User reviews

In a small town in California, the mysterious Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) owns a small gas station and is in love with the local Ann (Virginia Huston). When a stranger just arrived in town meets him, Jeff is ordered to travel to meet the powerful criminal Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). Before traveling, Jeff calls Ann and tells her the story of his life, when he was a private eyes hired by Whit for US$ 5,000.00 to find his former mistress Kathie (Jane Greer) that had shot Whit and stolen US$ 40,000.00. The competent Jeff finds Kathie in Acapulco, but she tells that she had not taken Whit's money and they fall in love for each other and escape from Whit. When the former partner of Jeff, Fisher (Steve Brodie), finds the couple living in an isolated cabin, Kathie kills him and Jeff buries his corpse. Jeff accidentally finds the receipt of deposit of the amount in Kathie's purse and leaves her forever. When Jeff meets Whit, he surprisingly finds Kathie living with him; Whit asks Jeff one last job to get even and release Jeff from his debt. But Jeff finds that Whit is actually framing him.

"Out of the Past" is an excellent film-noir, with a melancholic story and a magnificent and amoral female fatal. The direction of Jacques Tourneur is outstanding and the cinematography is very beautiful. Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer have top-notch performances, showing great chemistry. However, the fantastic screenplay is certainly the best in this movie, disclosing a complex plot with the use of flashback and great lines. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Fuga do Passado" ("Escape from the Past")

Full of atmosphere and heat, "Out of the Past" is a classic film noir, directed by a master, Jacques Tourneur. Although considered only an above-average B movie at the time of release, it's doubtful anyone thinks of it that way today, as it is superior to many "A" films. With a top-notch cast and a deceptively easy pace that belies the tension and danger underneath, "Out of the Past" makes for an intriguing, absorbing film.

Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer make a great pair - both are sultry, sexy, hard to read, and gorgeous. I found Greer's performance quite interesting. In the beginning, she appears quite warm, frightened, and sincere, as opposed to, say, Lizabeth Scott in "Dead Reckoning." When she turns hardboiled, it's subtle, with only a change in her eyes and voice, when she comments that Fisher isn't going to say anything to anybody. I love the way Mitchum sizes up women. He absolutely smolders, and 40 years later, in "The Winds of War," he was still smoldering.

Kirk Douglas is appropriately edgy in his supporting role as Whit. Rhonda Fleming has a small role, but no one that incredibly beautiful was going to go unnoticed for long.

What a wonderful film, what a perfect example of a genre.

How do I love it? Let me count the ways...First, like a few perfect jazz albums, OUT OF THE PAST has a distinctive, coherent sound developed through various moods and tempos and melodies. Robert Mitchum is the lead soloist who dominates the score; the sound of the film is his sound, cool and weary and knowing. Though he doesn't sing in this one, no performance better demonstrates Mitchum's musicality, his sense of rhythm, pace and inflection. He referred to his dialogue as "the lyrics," and treated it that way, delivering his lines behind the beat, the way Sinatra sings. Jane Greer contributes her gorgeous dry contralto and Kirk Douglas adds a light, sneering counterpoint to an inspired group improvisation on the theme of disillusionment.

Mitchum is Jeff Markham, alias Jeff Bailey, an ex-private eye who made a big mistake by falling for Kathie (Jane Greer), the gangster's mistress he was hired to track down. Splitting up after he discovers she's a liar and a killer, he hides out in a small town, taking up with a nice girl named Ann, knowing it's just a matter of time before the past catches up with him. His narration and dialogue carry the film along on a laid-back high, like a series of perfect smoke rings. He sums up his philosophy of life in a casino when Kathie asks, "Is there a way to win?" and he answers, "There's a way to lose more slowly." When she says she's sorry the man she shot didn't die, he murmurs dreamily, "Give him time." His enveloping pessimism is strangely elated; Jeff knows the score and savors it like some private hipster knowledge. "She can't be all bad. No one is," Jeff's nice girlfriend says of Kathie, but he returns, "She comes closest."

Kathie Moffat is the greatest of all femmes fatales, because she's the least caricatured. She's not a scheming black widow, just a totally selfish, cowardly woman who feels no remorse for anything she does, and who happens to be beautiful and alluring enough that we can believe any man, even a smart and tough one, would fall for her. Jeff and Kathie's romance is genuinely rhapsodic, nothing like the usual mating of temptress and chump; they're both so sexy and smart and wised-up, always getting the joke together. The disillusionment wouldn't be so compelling if the illusion weren't so lovely. When Kathie shoots Jeff's partner, Mitchum—in a reaction shot lasting all of two seconds—shows Jeff realizing, and instantaneously coming to terms with, the fact that the best thing that ever happened to him is also the worst thing that ever happened to him. He looks simultaneously shocked to the core, and as though he'd expected it all along.

Jeff Bailey is a paradox: you'd think nobody could put anything over on this guy, yet he acts like a sucker; he exemplifies both cynical pride and romantic blindness. Does he know what he's getting into and deliberately delude himself? Is he drawn to Kathie because she can rouse him from his torpor of indifference, because he can only really care about his life when he's in danger of losing it? You're never sure, but Mitchum knows how to hold your interest without explaining himself. His essential "Mitchumness" lies in hidden depths, those hints of melancholy, amusement and cold violence that seep through his impassive surface, the suggestions of menace and compassion and old wounds. He gives the movie a core of mystery that's eternally captivating. Like great American popular music, it's sublime hokum, so well-crafted that it stays eternally fresh and means more to you the more you hear it.

Here is a world in which every throwaway gesture—ordering a cup of coffee, checking a briefcase—has drop-dead style, every word spoken is a wisecrack or a line of pulp poetry. Even minor characters and incidental scenes are rich and unforgettable: Theresa Harris as Eunice the maid in her fabulous Billie Holiday hat in the Harlem nightclub; the check-room clerk at the bus station, witness to who knows how many noir entanglements, with his hollow-man motto: "I always say everyone's right"; Joe Stefanos's black overcoat appearing like an ink-spot in the clean white town; the signs the mute Kid flashes to Jeff by the glittering lake, as the sky clouds over…

The movie floats from place to place, blending real landscapes and studio sets, expressionistic stairwells and Ansel Adams mountains. The episodes run together fluid and compulsive as a dream. Sometimes there's nothing but music and movement: Jeff prowling cat-like around Meta Carson's apartment while boogie-woogie piano plays in the next room. The cinematography is distractingly gorgeous, drifting into glistening abstract patterns of black and white, like the web of bare tree-branches projected onto the bodies of Jeff and Ann at their last meeting. A seamless blend of romance and cynicism, drama and humor, OUT OF THE PAST is not only a perfect Hollywood studio product, it's a definitive movie experience. It's supersaturated, yet it never feels overworked, never tries too hard. It just seems to happen, almost by casual serendipity; the wit and elegance and glamour are so unforced and alive. You succumb to it instantly and helplessly as Jeff succumbs to Kathie's magic. The spell breaks for him, but not for us. Disenchantment may be the theme of OUT OF THE PAST, but the movie itself is a source of perennial wonder.

I have been a fan of Jacques Tourneur's horror movies ('Cat People', 'Night Of The Demon', 'I Walked With A Zombie',etc.) for many years, but for some reason I hadn't seen 'Out Of The Past' until very recently. Regarded by many noir buffs as one of the very best examples of the genre, if not THE best, it knocked my socks off! Some movies are so good that you almost can't believe they exist. 'Vertigo', 'Rashomon', 'Taxi Driver', 'Cool Hand Luke', 'The Wild Bunch', 'The Wages Of Fear', these are some titles that immediately spring to mind. Your jaw just drops in amazement, and repeated viewing reveal more layers and levels of enjoyment. 'Out Of The Past' now joins that group of very special movies for me. Tourneur's horror classics are brilliant works, but this movie surpasses them all to me. Everything about this movie is superb. The direction, photography, script (which crime legend James M. Cain of 'The Postman Always Rings Twice' and 'Double Indemnity' fame contributed to anonymously), and the actors. The cast are all good, but Robert Mitchum steals the show with a first rate performance, second only in my opinion to his unforgettable role in the extraordinary 'Night Of The Hunter'. The beautiful Jane Greer is also excellent, as is Kirk Douglas. If you want to get into film-noir and understand just how influential it was on subsequent movies, make 'Out Of The Past' your first stop. It is a masterpiece, pure and simple. I know this movie will be in my life for a very long time, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction. 'Out Of The Past' comes with my highest recommendation. I can't put into words just how great this movie is, so just watch it for yourself.

Jacques Tourneur will probably be remembered best for this film, even though he had an extensive career in Hollywood. Working with Daniel Mainwaring, the author of the novel in which this movie is based, he created one of the best pictures of this genre, one that will be a perennial favorite. Mr. Tourneur and his cinematographer, the brilliant Nicholas Musuraca, made a stunning looking film that looks as good today, as when it was originally released.

If you haven't seen the film, please stop reading now.

Jeff Bailey has reinvented himself as the owner of a gas station in California. His past comes to haunt him at the beginning of the movie. Jeff has found peace and love in the small town where he has taken refuge. He can change his identity, but he can't hide from the people that want to see him dead.

We watch in the beginning how Jeff is sent away by Whit Sterling to look for the disappearing Kathie Moffat, who has stolen forty thousand dollars and gone hiding. Jeff finds her in Acapulco. Kathie gives a bad name to any other dames in the movies of this genre. She is totally ruthless; she will do anything to double cross Whit as well as have Jeff do whatever she wants.

Comparisons have been made between "The Maltese Falcon" and "Out of the Past". Both have plots that are twisted; when we feel we know everything, there is a new twist to the story. We are constantly misled into thinking one way, when in reality, something else has happened.

This is a film that combines all the elements of the classic film noir and juxtaposes it against the serene surroundings of where Jeff is now living. Black and white photography was used to great advantage in the movie. It has a style that makes it one of a kind. The music by Roy Webb plays neatly in the background without interrupting the action.

The acting is first rate. Mr. Tourneur got a brilliant performance from Robert Mitchum. His Jeff, is the epitome of coolness. It's hard to understand the mentality of American cinema of the times not paying Mr. Mitchum his due. He was a much better actor than he was given credit for. His presence looms large in this movie and it's a tribute to him that he makes his character dominate the movie.

Jane Greer was also excellent in her take of Kathie Moffat. She is pure evil, a sensuous woman who will do anything to get her own way. When we see her in Acapulco she is a seductress that no man can resist. She leads Jeff on by the sheer power of the desire he feels for her. Ms. Greer was not a beauty, by Hollywood standard, but yet, she makes an incredible contribution to the movie. Her textured performance is exquisite in its economy. We all see right through her, yet, she takes us for an incredible ride, up to the end of the picture.

The others in the cast do an excellent job. A young and dashing Kirk Douglas is perfect as the dubious Whit. He shows such a magnetism, even then, at the start of his career in movies. Rhonda Fleming had a small role and she makes most of it. Also Virginia Huston, as Ann, makes a great contribution to the film.

The film, ultimately, is a tribute to the talent of the director. This is Mr. Tourneur's best movie.

Terrific exotic adventure/melodrama with gothic undertones. Douglas follows Mitchum following Greer to Mexico; murder and robbery follow everywhere femme fatale Greer goes. She's excellent; vulnerable eyes revealing the fear motivating her totally irrational, greedy actions. She and Mitchum are made for each other (it's a shame that this and the less exciting "The Big Steal" are their only films together as far as I know, although Greer did make a good pairing with the comparably skilled Richard Widmark in "Run for the Sun"). Every step of their twisted journey feels inevitable, painful, and joyous, like a death-row inmate smoking his last cigarette. Mitchum is at his best here as the patsy for Greer and Doublas' schemes, who plays along as if he knows better but is truly seeking absolution from death.

One of the best films ever made by Hollywood, all the more amazing considering it was made almost on the fly (what people today call a "film noir" but what the producers though of as a "B" movie).

Tourneur is one of the best low budget directors in the business; fans of good film will seek out his movies, which cover all the different genres of film. His father was one of the creators of film style, and he has a striking sense of visual composition himself, which he puts to excellent use in this, possibly his best film.

Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) runs a small gas station in a little town in CA. He's in love with a beautiful girl. But he has a past which is about to catch up with him involving gangster Whit (Kirk Douglas) and evil Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer)...MANY twists and turns happen.

The plot is very complicated but this is a prime example of film noir. It's beautifully directed using darkness in almost every shot and has all the ingredients of a good noir--an innocent man (Robert Mitchum) in over his head, a bad guy (Kirk Douglas) and a totally amoral woman (Jane Greer). What makes this stands out (beside the incredible cinematography and direction) is a wonderful script. It's full of some truly incredible lines and delivered dead pan by the cast (as it should be). If any of them had winked at the camera once this would have failed. Mitchum plays it very stone-faced but Douglas is great and Greer is just fascinating as a totally evil, beautiful woman.

Basically a must-see film.

Out of the Past is one of the best film noir of all time. It's use of story line and lighting alone makes this film a winner. Robert Mitchum is the perfect detective character. Like a superhero, he gains his power from the city and is weak to his enemies when in the country. Great use of symbolisim throughout the film. When Mitchum falls for Moffat, we see the spider woman at work as she catches him in her spider web. (more like a fishing net on the beach) A terrific ending and beautiful camera work. A pure classic in film noir.

A solid film noir starring the inimitable Robert Mitchum as a small-time hood who's given up his crime career and now makes a living pumping gas! Unfortunately for him, his past is about to catch up with him in the form of a debt owed to Kirk Douglas's nasty gangster. Douglas's mistress, Kathie, absconded with $40,000 and Douglas wants it back, so he employs Mitchum to track the woman down.

Unfortunately, Kathie is a classic femme fatale - played with full-scale conniving relish by Jane Greer - and Mitchum soon finds himself falling for her ample charms. What follows then is a ride of betrayal, murder, and of course death, all ably filmed by the great Jacques Tourneur (NIGHT OF THE DEMON). Much of the fun in BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH comes from the contrast between Douglas's youthful evil and Mitchum's laid back laconic style, and there are the requisite plot elements to enjoy here: sudden character betrayals, bursts of shocking violence, a memorable ending, and lots of smouldering tension.

If I liked the film better, I'd be curious to read the original novel entitled Build My Gallows High, written by Daniel Mainwaring. Mainwaring used a pseudonym and adapted his work for the screen, resulting in one of the most famous film noirs in screen history. The main problem I had with the film Out of the Past was the odd storyline and construction. I imagined a 4 hour running time, including every plot point and character development from an original 800-paged novel-the studios insisted that the film be shortened and the end result was a lack of character development for anyone and a haphazard story cut to bits. I've since learned the original book is only 160 pages, and I can't understand why the film's story was choppy scenes were so confusing.

The "good guys" are the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are the "bad guys", with no explanation for anyone's behavior. The plot moves so quickly with such swift deviation that I kept pressing pause trying to figure out what was going on; by the end, I'd given up. I got the characters confused and had no idea what was happening.

Here's what I was able to get out of the plot: Robert Mitchum runs a garage in a small town. His assistant is a deaf and dumb teenage boy, and his sweetheart is the innocent Virginia Huston. Then, Paul Valentine finds him, and he confesses his secret past to Virginia. His secret past includes being indebted to Kirk Douglas, a gangster who wanted Bob to find and retrieve his runaway girlfriend Jane Greer. If there was a reason why Bob and Kirk were thrown together in the first place, it went over my head. And I couldn't count how many times I got Jane Greer and Rhonda Fleming mixed up! And what was the reason why Dickie Moore was deaf and dumb and inexplicably loyal to Bob Mitchum?

I watched the movie because I knew it was famous and I love to drool over Robert Mitchum. If you absolutely love film noir films, you might want to rent this one, but be forewarned. And be on the lookout for the very famous line, "Baby, I don't care," that inspired the title of Lee Server's famous biography of Robert Mitchum!

Tremendously stylish, brilliantly scripted and wonderfully directed noir classic about a man who cannot escape from his past. Rarely does the genre get away from the grimy city streets with it's dark corridors and alleyways only partially lit by un-realistic streams of bright light. In this film we not only see the underworld gangs, the bars and floozies, the heavies and the fatales, but we also see the bright beautiful countryside, the streams and the rocks - a complete otherworld.

Mitchum is superb as the man who has escaped the city to live a new life in the country only to be dragged back by powerful forces. This broadening of the cinematic landscape makes the movie more affecting than your assorted Bogarts' & Ladds'. As with 'I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang' I feel much more sympathy for the lead actor who gets dragged back into the bear pit to wrestle for his life and soul.

'Out of the Past' also has some of the finest dialogue and narration I have ever heard, probably matched only by 'The Maltese Falcon'. 'She was like an autumn leaf blowing from gutter to gutter', is one gem that sticks in my mind.

The mood of the film is pleasantly melancholic and the portrayal of the fatale figure (Jane Greer) is particularly sympathetic. In most noir movies the male perspective of the double-crossing woman predominates (not that there's anything wrong with that, it's usually very funny). Here however, whilst Greer presents one of the blackest of women you at least know why she does what she does and can sympathise with her plight. She is trapped too.

Tourneur, tragically made few films but was a master at getting messages deep into your psyche, into your soul. 'Cat People 'and 'I Walked With a Zombie' both had otherworlds where the demons lived. We all have otherworlds too, places we'd rather not go very often, but as with Mitchum we are sometimes confronted with those demons and have to do battle once again. When I go next I hope to be wearing my hat at an exquisite angle and have my trench coat well belted.

This is an extremely stylish film noir with a balanced, touching performance by Robert Mitchum. I was not expecting to be as moved by this film as I ultimately was. It has the snappy banter that one would expect of a film from the 40s, but the dialogue transcends mere wit and left me more than a little emotional. Mitchum is remarkably understated and cool, making his self-destructive behavior all the more entrancing. Kirk Douglas also adds a really light touch to his role, keeping his slick gangster more genuine than one might expect. I would have to say that while it is in many ways a typical film noir (and a fine example of the style), I have never seen anything quite like it. There are locations you would never expect to see in a film noir and a surprising bittersweet ending. Fantastic film.

Out of the Past came at a time for Robert Mitchum after one of the worst films in his career, Desire Me which he did on a loan out to MGM. He must have been grateful to get back to RKO studios and to do one of the best noir films ever done.

Mitchum plays the luckless Jeff Bailey, private eye who has the ill fortune to fall under the feminine charms of Jane Greer after gambler/racketeer Kirk Douglas hires him to find her and $40,000.00 she stole from him after shooting him. Mitchum trails her to Mexico, but when he meets her, let's just say he easily sees why Kirk Douglas wants her back so bad. It's one piece of intrigue after another at this point until there's tragedy all around.

This was Kirk Douglas's second picture and he showed his range as a player after playing a weakling in his debut film, The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers. Douglas and Mitchum got good notices, but this film really belongs to Jane Greer. The sheer scope of this woman's evil will leave you gasping. Out of the Past gave Jane Greer her career role and she made the most of it. Two of post World War II Hollywood's biggest leading men and several others in tow. It's breathtaking when you think of it.

Out of the Past is a real downer of a film, but mesmerizing as a study of how a man can get hooked on feminine charms applied right.

What a movie. If I had to give away the term quintessential film noir to any film noir, Out of the Past could very well be it. The plot is complicated yet it is very engrossing, with plenty of effective scenes, especially that unforgettable ending. It is gorgeously shot, exceptionally directed, adeptly scripted and atmospherically scored, these are reasons enough to watch this film. But I can't write this review without praising the acting. Robert Mitchum is memorably languid as the ultra-hard-boiled former private detective, while Jane Greer is dangerously beautiful as the cold yet equally beautiful femme-fatale. Kirk Douglas is also brilliant as the soft-spoken yet truly Machiavellian gangster. Overall, Out of The Past is quite simply quintessential film noir. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This film noir starts off in the present with Mitchum as an automobile technician with a past working in a small town. Mitchum is courting one of the town's young ladies, and proceeds to tell her about his rather questionable past in an attempt to clear his conscience. Cue the flashback sequences!

Past-Mitchum was hired by Kirk Douglas to find his (Kirk's) girlfriend, Kathy, who has apparently stolen 40 G's and is on the run. Mitchum tracks Kathy to Mexico, meets her in a cafe, and the two quickly strike up a whirlwind romance. From the moment I saw Jane Greer enter that cafe, I instantly knew she was going to play him for a sap (that's just the way the gun fires). Throughout the remainder of the film, the viewer is left wondering who is taking who for a ride, and who is on the level. The plot is filled with murder, threats, fear, greed, dysfunctional friendships/relationships, and two-timing: some of the most prolific characteristics of a noir. Mitchum was his regular noir self (which is a good thing), Jane Greer did a great job as the two-timing, conniving dame, Douglas was eerily convincing as a rather weird corrupt individual (like in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; 1946), and Dickie Moore played Mitchum's deaf and mute assistant.

Aside: 37 years later Hollywood would try to remake this classic. The only thing the two films had in common was Mexico. It was the very first sign that the movies were losing their originality and their nerve. But it was just a rumble of thunder in the distance. The real storm wouldn't come for more than 20 years after that.

Try as I might, I could never get this film noir starring Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer to be as good to me as it's reputation. This film is often mentioned as one of the best of the film noir genre, but I never found it so. The poster is far better. In fact, if you want to see a more interesting film noir with Mitchum and Greer, then watch "The Big Steal."

Nonetheless, I think the confusing story with its convoluted storyline brings it down. Unlike most noirs than occur in a big city, this one involves the countryside from San Francisco to Acapulco. Kirk Douglas doesn't have a big role in here but he makes his presence felt. He does a good job of being both menacing and personable at the same time.

It also was nice to see this on a good DVD transfer as I was never able to find a good VHS of this movie. It does make the viewing experience a lot better....but I'm still looking for more with this film. I'll say what most "crtiics" are afraid to admit: it's overrated.

Noir , compicated movie with intrincate plot starting with a long flashback in which our starring Robert Mitchum makes a rendezvous with his own past in the shape of Jane Greer . It deals with a private detective : Robert Mitchim who is assigned by a mobster : Kirk Douglas to find his disappeared sultry girlfriend . Mitchum undertakes a hallucinatory voyage to meet the mysterious woman resulting in fateful consequences . Along the way Mitchum gets caught in a twisted cobweb of love , killing and money .

Nice and complex Film Noir from a perversely corrupt , dark and and traditionally condemned World in which deceasing , love triangle , treason , Femme Fatale , numerous double-crosses and murders are ordinary happenings . The film contains an excellent atmosphere in which the mood of obsession and desire was never more suggestive and powerful. Interesting and tortuous storyline by Daniel Mainwaring (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Phoenix Story) , as the source novel "Build My Gallows High" was by Mainwaring writing as Geoffrey Holmes , it is intensely revealed at every level with several surprises , twists and turns . Mitchum gives an awesome acting in his peculiar style . Robert became an overnight star after this movie , which was overlooked but nowadays deemed one of the best in its genre . He is very well accompanied by an excellent cast as Jane Greer , Kirk Douglas , Richard Webb , Rhonda Fleming , Virginia Houston , Steve Brodie , among others . Being remade in 1984 as "Against all odds" by Taylor Hackford with Jeff Bridges , Rachel Ward, Richard Widmark , James Woods and Jane Greer herself .

It packs a supercrafted cinematography in black and white by Nicolas Musuraca (Cat People , I Walked with a Zombie) who along with John Seitz and John Alton are deemed to be the best photographers of the splendid Noir Movies shot in the Forties and Fifties. The motion picture was perfectly directed by Jacques Tourneur , while the plot turns out to be complex and tortuous , but resulting in clearness thanks to this great filmmaker . He was an expert craftsman who directed all kinds of genres , getting some masterpieces (Cat People , The Leopard Man, The Flame and the Arrow, Days of Glory , Night of Demon). Rating : 7.5/10 . Better than average . Well worth watching .

You've run and found a hide, somewhere quiet to reside, and you've found yourself a dame, life's now getting calm and tame, until the past pays you a call, and you're back against a wall, summoned by your last paymaster, this could become a disaster, asking you to help him out, there's suspicion and there's doubt, as you put on your raincoat, the costume worn by his scapegoat.

Skulduggery, double crossing and double dealing a plenty in this often revisited theme that is seldom recaptured as elegantly as it is here, with two of the biggest future male stars of the silver screen politely jousting each other in a dance of jeopardy, enveloped by the femme fatal beauty and charm of the alluring Kathie, teasingly played out by the delightful Jane Greer - wonderful!

OUT OF THE PAST is like watching a textbook lesson in Film Noir 101.

It has so many layers of plots and sub-plots, so much rich B&W texture in Nicholas Musuraca's shadowy photography, so many ambiguous moments that keep you guessing what's around the corner, and so many memorable quotes in scene after scene that you could spend the entire movie just writing down the crafty lines. What a blessing it must have been for these actors to read the script and savor the flavor of the lines they would be reciting.

ROBERT MITCHUM, of course, slouching around in trenchcoat and hat on the prowl for the femme fatale, was at his peak as a movie hero, fully aware of the dangers ahead as he meets up with shady old friend KIRK DOUGLAS. (Incidentally, the Mitchum/Douglas chemistry is just as strong, if not stronger, than that between Mitchum and JANE GREER). Greer has the sultry good looks for a femme fatale but she's just a little too poker-faced to make her crimes seem credible.

Once the screenplay makes clear that he's about to be more prey than predator, it becomes fascinating to watch the way he falls into the web of deceit so completely. Then the film becomes a little more burdensome to watch as the double crosses begin. There ought to be an ALERT message flashing on the screen as the plot becomes more involved. You need to be watching carefully as events unfold on screen or you'll lose track of the story details that all mesh together at the end.

Even the ending is not as deceptively simple as it looks. There are implications that someone is not telling the whole truth, but I won't give that plot detail away here. Stay alert until that final scene and you'll see what I'm getting at.

Mitchum, Greer and Douglas are excellent and they have a wonderful cast of supporting players that never let them down. The script is a marvel of how a film noir should be constructed with the clever lines completely appropriate for the characters and never once do they ring a false note.

By all means, it's the kind of private eye story everyone can enjoy, as dark and shadowy as any film noir you've ever seen--and then some. It's one of RKO's most memorable noirs.

Trivia note: Personally, I like the original title which, I believe, is the title of the novel: BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH.

There seems to be a consensus, in all the books on films noir that I've come across, that "Out of the Past" is a pretty fine, not to say iconic, example of the genre. I bought it a few years ago and was not impressed. However, after having read some more stuff recently and been encouraged once again by a host of positive opinions, I watched it again. Well, still no dice. I'm not even convinced that it's a particularly good film, never mind a classic example of noir. The major problem is the script. While memorably snappy here and there ("Baby, I don't care"; "A dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle"; "Awfully cold around the heart"; and Bailey's voice-over in the flashback), it loses focus and momentum in the last third of the film, the San Francisco/Tahoe scenes. Here the film is complicated by needlessly tortuous plotting, and Kathie's villainy seems awkward and dull.

The San Francisco scenes are the most noir-ish in terms of style and setting. Set at night, in the rain, there are long moments of quiet as Bailey sidles in and out of bars and apartments. Yet the photography is unremarkable and adds nothing to the mood of the piece that the night-time does not bring on its own. This contrasts starkly with the opening of the film, set in daylight in mid-town America, by the fishing stream, and with the second third of the film, set in Acapulco, in the sunshine and brightness, and the romance of the beach. Yet there is a standard noir voice-over against the sunshine which, though it doesn't jibe with the intense romance that plays out there, is no doubt intended to underscore Bailey's fatalism and Kathie's projected betrayal. The tone is so uneven that the mood of the film, intentionally cynical and bleak, simply drains away into a dullness that is only reprieved by the out-and-out nihilism of the ending.

And yet there is some good stuff too. The flashback sequence is probably the best in the film, despite the asymmetry of its components. In fact, perhaps this very conflict of styles brings a complexity and depth that the rest of the film sadly lacks. Bailey's utter abandonment of his better self to Kathie, punctuated by his wonderfully poetic narrative, gives heart to a film that sorely lacks one. The pain and shock on Bailey's face when Kathie shoots Fisher dead, is mirrored in the viewer's. After this, nothing matters and no-one cares – it just slides away into tedium.

The performances are very varied. I am conflicted by Mitchum's. Much as I value him as an actor, his laconic, careless mannerisms are reduced to weariness in this film; his resignation approaches enervation. There is nothing at all convincing about his feelings for the character of Anne Miller, and though Bailey belongs entirely to the milieu of Kathie and her sociopathic impulses, one cannot feel any sympathy for him, as he feels nothing for himself. All is emptiness.

While there is at least a seamless effortlessness about Mitchum, the same cannot be said of Jane Greer. She is fundamentally without charm as a seductress and unconvincing as a femme fatale. When compared to Barbara Stanwyck as Phyllis Dietrichson, or even Gene Tierney as Ellen Berent, her shortcomings are glaring. As an actress she reacts to the role instead of making it her own.

The only real bright spot in the film was Kirk Douglas, to be honest. Whit Sterling really thrived. Whether venal, cool, angry, amused or simply smooth, he managed to evince a real passion for life and, alone of all the characters in the film, laughed. Whit suddenly slapping Kathie was the only time I felt anything as the film dragged to a close.

Noir cynicism and suffering are one thing ("In a Lonely Place", for example), but lifelessness is something else again. "Out of the Past" is mired in the sense of its own meaninglessness. It is beyond loneliness, beyond bitterness. This is not film noir. This is boredom.