Out of the Past(1947): The burden of the past haunts in this fantastic noir classic
“And then I saw her coming out of the sun and I knew why Whit didn’t care about the 40 grand”. It was from this moment that changed Jeff Markham’s life. The burden of the past comes to haunt him in this fantastic noir. Directed by Jacques Tourneur a French film director who made films for the Hollywood studio. Written for the screen by Daniel Mainwaring which is also based on the novel written by him called Build My Gallows High (screenplay also is credited to Frank Fenton and James M. Cain). The film obtained a cult classic in the genre, and it is due to its highly appraisable acting from the cast with complex and dark characters immersed in an intriguing plot.
We see a mysterious man named Joe Stefanos drive down to a gas station and tries to initiate a conversation to a young boy who seems an employee of the station and is shown to be deaf and dumb but can understand by reading the persons lips. He inquiries about the whereabouts of Jeff Bailey (Played by Robert Mitchum) who is the man who owns the gas station. He is down by the lake with Ann Miller his lover and the boy tell Jeff that there is someone to see him. Jeff meets with Joe who appears to be an old acquaintance from his past and is later revealed that Jeffs real last name is Markham and that he was a private detective. Joe wants him to meet Whit (played by Kirk Douglas) and Jeff takes Ann with her and on the way, Jeff narrates his flashback to her.
In the past Jeff was working as a private detective with his partner Jack Fisher at New York city and is hired by a gangster named Whit Sterling to find a Woman named Kathie Moffat (played by Jane Greer), who supposedly shot Sterling and stole $40,000 and ran way. Sterling assures she won’t be in any harm and just wants her back. Later he tracks her down at Mexico and fall in love with her. Jeff Markham becomes infatuated towards Kathie to the point of carelessness from the consequences. With Kathie revealing during there scene at the beach where she says:
“I didn’t know anything except how much I hated him, but I didn’t take anything. I didn’t Jeff. Do you believe me?”
With Jeff replying, “Baby I don’t care”. This gives a reflection of how Mitchum’s character gets obsessed with her.
Later Jeff also reveals to Ann about how they escaped together from Whit by lying to him and accidently got sighted by his old partner Fisher. Fisher follows them to their hideout and blackmails them. This leads a fight between Jeff and Fisher but is later shot by Kathie. She then escapes while Jeff is trapped in a situation to discard the body and while leaving, he finds out that Kathie has been lying to him and in fact took the 40 grand. After this narration we cut back to the present day and Jeff wants to discard the past, but he nevertheless goes to confront Whit Sterling again. But to his surprise he meets Kathie there once again leading to a spiralling story of deceit and murder. He takes another case from Sterling even though he knows that he has betrayed him, and that Kathie is associated with Sterling again. The nature of the character is interesting where the “common sense” doesn’t preside over him, how she had lied to him, but the obsession is forcing him back or the redemption he might make from all this. He goes to meet the secretary Meta Carson (played by Rhonda Fleming) of Leonard Eels an accountant of Sterling and is blackmailing Sterling which could lead to his imprisonment from the government. He even says "I think I'm in a frame" realising what he is getting into.
Robert Mitchum plays the character with manliness, his exotic voice packed with a handsome face imparts an intelligent and broken man trying to waver around so he can get done with all of this. It is a delight to see him perform. His presence stands out. The famous Kirk Douglas also nails the role of the gangster and plays the morally corrupt with grace and ambiguity. Jane Greer gives the tenacity of a corrupt Woman who is also morally differentiated in the love towards Jeff’s character.
The dialogue from this film is a highlight. The brilliance lies in its wittiness and humoristic nature. It encapsulates the drama and brings a dynamism to the characters. For example, Kathie telling Jeff, "I don't want to die, then Jeff replying, "Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last” or Sterling asking “Say, I understand you're operating a little gasoline station.” With Jeff replying “It's very simple. I sell gasoline. I make a small profit. With that I buy groceries the grocer makes a profit. They call it earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere.”
Out of the Past is fantastic and brings about a complex set of characters embedded in a maze-like plot with snappy and witty dialogue that gives a great taste of classic noir cinema.