- Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past is one of those films in which every line is a clever quip, ironically delivered and, more often than not, plenty nasty. In that respect, it reminds me of several of the best films noir, including Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd., and Sweet Smell of Success, all of which should (and regularly do) appear on lists of the best films ever made, noir or otherwise. Admittedly, Out of the Past is not quite in the same league as those other three, but it is nonetheless an impressive example of how far a film can get with some juicy dialogue and a stable of talented hard-boiled actors and actresses to deliver it.
- True to form, there's a lot of mystery surrounding the hero of the piece, Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum). Jeff runs an out-of-the-way gas station these days, but nobody in the surrounding sleepy town knows too much about him. They certainly don't suspect that his real name isn't Bailey or that he used to be a shady detective who, along with his untrustworthy partner (Steve Brodie), worked for a big boss called Whit (Kirk Douglas). These days, Jeff keeps the company of an innocent angel named Ann (Virginia Huston), but there was once a femme fatale in his life named Kathie (Jane Greer). Maybe Kathie happened to be Whit's girl, and maybe she's even the reason that Jeff's former partner is no longer counted among the living. But Jeff has escaped from his former life, and nobody's come looking for him. That is, until now.
- When a hired gun named Joe (Paul Valentine) saunters up to the gas station, that's the first sign of trouble out of Jeff's past. Pretty soon, he once again finds himself all tied up with Whit and Kathie, this time to help put the screws to a slippery lawyer with the wonderful name of Eels (Ken Niles). If it seems a bit odd to you that Whit would have forgiven Jeff's earlier absconding with Kathie, rest assured that the situation seems a bit odd to Jeff, too, especially after Eels shows up dead. It'll be tough for Jeff to escape this mess unscathed, but lines like "If I have to, I'm going to die last" and "Build my gallows high, baby" suggest that Jeff may well be resigned to his fate, no matter how tragic it will be.
- But the film's best line, and the one that perfectly summarizes both Jeff's character and Mitchum's career (to the point that was the title of the actor's most famous biography) is "Baby, I don't care." You'd be hard-pressed to find a more concise representation than that of the fundamental ethos of the hard-boiled noir antihero. If, while watching Out of the Past, you ever wondered why Jeff didn't just run away with Ann, why he agreed to meet with Whit, or why he would ever get into a car with Kathie, there's your answer. He's a man whose sordid past is so interleaved with his future that he knows there's no point in struggling against the current. Tourneur's direction reinforces this point perfectly with an extended trip into the past that should be mandatory viewing for any director intending to deploy a flashback. Excellent performances by Mitchum, Douglas, and Greer, the latter of whom pitches curveballs exclusively, ensure that Jeff's fate is memorably, if tragically, preserved for the past, present, and future.
- Based on the novel Build My Gallows High by "Geoffrey Homes" aka Daniel Mainwaring.
- Dickie Moore played Jeff's young mute friend, and maybe we'll just act like that thing with the fishing line didn't happen.
