This is a film noir, but it starts off as like a 50s Tennessee Williams movie. But then you get all of the genre trappings: Flash-backs, gangsters, dames, beaches, repartee.
I’ve never realised how similar Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas are. They’re basically the same person. Mitchum is a bit more muscular, but otherwise they’re confusingly similar. I wonder whether that was the effect they were going for, or whether it’s the usual result of the casting director having a “type”.
This is a very well-regarded movie:
Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir.[5][6][7] Robert Ottoson hailed the film as “the ne plus ultra of forties film noir”.[8]
I don’t quite get it. Nothing really sizzles here. I find myself being almost completely disinterested in Mitchum and his mysterious past. The cinematography isn’t particularly striking, and the dames aren’t compelling.
But I concede that I might be totally wrong about this one. It just didn’t hold my attention, so perhaps it’s really a masterpiece and I just kinda zoned out on the good bits? It’s possible.
Out of the Past. Jacques Tourneur. 1947.
Popular movies in November 1947 according to IMDB:
| Poster | Votes | Rating | Movie |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 24312 | 8.1 | Out of the Past |
 | 11481 | 7.4 | Gentleman’s Agreement |
 | 889 | 7.4 | It Always Rains on Sunday |
 | 523 | 7.1 | Monsieur Vincent |
 | 618 | 7.0 | The Lost Moment |
 | 236 | 6.9 | Mine Own Executioner |
 | 251 | 6.8 | Where There’s Life |
 | 1524 | 6.7 | Daisy Kenyon |
 | 1571 | 6.5 | The Fugitive |
 | 407 | 6.5 | An Ideal Husband |
This blog post is part of the Decade series.