Out of the Past has it all. The hardboiled detective who’s run afoul of the mobster. The treacherous mobster who hires him to find the dangerous dame. And the dangerous dame. Especially the dangerous dame.
It goes like this: Here we are in Bridgeport, a tiny hamlet in the California hills. Based on the cars, late 1940s. Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchem) is the mysterious man who showed up a few years ago. He’s running a gas station, wooing a local woman, and revealing very little about his past.
But one day his past catches up with him. He’s summoned to Tahoe to meet with a mobster who’s still peeved by the unfinished business Jeff had with him years ago. Jeff brings along his girlfriend, and in the car he tells her (and us) his story, a classic Noir voice-over
His name’s not Bailey. It’s Markham. Until a few years ago, he was a private detective in New York City. Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas), the aforementioned mobster, wanted Jeff to find his runaway girlfriend, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). Why? For one thing, she shot him. For another, she made off with $40,000. And least believable but perhaps true, he just wants her back.
Jeff explains how intuition led him to Acapulco, where eventually he connects with Kathie. Yes, connects. Sparks fly. They’re in love, just like that. Rather than turn her over to Sterling, they lay a false trail and hightail it to San Francisco, where for a few years they lay low and enjoy life together. But the past catches up with them there, too.
And that just brings us up to where the plot begins to get really twisty. Before the final shot (yes, it’s a pun), Whit’s machinations to keep Kathie and Jeff under his thumb become ever more convoluted. Kathie’s wiles become ever more dark and sinister. And Jeff becomes ever more entangled in both of these spiders’ webs. Jeff anticipates it all, seeming at times to almost stay one step ahead. Will he get back to his girlfriend in Bridgeport? Or will the past finally be his undoing?
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Out of the Past has all the classic Noir trappings: characters of varying degrees of shadiness, convoluted plot, sultry atmosphere, relentless wordplay-laden dialog. But that also means the characters are all Noir stereotypes, not real people.
But, you know, sometimes that’s all you need when you have a poor sap like Robert Mitchem to root for. He should have been too smart to get tangled up with Whit in the first place. But he’s a classic private eye fall guy, with a need for the big money on offer and a weakness for dangerous dames. Mitchem is perfect as Jeff Markham, all sarcasm and world-weary cynicism. Those drooping eyes, that face that rarely reveals surprise or anger. Mitchem had gained recognition in 1945 in Story of G.I. Joe, but Out of the Past was his first major starring role, and it was among the first in a string of classic Noirs for which we still know him today.
Jane Greer as the femme fatale? Oh, she’s good too. From the moment she walks through those doors of the saloon in Acapulco, we know she’s a wrong number. (Why doesn’t Jeff?) Greer is utterly captivating as the woman who always has a convenient – though not always convincing – excuse for what she’s doing.
And then there’s Kirk Douglas, aptly named Whit. It was only his third-credited movie role (which explains why Greer could get top billing above him). Douglas is an electric presence. His exudes confidence as the gangster: no swagger, no boasting, just steely determination. He’s impeccable as a guy you don’t mess with.
Cinematography? Noirish as well. Jeff’s first sight of Kathie is stunning. She’s standing in the entrance to that bar in Acapulco, all in white: a wide-brimmed sunbonnet and clingy dress. She seems to glow in the light, positively radiant. Or consider Jeff’s first visit to Tahoe to see Whit after years in hiding. He’s walking up to the mansion in the shade, and then he strides into the sunlight, a man emerging from his past into the present. Just a sample.
Nearly the entire script is quotable. It’s both the movie’s strength and weakness. I mean, who couldn’t like lines like this:
Ann: She can’t be all bad. No one is.
Jeff: Well, she comes the closest.
[Kathie is playing roulette]
Jeff: That’s not the way to win.
Kathie: Is there a way to win?
Jeff: There’s a way to lose more slowly.
Kathie: I don’t want to die.
Jeff: Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I’m going to die last.
But all the main characters talk alike in that snappy, Noirish banter. It’s entertaining. But in the end it’s a failing because it robs the actors of the potential to emerge as individual characters rather than stereotypes.
Oh, heck. Let’s not quibble. That’s Noir, I suppose. (I am no great expert, as you can tell.) If you’re a Noir devotee, this is absolutely your kind of thing. Sit back, enjoy the banter, the hardboiled private eye, the treacherous mobster, and the dangerous dame. Especially the dangerous dame.