The filming of Out of the Past got off to a rocky start with a near-fatal plane accident at the Bridgeport, California airport landing field. The pilot, accompanied by Robert Mitchum, a studio accountant and an assistant to executive Walter Duff, realized his brakes didn't work when they touched down, causing the plane to crash through a fence, over a ditch, and through an outhouse before coming to a stop. Although the two men in the back seat were knocked unconscious, Mitchum and the pilot were not hurt. Typical of Mitchum's nonchalant attitude, he quickly crawled out of the wreckage, dusted off his clothes and thumbed a ride into town to begin filming.

Jane Greer recalled that the laconic Robert Mitchum projected an equally cavalier attitude off camera. She got the impression that he came to the set of Out of the Past unprepared, in order to give a more spontaneous performance. She explained, "I remember him saying 'What are the lyrics?' to the script person. 'I never know the lyrics,' he'd say, and she would give him the lines. I said, 'You don't learn your lines beforehand?' and he'd said, 'Naah.' Gosh, I learned mine a week ahead of time. I thought that might be part of why he seemed so much more spontaneous, why he was so easy and underplayed. I decided I'd do that, not be letter perfect. So I tried learning my lines under the dryer in the morning. I hoped I'd look as though I was thinking. But I blew take after take, and he was letter perfect. Well, I figured out later that, of course, he knew the lines."

Greer's first scene in the movie with Mitchum was the famous kissing scene on the beach. According to the Lee Server biography of Robert Mitchum, Baby, I Don't Care, the actress remembered shooting the scene and said, "I'm looking at Bob and I see he has something on his mouth and it looked funny. Finally I got courage enough to say, 'Excuse me, Bob, but they've done something with your makeup; I think they messed it up. Your lips, that brown lip liner, or whatever it is, is smeared." Mitchum said, "What are you talking about?" He yelled for the makeup man. "They bring him a mirror," said Greer, "he takes a look into the mirror, and he says, "Oh, honey, that's just chawin' tabbacky." Bob wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and resumed kissing position. Greer thought, "Well, this movie is going to be different."

In terms of developing her character, Greer got helpful but minimal direction from Jacques Tourneur, according to the Lee Server biography of Mitchum. "Zzjjane, do you know what ahm-pahs-eeve mean?" he asked the actress. "Impassive? Yes." "No 'big eyes'' No expressive. In the beginning you act like a nice girl. But then, after you kill the man you meet in the little house, you become a bad girl. Yes? First half, good girl. Second half, bad." "I get you," she said. That was his direction, Greer recalled. "But I did throw in a few big eyes anyway. I couldn't help myself." Tourneur also discussed with her his plan for the character's wardrobe, something typical of his films' subtle, insidious visual design. "At first you wear light colors. After you kill the man, darker colors. In the end, black."

By all accounts, it was obvious that an undeniable tension developed between Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum early on during the filming. Certainly the acting styles of the two men could not have been more different. Mitchum's relaxed, laconic manner contrasted with the aggressive, grandstanding Douglas. In the first scenes to be shot with the two actors, Douglas attempted some scene stealing by manipulating distracting props, such as swinging a key chain or flipping a coin, George Raft style. Director Tourneur saw through these ploys and put a stop to them. For his part, Mitchum would retaliate by making faces when the camera was behind his head, so as to throw off Douglas' reaction shots. Eventually the one-upmanship faded, and the two let their natural styles compliment each other.

Jane Greer also took notice of the differing personalities and styles of her leading men. She found that Mitchum was protective on the set. She said that he 'was just terrific to me and just took care of me. Even the way I looked. One costume I wore was a little too large - Bob was the one who noticed it was bulging around the waist. So he stopped everything, borrowed a pin from the wardrobe lady and gathered it in and pinned me up in the back.' On the other hand, Greer said, 'Kirk is a more physical actor. He bruised my arms grabbing me, and my face was roundly slapped. How he did Champion [1949] without maiming his partner is a miracle.'

by John M. Miller & Jeff Stafford