Out of the Past
There are Oscar winners and iconic classics that have remained blindspots this year for me, but Jacques Tourneur’s “Out of the Past” is one of the ones I’ve been most looking forward to checking off in the past few years. Film noir is one of those genres that, if you feel yourself drawn into it, you want to explore it further. Maybe because, of all of the genres, it feels most in line with what cinema is about- rich visual pallet, complicated narratives, romance that we want, but probably shouldn’t, and endings that can go any way you expect. Tourneur’s film has all of those, and while there are other films in the genre I love more, it feels representative of the best of the genre.
Robert Mitchum is an actor I’m more familiar with by reputation than body of work. Prior to “Out of the Past,” the only films of his I think I’d seen were the original “Cape Fear” and “Night of the Hunter.” “Out of the Past” has a fascinating balancing act, in that Mitchum is supposed to be at the center of a tragic romance while also being a hard nosed individual not afraid to kill, if need be. His rough face and features make the first part of that equation an interesting proposition, but because of Mitchum’s work, we believe him as someone who could fall over themselves for Jane Greer, and try to settle down with Virginia Huston. More importantly, we see how those women would get involved with him. Unfortunately, only one of them will win out, and it’s not the one he should be with.
The film begins with Jeff (Mitchum’s character) being tracked down at a service station. He’s settled in to a quiet life with Ann (Huston), but the visitor is from his old one- they work for Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas), a New York mobster who once hired Jeff, at the time a private detective, to find a woman (Kathie, played by Jane Greer) who stole $40,000 from Sterling. Jeff tracks her down in Mexico, and they fall in love. He lies to Sterling about finding her, and they run away together, but they’re found out by someone else Sterling hired. There’s a murder, and they go their separate ways. Now, Sterling is hiring Jeff for a job, and when he finds that Kathie is back with Whit, their past is back to haunt them.
Fate is one of the key components of a lot of film noir. Whether it’s a haunting B-movie like “Detour” or something more mainstream like “Memento” or “Touch of Evil,” almost every time there is a sense of destinies heading in a particular direction because of something in the past. This is territory that Tourneur explored earlier for Val Lewton in “Cat People” and “I Walked With a Zombie.” In “Out of the Past,” it is the whole point of the movie. Adapted from the novel, Build My Gallows High, by Daniel Mainwaring by the author himself (under his pseudonym Geoffrey Homes), “Out of the Past” draws us in by the flashback structure of the first part of the movie, with Mitchum’s voice as he tells his story to Ann, and gets ready to get back into the life he left behind. At a certain point, regardless of the choices we make, our life is ultimately going to head on to a path that is inevitable, be it good or bad. Jeff knows this the second he’s found out; as much as he cares for Ann, his path is ultimately with Kathie. We understand, in Greer’s performance, why Jeff cannot help himself. The second his past returns, his fate is sealed.
This is a beautifully dark, seductive entry in the genre of film noir. Adding Douglas in as the villain who is but a pawn in the lives of these two characters is a great touch; he is sinister enough to be a threat, but also charismatic enough to stand up to Mitchum and Greer. Ultimately, this is a story about Jeff and Kathie, and they are one of the great couples in the history of crime cinema. But unlike Bogie and Bacall, these two can never be together after the credits roll. Tragedy was always in the cards. Ann’s emotions are just collateral damage.
