daleholmgren In no particular order, the 4 greatest noirs are: Out of the Past, The Clock, Double Indemnity and Kiss Me Deadly. I know, I know, I'm skipping over Casablanca and some others, but these 4 are great because they are still rare enough they haven't been burned into our memory bank to risk boredom or parody. Each scene in OOTP is worth savoring, like a memory of a favorite vacation with your wife or girlfriend when you were young.Take the scene where Jeff (an odd name for Mitchum, but ok) is packing to leave, and is going to meet Kathy, when Whit (Kirk D.) shows up with his goons. Even though you know it's a movie, you are scared to death of Kathy knocking on the door and Whit realizing Jeff has lied to him about finding Kathy. The tension is agonizing, and yet it doesn't come from violence, it comes from our own fear of circumstances beyond our control revealing to others that we have lied about something. Powerful, powerful stuff.The movie has a little bit of corny dialogue, and there is some storyline confusion, but really, not much. Just lie back, eat your popcorn, and realize this movie is going to take you on the ride of your life.

billcr12 Robert Mitchum is Jeff Bailey, a man with a mysterious past. He owns a small gas station in the middle of nowhere. Along comes a guy who has an offer he can't refuse. Thus begins a series of twists and turns that will hold your attention for the entire movie. A few years earlier, Bailey was a private eye hired to track down Kathie (Jane Greer), the main squeeze of a mobster, Whit (Kirk Douglas). She wounded Whit with a gunshot and took off with $40,000. Bailey tracks Kathie in Mexico and she turns out to be a femme fatale. The cast is tremendous and I do not wish to spoil the plot and so I will just recommend this great 1947 film and hope that twenty first century viewers can overlook the fact that this is an old fashioned black and white classic.

gnc98 Out of the Past is as film noir as it gets. It's story is dark, told with the help of plenty of flashbacks, betrayals happen left and right, we've got a femme fatale to lead the main man astray, and lots of death. The story is one of deceit, and it's a good one at that. Robert Mitchum's Jeff Bailey, Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat and Kirk Douglas' Whit Sterling are a fantastic trio here. Jeff is a likable lead and Kathie is the aforementioned femme fatale seductress. The story centers around them for the most part, occasionally going back to the present with Jeff and his current girlfriend. Something I really enjoyed from this film was how deep the stories were in both the past and present segments. Typically with these noir films you get a lengthy trip to the past with a less than substantial present segment that's usually there as a set up for the past story to be told. But here you get a good mix of both, with the past taking up the beginning of the film and the present drama taking up the latter half. Of course, the film doesn't really end well for anybody, but I applaud it for sticking to its dark tone. Whit Sterling doesn't appear very often, but when he does he steals the show. He has a great presence about him and his inclusion in the film makes sense (he's usually the one setting anything in motion). I also enjoyed the conclusion with Anne, where The Kid lies to her saying that Jeff had been planning to leave with Kathie the whole time. It's a nice end for the character and it makes The Kid; who definitely has his share of moments throughout the film, feel a little more fleshed out and complex. The cinematography here is also great. Shadows fill scenes and you feel their presence in almost every frame. Cuts are clean and keep up with continuity from previous shots, although I did notice some minor adjustments here and there for one scene, but it wasn't bad. As I said in the beginning, Out of the Past is a pure noir film. It follows practically every trope in the genre, but it handles them extremely well and tells an interesting story that doesn't get stale. It's characters are fleshed out and believable, and every death is meaningful. Definitely worth your time.

trinkschiz I first saw Out of the Past in a screening in Austin at UT. It looks so unbelievably good projected. I've since watched it every few years on TCM or DVD, and just watched it again after listening to the Out of the Past Podcast's episode on the film, and got even more out of it this time. That's what makes it a classic and a pleasure. My favorite Mitchum movie and maybe Kirk Douglas as well. My favorite noir.