Out of the Past

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This article is about the 1947 film. For other uses, see Out of the Past (disambiguation).
Out of the Past
Out of the Past (1947 poster - retouched).jpg
Theatrical release poster by William Rose
Directed byJacques Tourneur
Screenplay byDaniel Mainwaring
Based onBuild My Gallows High
by Daniel Mainwaring
Produced byWarren Duff
Starring
CinematographyNicholas Musuraca
Edited bySamuel E. Beetley
Music byRoy Webb
Production
company
RKO Radio Pictures
Distributed byRKO Radio Pictures
Release date
  • November 25, 1947 (1947-11-25) (USA)
Running time
97 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Out of the Past (billed in the United Kingdom as Build My Gallows High) is a 1947 film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his 1946 novel Build My Gallows High (also written as Homes),[1] with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain.

Out of the Past is a quintessential example of film noir due to its complex, fatalistic storyline, dark cinematography, and classic femme fatale.[1] In 1991, Out of the Past was added to the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[2][3]

Plot[]

Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, looking for Jeff Bailey. He finds Bailey fishing with Ann Miller, and tells him that Whit Sterling, a New York City gambling kingpin now located at Lake Tahoe, wants to see him. Jeff reluctantly agrees to meet with Sterling, and invites Ann to join him. On the way, Jeff tells Ann of a dark episode in his past (in flashback).

Bailey's real name is Markham. He and former partner Jack Fisher were private investigators in New York. The pair had been hired at a lucrative rate by Sterling to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat, who had shot him and stolen $40,000 before fleeing. Disregarding Fisher, Sterling tells Markham he wants him to handle the case alone. On their way out, Fisher insists their payment still be split 50-50 according to their standing agreement, to which Markham agrees.

Jeff's investigation leads him to Mexico City and Taxco, before finding Kathie in Acapulco and subsequently striking up an acquaintance. Kathie gradually entices Jeff into a romantic entanglement, admitting that she shot Sterling but denying that she took his money. Markham proposes that they go on the run together. Kathie warns him of Sterling's violent jealousy, which Jeff dismisses.

Jeff and Kathie plan to leave together, but while packing, Jeff is surprised by the arrival of Sterling and Stefanos who have come to check up on his progress. Jeff lies that Kathie slipped past him and is on a steamer going south. Sterling instructs Jeff to keep looking for her.

The couple flee to San Francisco. They are soon spotted by Fisher, who is now working for Sterling. Jeff and Kathie split up to shake him, with Jeff heading to Los Angeles. Confident he has given Fisher the slip, Jeff arranges to meet Kathie at a cabin in the Sierra Nevada, only to find that Fisher had been following her instead. After Fisher tries to blackmail Jeff into keeping quiet, the two men brawl and Kathie shoots Fisher dead. After she departs, Jeff opens her bank book to reveal that she deposited $40,000.

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in Out of the Past

Jeff finishes his confession to Ann just as they reach Sterling's Lake Tahoe estate, ending the flashback. Ann drops him off and Jeff is greeted by a cheerful Sterling, who tells him he has a job only Jeff can handle. Jeff declines, but over breakfast Jeff is startled when Kathie appears. Sterling tells them that they are both "back in the fold", indicating to Jeff the job is not one that he can turn down.

Mitchum and Greer

A crooked San Francisco lawyer, Leonard Eels, helped Sterling dodge $1,000,000 ($11.6 million today) in taxes, but now is blackmailing him for $200,000 or he will turn the incriminating records over to the United States Treasury. Sterling wants Jeff to recover the records for him. Jeff travels to San Francisco, where he meets Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, who explains the plan. Jeff begins to suspect he is being framed. That night, at Eels' apartment, she introduces Jeff to Eels. When they leave, Jeff trails Carson, then returns and finds Eels dead. Knowing he will be blamed, he hides the body to throw off those plotting against him.

Jeff returns to Carson's apartment where Kathie reveals that she gave Sterling a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. Jeff retrieves the tax papers and mails them to a safe location. When he is captured by Sterling's thugs, he tells them he will only deal with Sterling and flees; only to find him himself the focus of a police dragnet and accused of double murder.

Jeff returns to the Bridgeport area. Kathie has ordered Stefanos to trail The Kid, a deaf-mute employee of Bailey, so he can find and kill Jeff. The Kid drives to a steep, narrow canyon where Jeff is hiding. The Kid spots Stefanos aiming a pistol at Jeff and quickly hooks him with a fishing line, causing Stefanos to lose his balance and fall to his death.

Jeff goes back to Sterling's mansion and tells him of Kathie's double-cross and Stefanos' death. He offers that the death of Stefanos, Eels' actual murderer, can be made to look like a guilt-ridden suicide, saving himself from the frame-up. Furthermore, he will return the business records to Sterling if Sterling destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her over to the police for Fisher's death. Sterling takes the offer, and after Jeff leaves, he berates Kathie for going behind his back and attempting to kill Jeff.

Jeff visits Ann before returning to Tahoe, where he discovers that Kathie has killed Sterling. She gives Jeff the choice of running away with her with a satchel of Sterling's money or taking the blame for all three murders. He agrees to go with her, but phones the state police while she is upstairs packing. While driving away, Kathie spots a police roadblock and realizes that Jeff has betrayed her. After a brief struggle, she shoots and kills him. She then fires at the police, who fatally shoot her. When the news reaches Bridgeport, Ann asks The Kid if Jeff had been planning to run away with Kathie. The Kid lies and nods his head. Ann leaves as The Kid smiles and salutes Jeff's name on the station's sign.

Cast[]

Background and production[]

Out of the Past was produced by RKO Pictures, and the key personnel — director Jacques Tourneur, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, actors Mitchum and Greer, along with Albert S. D'Agostino's design group — were long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio had focused on making B-films during the early 1940s,[4][5] the post-World War II Out of the Past was given a comparatively lavish budget.[6]

John Garfield and Dick Powell turned down the lead.[7]

In only his second film role, Kirk Douglas plays a supporting part as Mitchum's antagonist in this film. The next time Mitchum and Douglas played major roles in the same picture was in the 1967 Western The Way West alongside Richard Widmark.

Musuraca also shot Tourneur's 1942 film Cat People.

Reception[]

Box office[]

The film made a profit of $90,000.[7]

Critical response[]

Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir.[8][9][10] Robert Ottoson hailed the film as "the ne plus ultra of forties film noir".[11]

Film critic Bosley Crowther wrote, "However, as we say, it's very snappy and quite intriguingly played by a cast that has been well and smartly directed by Jacques Tourneur. Robert Mitchum is magnificently cheeky and self-assured as the tangled 'private eye,' consuming an astronomical number of cigarettes in displaying his nonchalance. And Jane Greer is very sleek as his Delilah, Kirk Douglas is crisp as a big crook and Richard Webb, Virginia Huston, Rhonda Fleming and Dickie Moore are picturesque in other roles. If only we had some way of knowing what's going on in the last half of this film, we might get more pleasure from it. As it is, the challenge is worth a try."[12]

The staff at Variety wrote, "Out of the Past is a hardboiled melodrama [from the novel by Geoffrey Homes] strong on characterization. Direction by Jacques Tourneur pays close attention to mood development, achieving realistic flavor that is further emphasized by real life settings and topnotch lensing by Nicholas Musuraca...Mitchum gives a very strong account of himself. Jane Greer as the baby-faced, charming killer is another lending potent interest. Kirk Douglas, the gangster, is believable and Paul Valentine makes his role of henchman stand out. Rhonda Fleming is in briefly but effectively."[13]

In a 2004 review of the film, critic Roger Ebert wrote "Out of the Past is one of the greatest of all film noirs, the story of a man who tries to break with his past and his weakness and start over again in a town, with a new job and a new girl. The film stars Robert Mitchum, whose weary eyes and laconic voice, whose very presence as a violent man wrapped in indifference, made him an archetypal noir actor. The story opens before we've even seen him, as trouble comes to town looking for him. A man from his past has seen him pumping gas, and now his old life reaches out and pulls him back."[10] Ebert also called it, "The greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time."[14] "The trick, as demonstrated by Jacques Tourneur and his cameraman, Nicholas Musuraca, is to throw a lot of light into the empty space where the characters are going to exhale. When they do, they produce great white clouds of smoke, which express their moods, their personalities and their energy levels. There were guns in Out of the Past, but the real hostility came when Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas smoked at each other."[14]

The film currently holds a "Fresh" score of 95% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9/10, based on 37 reviews.[15]

Adaptations[]

Out of the Past was remade as Against All Odds (1984) with Rachel Ward in the Greer role, Jeff Bridges filling in for Mitchum, and James Woods as a variation of Kirk Douglas' villain, with Jane Greer as the mother of her original character in Out of the Past and Richard Widmark in a supporting role.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Handler, David. "The Unsung Godfather of Film Noir". CrimeReads. Literary Hub. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
  2. ^ Andrews, Roberts M. (October 11, 1991). "25 Films Designated For Preservation". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lee Enterprises.
  3. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing | Film Registry | National Film Preservation Board | Programs at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  4. ^ Schatz 1999, p. 173, table 6.3.
  5. ^ Crafton, Donald (1997). The Talkies: American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926–1931. History of the American cinema, volume 4. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 210. ISBN 0-684-19585-2. OCLC 37608321.
  6. ^ Hagopian, Kevin. "Out of the Past". New York State Writers Institute.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Richard B. Jewell, Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures, Uni of California, 2016
  8. ^ Ballinger, Alexander; Graydon, Danny (2007). The Rough Guide to Film Noir. Rough Guides reference guides. London: Rough Guides. pp. 56, 151–52. ISBN 978-1-84353-474-7. OCLC 78989518.
  9. ^ Schatz 1999, p. 364
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Ebert, Roger (July 18, 2004). "Out of the Past (1947)". Chicago Sun-Times. Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
  11. ^ Ottoson, Robert (1981). A Reference Guide to the American Film Noir, 1940-1958. Metuchen, N.J., and London: Scarecrow Press. p. 132. ISBN 0-8108-1363-7. OCLC 6708669.
  12. ^ Crowther, Bosley (November 26, 1947). "Out of the Past (1947)". The New York Times. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
  13. ^ "Out of the Past Review". Variety. Reed Business Information. 1947. Retrieved February 1, 2008.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Ebert, Roger - 200 Cigarettes Chicago Sun, February 26, 1999. This review also later appeared in the book by Roger Ebert, "I Hated Hated Hated HATED this movie"
  15. ^ "Build My Gallows High (1947)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
Bibliography
  • Schatz, Thomas (1999) [1997]. Boom and Bust: American Cinema in the 1940s. History of the American cinema, volume 6. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-22130-3. OCLC 40907588.

External links[]

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