Out of the Past (1947)

Film: Out of the Past (1947)
Stars: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Oscar History: No nominations
Snap Judgment Ranking: 4/5 stars

Nothing quite hits the spot cinematically like a healthy dose of noir.  A few months ago (an embarrassingly long time ago, if we’re being honest-for some reason there have been three films that have just sat there on my “to review” list despite actually quite enjoying all three and I’m goaling myself to have all three out onto the blog in the next week, this being the first) I caught Out of the Past, one of those classic films that no one really talks about anymore.  A brilliant movie in its time, it didn’t have the cultural cache of The Maltese Falcon, the Oscar nominations of Laura, or the career-defining brilliance of Touch of Evil.  It was just a very strong movie, one whose reputation may need a bit of a dusting-off, even if it remains quite shimmering.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Jeff (Mitchum), who is a former private investigator who now works as a gas station attendant.  After being called to meet with an old associate named Whit (Douglas), Jeff and his girlfriend Annie (Virginia Huston) drive out to Whit’s house, with Jeff telling about his former life as a PI, and how it all came crashing down one day when he met Kathie (Greer), Whit's girlfriend whom Jeff was hired to track down (after Kathie allegedly ran off with $40k of Whit's money) and then fell in love with.  Of course, that's never the end of the story, and as the film unfolds, Jeff told Kathie what had happened, and she denied taking the money.  Bing bang pow (and a little bit of steam between Mitchum and Greer) and Jeff is left with a dead body that Kathie made that way, and he soon learns that she did indeed steal the money (there's nothing like a steamy noir to make you want to write like Edward G. Robinson is reading your article out loud).  

The film sounds like the setup to a great Dashiell Hammett novel, and it really is.  The best parts of the movie are the crisp dialogue and the utter sexiness between Mitchum and Greer.  The film is predictable (you know this train is headed toward hell), but you have to love the way the story unfolds.  Greer in particular was a revelation to me, as she has so rarely been seen in other films (this was the one giant highlight in a career in which she was dominated by Howard Hughes, who wouldn't let her star burn quite as brightly as it could have).  I love the way that she coolly is in control of the entire room, always re-calibrating, but completely handling the situation.  I love these sorts of characters, and the film's ending (a giant shoot-out that leaves Jeff and Kathie dead) seems a little cheap in that regard (I doubt she would have trusted Jeff that much, and I doubt even less that she loved him enough to have a blind spot toward him), but at least she wasn't put out by a complete lack of intellect.

Everyone else sort of pales in comparison to Greer.  Mitchum is smoldering, but his character doesn't have the intrigue that Greer's does.  Kirk Douglas, before he became an impossibly large star, gets third billing in the film and is the sort of character everyone says they're afraid of, but you can never 100% tell why.  Yes, he's a murderer and a criminal, but so is everyone else in the movie.  I also rather enjoyed Rhonda Fleming in her small role, but it seemed completely ancillary to the plot.  She does what great supporting actresses do, though, and made her Meta Carson feel like she had her own interesting movie happening on the sidelines.  It's worth noting that since we've been on a bit of a kick over "living stars of classic movies" that both she and Dickie Moore (who played the Kid) are still alive today.  Anyone think that they should write some sort of great movie putting Fleming and O'Hara together in a film?  The two great redheads of the 1950's?  Just a thought.

And those are my thoughts, but what are yours?  Do you also find that Jane Greer totally made this film for you, or were you latching on to one of the other characters?  Any theories as to why this film seems to have disappeared in a way that The Maltese Falcon hasn't?  Share in the comments!