Synopsis

Jeff Bailey is working anonymously as the owner of a small-town gas station in Bridgeport, California, and courting a local beauty, Ann, when a sinister man from Jeff's past comes calling. Soon Jeff and Ann are on the road and heading toward the hideaway of Whit Sterling, an underworld figure. On their way, Jeff describes his disastrous past involvement with the diabolical but irresistible Kathie. A street-wise but financially strapped New York City detective, Jeff was hired by gambler Whit to retrieve his wayward girlfriend Kathie, who absconded to Mexico with $40,000 of his money. Upon meeting the runaway in a Mexican barroom, Jeff begins to doubt Whit's version of the truth and runs off with this enchantress for a new life in San Francisco. A remarkable string of double crosses and shocking revelations follow, bringing the story full circle to Jeff's rendezvous with Whit Sterling.

Director: Jacques Tourneur
Producer: Warren Duff
Executive Producer: Robert Sparks
Screenplay: Daniel Mainwaring (as Geoffrey Homes), James M. Cain (uncredited), Frank Fenton (uncredited)
Based on the novel Build My Gallows High by Geoffrey Homes
Cinematography: Nicholas Musuraca
Editing: Samuel E. Beetley
Music: Roy Webb
Art Direction: Albert S. D'Agostino, Jack Okey
Set Decoration: Darrell Silvera
Costumes: Edward Stevenson
Makeup: Gordon Bau
Assistant Director: Harry Mancke
Sound: Clem Portman, Francis M. Sarver
Special Effects: Russell A. Cully
Cast: Robert Mitchum (Jeff Bailey), Jane Greer (Kathie Moffat), Kirk Douglas (Whit Sterling), Rhonda Fleming (Meta Carson), Richard Webb (Jim "Jimmy"), Steve Brodie (Jack Fisher), Virginia Huston (Ann Miller), Paul Valentine (Joe Stephanos), Dickie Moore (The Kid), Ken Niles (Leonard Eels).
BW-97m. Closed captioning. Descriptive video.

Why OUT OF THE PAST Is Essential

Bitter, cynical, fatalistic and peppered with some of the best tough-guy dialogue in the genre, Out of the Past (1947) is a consummate example of film noir made during the movement's golden age in the '40s and '50s. Robert Mitchum stars as Jeff Bailey alongside Kirk Douglas as Whit Sterling, two shrewd, rock-hard individuals enthralled by the same mysterious, danger-courting woman, Kathie Moffat (played by Jane Greer).

Jacques Tourneur directed with an eye toward the baroque, the evocative, and the erotic. The son of French-born director Maurice Tourneur (The Last of the Mohicans, 1920), Jacques made his own memorable mark on the noir genre with a string of inspired choices, from the casting of the film to the use of real locations to enhance the film's gritty realism. Tourneur had handled equally macabre subject matter, though in a different genre, in such horror films as Cat People (1942) and I Walked with a Zombie (1943). The cynicism of Out of the Past was also well served by the taut, acerbic script by gifted novelist/screenwriter Daniel Mainwaring (aka Geoffrey Homes). Mainwaring, who adapted the screenplay from his own novel Build My Gallows High, went on to write the equally gripping screenplay for the science fiction classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956).

Mitchum and Kirk Douglas are beautifully matched in Out of the Past. As with many film noirs, the relationship between the brutally cynical Whit and Jeff, who share a woman and a cynicism about human behavior, turns out to be more honest and affectionate than either man's love for Kathie, a woman with the face of an angel and the impulses of a viper. The two actors, who both became known for their idiosyncratic, combative temperaments, reportedly engaged in an extended power play for attention in their scenes together.

Out of the Past is most often remembered for capitalizing on Mitchum's uniquely laconic sexual allure and for transforming the actor - in his second starring role after Story of G.I. Joe (1945) - into an instant star. Though the role was initially offered to Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield and Dick Powell, all of whom turned it down, the gritty, stylish performance by Mitchum has become a classic in the noir canon. But Douglas delivers an equally memorable performance as the slick, smooth-talking Whit, who seems perpetually amused at the depths of human deviance. Newcomer Douglas fulfilled on the initial promise he had shown in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946) and went on to carve out a small but significant niche for himself playing a succession of noirish villains in films like I Walk Alone (1948), The Big Carnival (1951) and Champion (1949).

by Felicia Feaster & John M. Miller