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Out of the Past
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Wikipedia article
'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), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain.
Its complex, fatalistic storyline, dark cinematography, and classic 'femme fatale' garnered the film critical acclaim and cult status. In 1991, the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress added 'Out of the Past' to the United States National Film Registry of culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films.https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/out_past.rev.pdf
Plot
Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, seeking Jeff Bailey, who owns a local gas station. Bailey is fishing with Ann Miller. They are in love. (Her lifelong friend Jim is jealous.) The Kid, Jeff's deaf-mute employee and friend, interrupts them, signing to Jeff. At the station, Stefanos tells Jeff that he must go to Lake Tahoe to meet "Whit." Jeff invites Ann to ride with him. He tells her about his past in a flashback.
Bailey's real last name is Markham. He and Jack Fisher were partners, private investigators in New York. Whit Sterling, a gambling kingpin, hires Markhamsoloto find Sterling's girlfriend, Kathie Moffat, who shot him and stole $40,000. Sterling promises she will not be harmed.
Jeff eventually corners Kathie in Acapulco. She seduces him. She admits that she shot Sterling, but denies taking his money. Eventually, Jeff proposes that they run away together. Sterling and Stefanos arrive. Jeff says that Kathie is on a south-bound steamer. Sterling instructs Jeff to keep looking for her.
The couple flee to San Francisco. Fisher, now working for Sterling, spots Jeff at the track. Jeff arranges to meet Kathie at a mountain cabin, but Fisher follows Kathie and tries to blackmail them. The two men brawl. Kathie deliberately kills Fisher and drives away, leaving behind a bank book showing a balance of $40,000.
The flashback ends. Jeff wants to clean things up and return to Ann. Ann leaves him at Sterling's estate. A cheerful Sterling tells Jeff he has a job for him. Jeff is startled when Kathie appears at breakfast. She comes to his room; he tells her to get out.
Leonard Eels, a crooked San Francisco lawyer, helped Sterling dodge $1 million in taxes and is blackmailing him. Sterling wants Jeff to recover the incriminating records. Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, explains the plan to Jeff, who suspects he is being framed. That night, at Eels' apartment, Jeff alerts Eels, obliquely, promising to return. After they leave, Jeff trails Carson, then returns and finds Eels dead. He hides the body.
In Carson's apartment, Jeff overhears Kathie arranging for the discovery of Eels' body. When the hidden body is not found, she believes Eels has escaped. Jeff confronts her and analyses the frame. The motive is provided when Kathie reveals that she gave Sterling a signed affidavit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. She says they can start all over again. They kiss, he leaves. Stefanos arrives and confirms that he killed Eels.
Jeff consigns the tax papers to a delivery service. Sterling's thugs capture him. He tells them not to bother Whit, and offers the papers in exchange for the affidavit, without implicating Kathie. When Kathie and Meta arrive at Eels' apartment to retrieve the affidavit, the police are already there. They instead phone Sterling.
The police want Jeff for the murders of Fisher and Eels. They expect him to return to Bridgeport. The Kid is acting as go-between and meets Kathie and Stephanos. When the Kid leaves, Stefanos, directed by Kathie, trails the Kid who drives to the gorge where Jeff is hiding. The Kid spots Stefanos aiming at Jeff and hooks his coat with a fishing line, accidentally pulling him over to his death. Jeff returns to Sterling's mansion to tell Kathie that Joe is dead and to tell Whit about Kathie's doublecross. He suggests making Stefanos' death look like a guilt-ridden suicide. He will return the records if Sterling destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her over to the police for Fisher's death. Sterling accepts, promising Kathie he will kill her if she does not cooperate.
Jeff meets Ann in the woods. She believes in him, but tells him to be absolutely sure of what he wants. She will wait.
Jeff discovers that Kathie has killed Sterling. She gives him a choice: run away with her or take the blame for all three murders. He dials the phone while she is upstairs. They leave in a car with Jeff driving. Seeing a police roadblock ahead, Kathie shoots him. She fires at the police. A machine gun riddles the car with bullets, killing her.
In Bridgeport, Ann asks the Kid if Jeff was going away with Kathie. Lying, the Kid nods his head. Ann gets into Jim's car, and the Kid smiles, saluting Jeff's name on the gas station's sign.
Cast
* Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey, previously known as Jeff Markham
* Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat
* Kirk Douglas as Whit Sterling
* Rhonda Fleming as Meta Carson
* Richard Webb as Jim
* Steve Brodie as Jack Fisher
* Virginia Huston as Ann Miller
* Paul Valentine as Joe Stefanos
* Dickie Moore as The Kid
* Ken Niles as Leonard Eels
* Theresa Harris as Eunice Leonard
Background and production
'Out of the Past' was produced by RKO Pictures, and the key personneldirector Jacques Tourneur, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, actors Mitchum and Greer, along with Albert S. D'Agostino's design groupwere long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio focused on making B-films during the early 1940s, the post-World War-II 'Out of the Past' was given a comparatively lavish budget.
John Garfield and Dick Powell turned down the lead.Richard B. Jewell, 'Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures', University of California, 2016. Kirk Douglas, in only his third credited screen performance, plays a supporting role but a central part in the story as Mitchum's antagonist. 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 RKO horror film 'Cat People'.[https://catalog.afi.com/Film/27177-CAT-PEOPLE?sid=7d9d4b04-916d-4f7d-8e26-df49f5a296c1&sr=10.298055&cp=1&pos=1 "Cat People (1942)"], catalog, American Film Institute (AFI), Los Angeles, California. Retrieved June 5, 2022.
Reception
The film made a profit of $90,000.
'Out of the Past' is considered one of the greatest of all films noir. Robert Ottoson hailed the film as "the 'ne plus ultra' of forties film noir". Bosley Crowther, the film critic for 'The New York Times' in 1947, complimented the crime drama's direction and performances, although he did find the latter portion of the screenplay hard to follow:
Shortly after the film's release, the staff of the widely read trade publication 'Variety' also gave it a positive review:
Decades later, in his 2004 assessment of the film for the 'Chicago Sun-Times', critic Roger Ebert noted:With regard to the production's stylish and moody cinematography, Ebert also dubbed the film "The greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time":Ebert, Roger - [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/200-cigarettes-1999 "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'.
The film holds ascore of 93% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, with an average rating of 9/10, based on 40 reviews.
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
; Bibliography
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* [https://www.google.com/books/edition/America_s_Film_Legacy/deq3xI8OmCkC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1iKuc7_fqAhV4hXIEHXsJAOEQiKUDMBZ6BAgTEAQ 'Out of the Past'] by Daniel Eagan in 'America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry', A&C Black, 2010 , pages 406-408
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