best pictures of this genre, one that will be a perennial favorite. Mr. Tourneur and his cinematographer, the brilliant Nicholas Musuraca, made a stunning looking film that looks as good today, as when it was originally released. If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading now. Jeff Bailey has reinvented himself as the owner of a gas station in California. His past comes to haunt him at the beginning of the movie. Jeff has found peace and love in the small town where he has taken refuge. He can change his identity, but he can't hide from the people that want to see him dead. We watch in the beginning how Jeff is sent away by Whit Sterling to look for the disappearing Kathie Moffat, who has stolen forty thousand dollars and gone hiding. Jeff finds her in Acapulco. Kathie gives a bad name to any other dames in the movies of this genre. She is totally ruthless; she will do anything to double cross Whit as well as have Jeff do whatever she wants. Comparisons have been made between "The Maltese Falcon" and "Out of the Past". Both have plots that are twisted; when we feel we know everything, there is a new twist to the story. We are constantly misled into thinking one way, when in reality, something else has happened. This is a film that combines all the elements of the classic film noir and juxtaposes it against the serene surroundings of where Jeff is now living. Black and white photography was used to great advantage in the movie. It has a style that makes it one of a kind. The music by Roy Webb plays neatly in the background without interrupting the action. The acting is first rate. Mr. Tourneur got a brilliant performance from Robert Mitchum. His Jeff, is the epitome of coolness. It's hard to understand the mentality of American cinema of the times not paying Mr. Mitchum his due. He was a much better actor than he was given credit for. His presence looms large in this movie and it's a tribute to him that he makes his character dominate the movie. Jane Greer was also excellent in her take of Kathie Moffat. She is pure evil, a sensuous woman who will do anything to get her own way. When we see her in Acapulco she is a seductress that no man can resist. She leads Jeff on by the sheer power of the desire he feels for her. Ms. Greer was not a beauty, by Hollywood standard, but yet, she makes an incredible contribution to the movie. Her textured performance is exquisite in its economy. We all see right through her, yet, she takes us for an incredible ride, up to the end of the picture. The others in the cast do an excellent job. A young and dashing Kirk Douglas is perfect as the dubious Whit. He shows such a magnetism, even then, at the start of his career in movies. Rhonda Fleming had a small role and she makes most of it. Also Virginia Huston, as Ann, makes a great contribution to the film. The film, ultimately, is a tribute to the talent of the director. This is Mr. Tourneur's best movie.

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• Caught up by the Past

  claudio_carvalho2008-04-12

  In a small town in California, the mysterious Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) owns a small gas station and is in love with the local Ann (Virginia Huston). When a stranger just arrived in town meets him, Jeff is ordered to travel to meet the powerful criminal Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). Before traveling, Jeff calls Ann and tells her the story of his life, when he was a private eyes hired by Whit for US$ 5,000.00 to find his former mistress Kathie (Jane Greer) that had shot Whit and stolen US$ 40,000.00. The competent Jeff finds Kathie in Acapulco, but she tells that she had not taken Whit's money and they fall in love for each other and escape from Whit. When the former partner of Jeff, Fisher (Steve Brodie), finds the couple living in an isolated cabin, Kathie kills him and Jeff buries his corpse. Jeff accidentally finds the receipt of deposit of the amount in Kathie's purse and leaves her forever. When Jeff meets Whit, he surprisingly finds Kathie living with him; Whit asks Jeff one last job to get even and release Jeff from his debt. But Jeff finds that Whit is actually framing him. "Out of the Past" is an excellent film-noir, with a melancholic story and a magnificent and amoral female fatal. The direction of Jacques Tourneur is outstanding and the cinematography is very beautiful. Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer have top-notch performances, showing great chemistry. However, the fantastic screenplay is certainly the best in this movie, disclosing a complex plot with the use of flashback and great lines. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Fuga do Passado" ("Escape from the Past")

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• Is This NotThe Best Noir?

  jpdoherty2011-09-04

  There was Siodmax' "The Killers" in 1946! There was Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle" in 1950 and in between was RKO's OUT OF THE PAST in 1947. Together these three films represent the very best film noirs that ever was to come out of Hollywood or ever would again. Of the three however OUT OF THE PAST arguably stands a toe in front of the others as the all time favourite. Why is this? Perhaps it's because of its meatier narrative and story line with its palpable unrelenting dramatic thrust together with its extraordinary camera setups and its remarkable use of light and shadow or perhaps because of its faultless screenplay matched in interpretation by inspired casting. No matter what the reason OUT OF THE PAST simply manages to stand out as the most sublime and mesmerizing thriller ever made. Produced for RKO by Warren Duff it was splendidly written for the screen by Geoffrey Holmes which derived from his novel "Build My Gallows High" (the picture's title in England). Stunningly photographed in Black & White by Nicholas Musuraca it was arrestingly scored by Roy Webb (The best thing he ever did) and the picture was directed with a positive flair by Jacques Tourneur. Jeff Markham, alias Jeff Bailey, (Robert Mitchum) a man with a past ekes out a living running a filling station outside Bakersfield. One day out of the blue - and out of Jeff's past - arrives Joe Stafanos (Paul Valentine) the strong-arm henchman of shady businessman Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). He's here with a message for Jeff that Whit wants to see him again. Some time ago Jeff was a private eye and Whit had engaged him to go to Mexico and hunt down his girlfriend Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer) who had absconded with $40,000. In flashback we see Jeff finding her but unwittingly the vulnerable Jeff falls in love with her and they go on the run together. But not for long, Whit sends Jeff's estranged detective partner Jack Fisher (Steve Brodie) to find them both but when he does Kathie shoots and kills him and disappears leaving Jeff to return to the states alone. He gives up the detective business and buries himself in Bakersfield running a gas station. Now Whit has located him and wants to see him. But it's only a ruse to have Jeff framed for Fisher's murder in retaliation for his disloyalty. Jeff goes anyhow to meet Whit at his mansion on Lake Tahoe and is astonished to find Kathie there ("Kathie's back in the fold again" declares a weaselly Whit). Later Kathie gets Stafanos to kill Jeff who fails in the attempt. Then she double crosses Whit and kills him. And the picture ends with Kathie making up to Jeff and wanting him to go away with her and start over again where they had left off in Mexico. Jeff pretends to agree but unbeknown to her he calls the police who set up a roadblock in which tragically they both perish. Jeff Bailey had finally gotten even with the woman who had lied, cheated, murdered and double crossed just about everyone for her own devious ends but in doing so he paid the ultimate price. Performances are superb throughout. Here the dozy eyed Mitchum - in his first starring role - solidifies his playing of the private eye. But he also shows he could cut a wholly acceptable romantic lead helped along by his mellifluous and soft voiced atmospheric narration. One scene in particular is very effective where he is waiting for her on the beach at night and when she arrives Mitchum's voice is heard gently on the soundtrack ...."Then she'd come along.....just like school was out and everything else was just a stone by the sea". The wonderful Jane Greer is the quintessential femme fatale. Her gentle saintly beauty belying her treacherous, underhanded and calculating evil. And a young Kirk Douglas - here just feeling his way in movies - is fine as the courtly but odious villain. Adding greatly to the whole thing is the marvellous score by RKO resident composer Roy Webb which features a memorable and lingering main cue that becomes a tender love theme for the love scenes and is transformed into an exciting big band jazz number for the black nightclub sequence. OUT OF THE PAST is the archetypal film noir! An outstanding document of what Hollywood could achieve in their golden past. Unfortunately they now seem to have taken a wrong turn off that road that so often led to greatness. Classic Mitchum adage from OUT OF THE PAST............... "If anyone's gonna to die baby......I'm gonna die last".

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