Synopsis
OUT of the Sun, OUT of the Moonlight, OUT of the Past.
The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur
The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.
Build My Gallows High, Retorno al pasado, De greep van het verleden, От миналото, Fanget af fortiden, Varjot menneisyydestä, La griffe du passé, Αμαρτωλοί και δολοφόνοι, Kísért a múlt, Le catene della colpa, Czlowiek z przeszloscia, Din trecut, Skuggor ur det förflutna, Fuga ao Passado, Fuga do Passado, Goldenes Gift, かこをのがれて, Keçmişdən Qaçış, 과거로부터, La Griffe du passé, 漩涡之外, O Arrependido, סיפור מהעבר, Из прошлого, Darağacımı Yükseğe Kur, Człowiek z przeszłością, З минулого, Pryč od minulosti, 過去を逃れて, Retorn al passat, 漩渦之外, Из прошлости
The first thing that happens in this movie is a guy throws a cigarette at a deaf kid. About a minute later Robert Mitchum throws a cigarette at that guy. That’s just what it’s like in the economy of cigarettes. Sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down.
the hays code cut from the kiss on the shoulder to the door swinging open in the wind to the rain outside is one of the most sensational things I've ever seen.
I was supposed to watch this for Cinema 101 in my first semester of college and for some reason skipped the screening. I was an idiot.
This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
81/100
Fascinated by the way Tourneur consistently chooses to visually de-emphasize dramatic moments. When Kathie unexpectedly shoots Fisher (off-camera; we just hear the shot), there's no cut to an insert of the gun, as would have been commonplace at the time. Kathie isn't even still pointing the gun in the subsequent wide shot. The hand holding it is dangling at her waist; you have to actively look for it. Likewise, her reappearance at Whit's house is orchestrated with startling casualness, as if she were the maid coming in to refill everyone's water glasses. She just strolls into the frame from a distance, with zero fanfare, as if showing up weren't the single biggest plot twist this movie has to offer.…
"Which place was your favorite?"
"This one right here."
"I bet you say that to all the places."
Wandering the frame in search of a picture. History doomed to repeat itself. "Build my gallows high, baby."
In many ways the prototypical Noir: ex-gumshoe hiding out in the mountains, corrupt businessman he betrayed trying to reel him back in, both caught between and manipulated by a beautiful and murderous femme fatale, non-linear flashback/narration structure, more twists (murders, cover-ups, frame jobs, blackmails) than you can count, dark moody atmosphere of sex and violence drawn in suggestive light and shadow, etc. But what makes this one so special are the contributions of the Jaques Tourneur squad (who alongside all his usual RKO/Val Lewton Gothic B-horror squad) make lavish use of studio noir budget, and apply all their atmospheric cinematic tricks: the…
A tough detective, a perfect femme fatale, a fatalistic atmosphere, flashbacks, and cynical dialogue, maybe the most classic of all classic noirs.
OUT OF THE PAST (1947) by French-American film director Jacques Tourneur is a masterpiece of the film noir genre, with an extraordinary Robert Mitchum in the lead, Jane Greer as the Femme Fatale and a very young Kirk Douglas in a supporting part. It’s shot in breathtaking black and white, with lots of flashbacks and an archetypical narration voice. A must!
Wim Wenders (excerpts from a review published in 2023)
89/100
For a film so indelibly involved in the lost rivers of memory, Out of the Past confounds because of its ever-present feeling within the now. Every frame feels like the mistakes and the pain of the past will reach out and strangle our main characters, but that never stops the main mystery from propelling forward with impeccable fluidity. The chemistry between Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer is some of the finest to ever emerge out of the film-noir genre, with the two crafting conversations of moving honesty and sparkling sensuality.
The atmosphere that they're surrounded in, with Nicholas Musuraca conjuring haunting imagery as DP, only cements the fact that Jacques Tourneur was a master of looming terror. Out of the Past, with its hard-boiled corruption and its sexy otherworldly rhythms, is quite possibly the finest horror film that Jacques ever directed. It is film-noir at its most crystalline and pure, and you won't soon forget it.
watched this with my younger brother who asked me to show him some cool older films; he really enjoyed tourneur's use of deep shadows, he said that it felt like a drama with the atmosphere of a horror movie -- which is the most concise definition of noir i can think of! he also remarked on how interesting it was to have a deaf character using sign language in such an old movie, and he's right -- i've rarely seen that in any classic hollywood pictures. finally, he proclaimed this to be "the apex of when people thought smoking was cool" -- hard to disagree with that.