Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer were teamed again for the 1949 RKO Film Noir The Big Steal. While at first glance it might seem like a natural follow-up to the success of Out of the Past, Mitchum and Greer were paired up again only after very trying circumstances. Originally Lizabeth Scott, on loan from Paramount and Hal B. Wallis, was to star opposite Mitchum in the film, which had been set to start production in October of 1948. On August 31st, however, Mitchum was arrested in Los Angeles on marijuana possession charges. Howard Hughes had acquired RKO just a month prior and decided to rush production, and start shooting The Big Steal as soon as Mitchum was out on bail. Then Lizabeth Scott dropped out of the film, so Greer was brought in only at the last minute. Later, production on the film was halted for two months as Mitchum served his sentence. Daniel Mainwaring worked on the script for the film, which was directed by Don Siegel.

Jeff Bailey's mute assistant at the gas station was played by former child actor Dickie Moore, in one of his later adult roles. Moore had a long career which included an early 1930s stint as one of the kids in Hal Roach's Our Gang series of shorts. He was one of the few kids of the Our Gang cast that also made regular appearances in sizable roles in feature films, such as the title role in the 1933 version of Oliver Twist.

On November 14, 1987, Robert Mitchum was the guest host on Saturday Night Live, broadcast from the NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York. One of the sketches he participated in was a black-and-white spoof of Out of the Past called "Out of Gas." The sketch featured an unbilled guest appearance by none other than Jane Greer!

In the mid-1970s, producer Jerry Bick, who had already produced the Neo-Noir movies The Long Goodbye (1973) and Farewell, My Lovely (1975, staring Robert Mitchum as Philip Marlowe) announced plans for a new adaptation of Build My Gallows High. He had a screenplay and a director lined up, but the project fell through.

Out of the Past was loosely remade in 1984 as Against All Odds staring Jeff Bridges, Rachel Ward, and James Woods in (roughly) the Mitchum, Greer, and Douglas roles. Several aspects of the story were altered, however (Bridges plays a former football player, not a gumshoe). Taylor Hackford directed from a script by Eric Hughes. In a nod to the original film, Jane Greer appears as Rachel Ward's mother, and Paul Valentine (henchman Joe Stephanos in Out of the Past) has a cameo.

by John M. Miller