Out of the Past
Out of the Past (released in
Britain as
Build My Gallows High) is a
1947 film noir in which a
small-town gas-station owner's mysterious past catches up with him. It features
Robert Mitchum in his first starring role and
Jane Greer as the
femme fatale from his previous life.
The movie was adapted by
Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his novel
Build My Gallows High (also written as Homes). Uncredited revisions were made by
Frank Fenton and
James M. Cain. It was directed by
Jacques Tourneur and released by .
The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the
Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry.
The film is considered by film historians to be a superb example of
film noir, due to its convoluted, dreamlike storyline and its impeccably
chiaroscuro cinematography (cinematographer
Nicholas Musuraca also shot Tourneur's
Cat People (
1942) and
I Walked with a Zombie (
1943)).
As with many films noirs, Out of the Past is noted for its convoluted story line. The film begins in
Bridgeport, California, where Jeff Bailey (Mitchum) owns a gas station. He's dating local girl Ann Miller (
Virginia Huston) and lives a quiet life, but is secretive about his past.
A stranger arrives in town and recognizes Jeff. Later he returns and tells Jeff that Whit Sterling has been looking for him. Jeff agrees to meet him.
Before he leaves, Jeff begins to tell Ann about his mysterious past. His real name is Jeff Markham and he once worked with partner Jack Fisher as
private investigators in New York. They took on a job for a rich gambler â€" Whit Sterling (
Kirk Douglas). The movie then flashes back to that time.
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Jeff Bailey (AKA Markham) with Ann Miller as he tells her about his mysterious past |
Sterling hires Jeff to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffett (Greer). She had run away after shooting Sterling and stealing $40,000 from him. He wants her and the money returned.
Jeff goes to a jazz club to talk to a friend of Kathie's. He learns that she packed for warm weather, was vaccinated, and left for Florida. Jeff knows that vaccinations aren't needed for Florida, but they are for Mexico. So he tracks the luggage to
Mexico City and finds that she had been there, but left on a bus south. From there, the trail leads to
Acapulco.
Jeff meets Kathie there. At first he doesn't tell her that he's been hired to find her. Later, when he goes to the local Western Union office to send a telegram to Whit, he finds the office is closed for the siesta. Instead, he sees her again and they begin to fall in love. He tells her the truth, and that Whit is alive and just wants her back. She claims that she didn't take Whit's money. The couple continue to meet every night and their relationship deepens. Eventually they decide to run away together. They plan to start from Jeff's hotel the next morning.
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Kathie Moffett and Jeff Markham enjoying their time together in Acapulco |
That morning, Whit and his assistant Joe show up, having flown down to check up on Jeff. He tells Whit that he hasn't found Kathie yet, that she's caught a boat south. After Whit leaves, the lovers take a boat north to
San Francisco.
The couple live as inconspicuously as possible in San Francisco, fearful of being found but thinking the odds are one in a million that anyone will spot them. But it happens. Jack Fisher, Jeff's old partner, spots him at a race track. Tracking the couple to a cabin in the woods, he demands the $40,000 in return for his silence. A fistfight breaks out that is ended when Kathie fatally shoots the would-be blackmailer. She then drives off, leaving Jeff behind. He finds her bank book and sees that it shows a balance of $40,000--the money she had claimed she didn't steal.
The movie then flashes forward to Jeff and Ann in the car discussing his past. He tells Ann that he never saw Kathie again, and that he has to tell Whit all that has happened.
He arrives at Whit's place and sees that Kathie is living with him again. Rather than discussing the past, Whit says he wants to hire Jeff to recover some income tax records that a lawyer, Leonard Eels, is using to blackmail him. Jeff agrees to take the job.
In San Francisco, Jeff meets Eels' secretary at her home and she tells him of her and Whit's plan to get the papers. When Jeff meets Eels, he warns him that Whit isn't interested in paying Eels off, and that he should give up the papers to Jeff.
He later returns to Eels' place only to find him dead. With Kathie's help, Whit planned the murder of Eels and hoped to frame Jeff for it. Jeff also learns that Kathie has told Whit that it was Jeff who killed Jack, and that among Eels' papers is an affidavit she signed naming Jeff as the killer. Jeff goes to Whit's night club, slugs the manager and takes the tax papers. He tries to trade them for the affidavit, but that arrangement goes awry.
Later, when Jeff again tries to meet with Whit to negotiate with him, he finds that Kathie has killed him. She tells Jeff that he must leave with her or be arrested for killing his partner, Eels and now Whit. Jeff agrees, but when she goes to get her bags, he makes a phone call. They leave together, but soon come to a police roadblock. Kathie realizes Jeff has double-crossed her. She shoots and kills him, calling him "a double-crossing rat." The police then fire, killing Kathie.
Out of the Past was
remade unofficially as
Città violenta with Charles Bronson in
1970 and officially as
Against All Odds with Jeff Bridges in
1984.
*
Out of the Past at Movie Tome*
Shades of Black and Brown: Visions of Mexico and Mexican-Americans in 1940s Film Noir*
Noir of the Week review*
A noir revisited
