Light On Dark Water

Out of the Past

I watched this noir classic for the second time recently–the first time was probably more than five years ago–and immediately pronounced it the best of its kind. On reflection, I thought I might back off from that, as I considered others like The Maltese Falcon and The Postman Always Rings Twice. But I won't back off very far; it's as good as those, at least. 

I like it considerably better than Double Indemnity, which is another that's usually judged to be near the top of its class. One reason is that I find Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer more appealing than Fred McMurray and Barbra Stanwyck. Another is that the cinematography is top-notch. Many films of that period (late 1940s) are dim and muddy, but this one is crystal clear. And to my taste it's a more powerful story.

Here is something that purports to be the trailer. It looks to me more like it was assembled recently from clips. Certainly the text is not original. But it will give you a taste. (The video quality here is noticeable poorer than that of the actual film, at least as I saw it on Turner Classic Movies.)

 

Maclin Horton

45 responses to “Out of the Past”

  1. Rob G

    I’ve not seen this one but have put it on my list.

    Reply
  2. Mac

    You like noir, right? If so I find it hard to imagine that you wouldn’t rate this one pretty highly. It seems almost universally regarded as one of the best of the class.

    Reply
  3. Rob G

    Yes. I’ve watched a handful over the past six months.

    Reply
  4. Gary

    “Out of the Past” is one of my favorite noir classics, if not the favorite.
    I’m mystified why Jane Greer did not become a huge star after her role in this movie. She was absolutely stunning, and I can’t think of a better femme fatale performance.

    Reply
  5. Mac

    Right now it’s certainly my favorite. That last scene really hits hard.
    I certainly agree about Greer. The “When she walked in out of the sun” scene is just magnificent in every way, and it’s hard to think of another actress of the time who would have had the same impact.

    Reply
  6. Janet

    Well, the only way to watch it is to buy it on Amazon. Too bad.
    AMDG

    Reply
  7. Marianne

    Greer’s obit in the Guardian says she was one of Howard Hughes’ finds, and one reason she didn’t become a big star may have been the role that very creepy fellow played in her life. She was personally involved with and under contract to him, and after she married, the same year as Out of the Past was made, he limited the work she could do.
    I like that her actual first name was Bettejane.

    Reply
  8. Mac

    Yeah, that is pretty nice. According to Wikipedia she has some kind of role in Twin Peaks. I’m going to have to find out which character she was.
    I remember Against All Odds being popular in the ’80s (wasn’t there a hit song associated with it?), but didn’t realize it was a remake of Out of the Past. Anybody seen it? Worth watching?
    I’m sorry to hear that, Janet. I figured it was probably on Netflix and I could get it again if I wanted it, and removed it from my dvr. Well, that’s going away before too long anyway.

    Reply
  9. Janet

    You’re getting rid of Netflix?
    AMDG

    Reply
  10. Mac

    No, the dvr, which is part of our “cable” service. Goodbye TCM, which is where I got Out of the Past.

    Reply
  11. Janet

    I see. Well, you can put the movie on your “save” list, but my experience is that it is really long term savings.
    AMDG

    Reply
  12. Mac

    Worth a try, though, as I have had things actually come through from that list. Not many.

    Reply
  13. Janet

    I don’t think I have.
    AMDG

    Reply
  14. Gary

    Marianne wrote:
    She was personally involved with and under contract to him [Howard Hughes], and after she married, the same year as Out of the Past was made, he limited the work she could do.
    Oh my goodness.
    I wondered why she never became a big star, and that Guardian obit, if true, provides a terrible, chilling answer: Hughes destroyed most of her career and much of her personal life, too. Greer’s fine work in Out of the Past was one of the few things that escaped his devastating interference.

    Reply
  15. Rob G

    I’ve got the film ordered through my library. If there’s a copy available I should have it in hand for the weekend. Since I don’t have Netflix anymore I get most of my movies through the library now, except for very recent ones, which I’ll get from Red Box or Instaflix.

    Reply
  16. Gary

    Mac wrote:
    The “When she walked in out of the sun” scene is just magnificent in every way, …
    Now I’m embarrassed. Although I haven’t seen the movie in several years, you’d think I’d remember this scene, but I don’t, at least not as that kind of dramatic standout.
    Is this near the beginning, when Mitchum is hanging out in cantinas during the day waiting for her to show up, when one day “she walked in out of the sun”? If so, maybe I didn’t recall her big entrance because I really liked the 20 minute sequence that begins a bit before that, with those two down in Mexico.
    … and it’s hard to think of another actress of the time who would have had the same impact.
    Another very beautiful actress from that time I like is Gene Tierney who, less than 4 years older than Greer, would have been about the right age for the part. But it’s hard to imagine her as the steely, conniving Kathie Moffat; at least I’ve never seen her play that kind of role.

    Reply
  17. Marianne

    I think that scene where Greer walks in out of the sun that Mac is bowled over by is at the .43 point in this clip from the movie.
    Gene Tierney could have pulled off that steeliness — take a look at her in Leave Her to Heaven.

    Reply
  18. Janet

    The great thing about that scene is the shot of Mitchum–his face.
    AMDG

    Reply
  19. Mac

    Yes, that is the scene. Though now that I think about it the cartoonish Mexican is not exactly magnificent….
    I’ve been a Gene Tierney since I saw The Ghost and Mrs. Muir a while back, and I would also have said she wouldn’t be right as a treacherous noir dame. But that clip changed my mind. Chilling.

    Reply
  20. Gary

    Marianne wrote:
    I think that scene where Greer walks in out of the sun that Mac is bowled over by is at the .43 point in this clip from the movie.
    Thanks for the clip, Marianne.
    I think I had it right. Greer certainly makes a great entrance in this scene, but I really liked her (and Mitchum) in the entire sequence that follows, so that scene did not stand out so much in my mind.
    Marianne:
    Gene Tierney could have pulled off that steeliness — take a look at her in Leave Her to Heaven.
    Ooh, she’s evil. I’d never seen her like that before. I think you’re right, she could’ve done a good or excellent Kathie Moffat.

    Reply
  21. Janet

    I don’t remember if I,’ve ever seen the movie before but the book gave me the chills. Leave Her to Heaven. I mean. That is one evil character.
    AMDG

    Reply
  22. Mac

    I don’t know movie or book. I sorta think I may have recorded it off TCM but haven’t watched it, and may have deleted it.

    Reply
  23. Janet

    Well, I Out of the Past in my car. Got it at the library. Thanks Rob.
    Busy tonight though.
    AMDG

    Reply
  24. Rob G

    I’ve started watching an interesting British series, ‘Accused.’ It’s along the lines of ‘Law and Order,’ but it tells each story through the p.o.v. of the alleged perp. It’s been around awhile, but I only recently stumbled across it.

    Reply
  25. Mac

    Sounds interesting. btw wasn’t it you who recommended Justified here a while back? I’m nearly to the end of season 4. I’d rate it only “pretty good”–a good enough story to keep watching, but not much more.

    Reply
  26. Rob G

    No, wasn’t me. I watched four or five episodes but it didn’t really grab me.

    Reply
  27. Mac

    This is a bit of a spoiler, but: those first few episodes are not much above standard cop-show fare, albeit with a rural Kentucky twist. I might have dropped it if a friend hadn’t told me that it got considerably more interesting later. He was right. There’s a point where one of the major bad-guy characters gets religion, and for a while you think the show might be heading for Flannery O’Connor territory. But it doesn’t last.

    Reply
  28. Rob G

    Did we ever talk about True Detective on here?

    Reply
  29. Mac

    Not sure. You may have mentioned it. I haven’t seen it. Somehow I got the impression that it was overly dark and violent.

    Reply
  30. Rob G

    Yes, it was, but it had a very interesting religious component — almost Percy-esque. The two cops, played by Matthew McConnaughey and Woody Harrelson, have a very problematic relationship and their conversations about God and such are quite striking.
    M.M.’s character is an atheist/nihilist, very intelligent and very disdainful of religion. W.H.’s character is a non-practicing, “bad” Christian, who nevertheless has a deep-seated respect for religion and religious people.
    When they argue about things it superficially appears that MM gets the upper hand easily, yet WH’s character’s non-“intellectual” commonsense responses somehow always seem to find the mark. The conversations are fascinating.

    Reply
  31. Mac

    Sounds interesting. How violent is it? It’s really not the number of shootings etc that are a problem for me, but gruesome and gory stuff. Justified is almost ridiculously violent. It’s a rare episode in which at least one person isn’t shot.

    Reply
  32. Rob G

    It’s not terribly gruesome or gory, but it is an HBO series, so there is some sex/nudity (completely unnecessary) and the language is very rough. I’d put all of roughly it on the same level as ‘The Wire.’
    And one good thing about it is that it’s only an 8 hr. miniseries, so it’s not a huge investment of time.
    It is pretty dark, however, both in tone and in theme. But I found it really intriguing, and the ending is quite powerful.

    Reply
  33. Mac

    Justified was on one of the non-premium channels…can’t remember which one…and you can see the producers trying to get away with as much sexual stuff as they can. No doubt frustrating to them. Even so, it is probably overall more lewd and crude than the R-rated movies of 25 or so years ago, without showing any actual nudity.

    Reply
  34. Marianne

    I watched the first season of Justified, and really liked the main characters, especially the in-charge senior marshal, and, of course, the main guy is awfully cute ;-). But it was so dark overall, I decided not to watch anymore. And then several months ago I was at the library and there was the season two DVD staring at me. There was nothing else worth watching available, so I checked it out. The super-evil mother character in that season grabbed me and I stuck with it, and then even went back for season three. I think that’s it for me now, though, because it also left me feeling down, but who knows, when the pickin’s are slim…
    I know the show is praised for its dialogue, but it bothers me quite a bit the way some of the bad guys talk, which seems to be copying the way the Coen brothers had the folks talking in the most recent True Grit — in a overly precise, archaic-sounding kind of way, especially in how they don’t use contractions. Or maybe that’s the way Elmore Leonard writes? I’ve never read any of his books.

    Reply
  35. Mac

    Leonard’s dialog is great, but I don’t think that particular practice is usually one of his. You’re thinking mainly of Boyd, I guess? I think it kind of works for him, although it’s not entirely plausible.
    The super-evil mother character was a fantastic job of acting. I had thought she was slightly familiar, and just found out, by looking her up on Wikipedia (Margo Martindale is her name), that she also plays Claudia in The Americans.

    Reply
  36. Janet

    That wasn’t the Coen brothers, Marianne. That is the way the book is written. I think it’s in the first movie too, but I might be wrong there.
    AMDG

    Reply
  37. Marianne

    It may be just Boyd who talks that way, Mac, but I thought I picked up on some of it in Dickie and Ava in the third season. But maybe not. Maybe they just seemed a bit too articulate, or something.
    Margo Martindale as Mags was terrific. Such a cool, deadly customer. She was also in a recent sitcom, The Millers, which was shown on NZ TV. I watched one or two episodes but I didn’t think it was very good, and I don’t think she pulled off the character very well. She was supposed to be merely a bossy overbearing lady, not an evil one; maybe she’s best at baddies. Haven’t seen The Americans — is she evil in her role in that one?

    Reply
  38. Marianne

    Janet, do they talk that way throughout the novel? As I remember the movie, it was unrelenting. I’m not sure, but I don’t think the characters in the John Wayne version talked that way. Will have to find some clips on YouTube.

    Reply
  39. Mac

    That’s true, Dickie did do something similar. Not quite as elaborate as Boyd. Ava not so much.
    The thing that I thought made the portrayal of Mags so great was that she wasn’t cool and deadly all the time. At times she was very warm and seemed like a good-natured old(ish) lady running a country store. And she could be tender to her rascal sons, when she wasn’t laying down the very harsh law to them. I thought the way she looked was great, too. There was no attempt to prettify her or make her at all distinctive visually–just shuffling around in baggy old clothes. For those who haven’t seen the show, this is what she looks like.

    Reply
  40. Mac

    Oh, forgot to answer your last question. No, she’s not really evil in The Americans, she’s a mixed bag, but she’s a Russian spy and she definitely has some evil moments.

    Reply
  41. Janet

    Marianne,
    Yes, that is the way the book is written.
    AMDG

    Reply
  42. Rob G

    Got ‘Out of the Past’ from the library yesterday and am planning to watch it within the next few days.
    On a related note, I came across this insightful article by Joseph Epstein, “What Happened to the Movies?” He discusses many of the things re: film that we’ve talked about here.
    https://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/what-happened-to-the-movies/

    Reply
  43. Mac

    Thanks. I’ll read that this evening. Epstein is usually worth reading.

    Reply
  44. Rob G

    Watched ‘Out of the Past’ over the weekend — very good stuff, and definitely one of the better noir films I’ve seen. Jane Greer looks a little bit like Heather Graham. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one reason Lynch cast her as Graham’s character’s mother in Twin Peaks. Greer’s a much better actress, though.
    And I had no idea that Jacques Tourneur was the director. He did a couple good low budget horror films for RKO in the 40s and one in the 50s.

    Reply
  45. Mac

    Almost missed this comment. Glad you liked it. I thought it was amusing that an actual Frenchman directed a noir classic.
    I had to look up Heather Graham. I had already forgotten a lot of Twin Peaks, especially what came after the big revelation, and didn’t even remember that character right away, much less her mother. Still can’t recall the mother clearly, though now that my memory’s been jogged I remember the mother-as-restaurant-critic bit.

    Reply

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