1. Out of the Past (1947)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
2. Why we study it
• It’s based on a novel Build my Gallows High written by
Dainel Mainwaring (under the pseudonym Geoffrey
Homes) and adapted with our old friend James M. Cain.
• Kathie displays the worst characteristics of the femme
fatale — greed, dishonesty, disloyalty, and a penchant for
committing murder
• Robert Mitchum as Jeff Bailey is alienated and obsessed.
• He is about to make the right choice - a conventional life -
when his past comes back to haunt him.
• Ann acts as the idyllic but featureless traditional woman,
standing by her man even when he tells her that he is
mixed up with murder and another woman.
3. Why we study it
• The lighting is stunning. Watch for how Kathie
generally enters frame from out of the dark. Watch
how Jeff moves between light and dark.
• The idea of the city as corrupt - look at the different
lighting in Bridgeport versus San Francisco.
• Watch out for the symbolism in the framing.
Tourneur does very little by accident.
4. Roger Ebert says:
"Out of the Past is one of the greatest of all film noirs, the
story of a man who tries to break with his past and his
weakness and start over again in a town, with a new job
and a new girl. The movie stars Robert Mitchum, whose
weary eyes and laconic voice, whose very presence as a
violent man wrapped in indifference, made him an
archetypal noir actor. The story opens before we've even
seen him, as trouble comes to town looking for him. A
man from his past has seen him pumping gas, and now his
old life reaches out and pulls him back.
5. “And then I saw her. Coming out of the sun. And I knew
why Whit didn’t care about that 40 grand”.
8. You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that
the wind blows from one gutter to another. You can't help
anything you do, even murder.
