Out of the Past

Film Details

Cast

Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas

Technical Details

Star Review

An archetypal film noir with a classic twist: its narrative flashbacks are urban, but much of the action takes place in a rural setting. Directed at RKO with memorable visual flair by Jacques Tourneur, it contains all the genre’s familiar conventions: doom-laden souls struggling through a heavily shadowed atmosphere of passion and betrayal; tightly meshed suspense full of double and triple-crosses; a cynical femme fatale; a man trying to escape his past and the mobster out for his blood. This is Mitchum at his sleepy-eyed, sneering, tough-guy best, hiding out in a small town until his past catches up with him. With stunning cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca, Out of the Past is simply one of the most definitive crime pictures Hollywood ever made.

R. Dixon-Smith on 18th December 2006

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Film Description

Aka Build My Gallows High. Quintessential film noir which catapulted Mitchum to superstardom. A Private eye is hired by a gambler to pursue his homicidal girlfriend to Mexico. The film boasted a great tagline that beautifully summed up its characters: "A man - Trying to run away from his past... A woman - Trying to escape her future."

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