''Out of the Past'' (billed in the United Kingdom as ''Build My Gallows High'') is a 1947

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American '' ...

directed by

Jacques Tourneur Jacques Tourneur (; November 12, 1904 – December 19, 1977) was a French film director known for the classic film noir ''Out of the Past'' and a series of low-budget horror films he made for RKO Studios, including '' Cat People'', ''I Walked w ...

and starring

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

, Jane Greer, and

Kirk Douglas Kirk Douglas (born Issur Danielovitch; December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020) was an American actor and filmmaker. After an impoverished childhood, he made his film debut in '' The Strange Love of Martha Ivers'' (1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. D ...

. The film was adapted by

Daniel Mainwaring Daniel Mainwaring (February 27, 1902 – January 31, 1977) was an American novelist and screenwriter. Biography A native of Oakland, California, Mainwaring began his professional career as a journalist for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' and enjoy ...

(using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his 1946 novel ''Build My Gallows High'' (also written as Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and

James M. Cain James Mallahan Cain (July 1, 1892 – October 27, 1977) was an American novelist, journalist and screenwriter. He is widely regarded as a progenitor of the hardboiled school of American crime fiction. His novels '' The Postman Always Rings Twic ...

. Its complex, fatalistic storyline, dark

cinematography Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens to focu ...

, and classic ''

femme fatale A ''femme fatale'' ( or ; ), sometimes called a maneater or vamp, is a stock character of a mysterious, beautiful, and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers, often leading them into compromising, deadly traps. She is an archetype o ...

'' garnered the film critical acclaim and cult status. In 1991, the

National Film Preservation Board The United States National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) is the board selecting films for preservation in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry. It was established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988. The National Film Regis ...

at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

added ''Out of the Past'' to the United States

National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception ...

of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” films.

Plot

Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, seeking Jeff Bailey, who owns a local gas station. Bailey is fishing with Ann Miller. They are in love. (Her lifelong friend Jim is jealous.) The Kid, Jeff's deaf-mute employee and friend, interrupts them, signing to Jeff. At the station, Stefanos tells Jeff that he must go to

Lake Tahoe Lake Tahoe (; was, Dáʔaw, meaning "the lake") is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at , it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake i ...

to meet "Whit." Jeff invites Ann to ride with him. He tells her about his past in a flashback. Bailey's real last name is Markham. He and Jack Fisher were partners,

private investigator A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...

s in New York. Whit Sterling, a gambling kingpin, hires Markham—solo—to find Whit's girlfriend, Kathie Moffat, who shot him and stole $40,000. Whit promises she will not be harmed. Jeff eventually corners Kathie in

Acapulco Acapulco de Juárez (), commonly called Acapulco ( , also , nah, Acapolco), is a city and major seaport in the state of Guerrero on the Pacific Coast of Mexico, south of Mexico City. Acapulco is located on a deep, semicircular bay and has ...

. She seduces him. She admits that she shot Whit, but denies taking his money. Eventually, Jeff proposes that they run away together. Whit and Stefanos arrive. Jeff says that Kathie is on a south-bound steamer. Whit instructs Jeff to keep looking for her. The couple flee to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

. Fisher, now working for Whit, spots Jeff at the track. Jeff arranges to meet Kathie at a mountain cabin, but Fisher follows Kathie and tries to blackmail them. The two men brawl. Kathie deliberately kills Fisher and drives away, leaving behind a bank book showing a balance of $40,000. Out of The Past 1947

The flashback ends. Jeff wants to clean things up and return to Ann. Ann leaves him at Whit's estate. A cheerful Whit tells Jeff he has a job for him. Jeff is startled when Kathie appears at breakfast. She comes to his room; he tells her to get out. OutOfThePastMitchumGreer

Leonard Eels, a crooked San Francisco lawyer, helped Whit dodge $1 million in taxes and is

blackmail Blackmail is an act of coercion using the threat of revealing or publicizing either substantially true or false information about a person or people unless certain demands are met. It is often damaging information, and it may be revealed to fa ...

ing him. Whit wants Jeff to recover the incriminating records. Eels' secretary, Meta Carson, explains the plan to Jeff, who suspects he is being framed. That night, at Eels' apartment, Jeff alerts Eels, obliquely, promising to return. After they leave, Jeff trails Meta, then returns and finds Eels dead. He hides the body. In Meta's apartment, Jeff overhears Kathie arranging for the discovery of Eels' body. When the hidden body is not found, she believes Eels has escaped. Jeff confronts her and Kathie reveals that she gave Whit a signed

affidavit An ( ; Medieval Latin for "he has declared under oath") is a written statement voluntarily made by an ''affiant'' or '' deponent'' under an oath or affirmation which is administered by a person who is authorized to do so by law. Such a stateme ...

swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. She says they can start all over again. They kiss, he leaves. Stefanos arrives and confirms that he killed Eels. Jeff consigns the tax papers to a delivery service. Whit's thugs capture him. He offers the incriminating records in exchange for the affidavit, without implicating Kathie. When Kathie and Meta arrive at Eels' apartment to retrieve the affidavit, the police are already there. They instead phone Whit. Jeff becomes wanted for the murders of Fisher and Eels and police expect him to return to Bridgeport. Stefanos, directed by Kathie, trails the Kid to the gorge where Jeff is hiding out. The Kid spots Stefanos poised to shoot Jeff and hooks his coat with a fishing line, accidentally pulls him over to his death. Jeff returns to Whit's mansion to inform them of Stefanos death and to tell Whit about Kathie's doublecross. He suggests making Stefanos' death look like a guilt-ridden suicide after his murder of Eels. He will return the records if Whit destroys Kathie's affidavit and hands her over to the police for Fisher's death. Whit accepts, promising Kathie he will kill her if she does not cooperate. Jeff meets Ann in the woods. She believes in him, but tells him to be absolutely sure of what he wants. She will wait. Jeff discovers that Kathie has killed Whit. She gives him a choice: run away with her or take the blame for all three murders. He dials the phone while she is upstairs. They leave in a car with Jeff driving. Seeing a police

roadblock A roadblock is a temporary installation set up to control or block traffic along a road. The reasons for one could be: *Roadworks *Temporary road closure during special events *Police chase *Robbery * Sobriety checkpoint In peaceful circumstances ...

ahead, Kathie shoots him. She fires at the police. A

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles ...

riddles the car with bullets, killing her. In Bridgeport, Ann asks the Kid if Jeff was going away with Kathie. Lying, the Kid nods his head. Ann gets into Jim's car, and the Kid smiles, saluting Jeff's name on the gas station's sign.

Cast

as Jeff Bailey, previously known as Jeff Markham * Jane Greer as Kathie Moffat *

as Whit Sterling *

Rhonda Fleming Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamoro ...

as Meta Carson * Richard Webb as Jim * Steve Brodie as Jack Fisher * Virginia Huston as Ann Miller *

Paul Valentine Paul Valentine (born William Daixel; March 23, 1919 – January 27, 2006) was an American film and television actor. He was married to Lili St. Cyr from 1946 to 1950 and danced opposite her on stage. Biography Born in New York City he was e ...

as Joe Stefanos * Dickie Moore as The Kid *

Ken Niles Ken Niles (December 9, 1906 – October 31, 1988) was an American radio announcer. Niles was born in Livingston, Montana. He was married to Nadia Niles, and had two children, Kenneth Niles and Denise Niles. His brother, Wendell Niles, was also a ...

as Leonard Eels *

Theresa Harris Theresa Harris (December 31, 1906 – October 8, 1985) was an American television and film actress, singer and dancer. Early life Harris was born on New Year's Eve 1906 (some sources indicate 1909) in Houston, Texas, to Isaiah and Mable Harris ...

as Eunice Leonard

Background and production

''Out of the Past'' was produced by

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, was an American film production and distribution company, one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orph ...

, and the key personnel—director

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...

Nicholas Musuraca Nicholas Musuraca, A.S.C. (October 25, 1892 – September 3, 1975) was a motion-picture cinematographer best remembered for his work at RKO Pictures in the 1940s, including many of Val Lewton's series of B-picture horror films. Biography Bor ...

, actors Mitchum and Greer, along with

Albert S. D'Agostino Albert S. D'Agostino (December 27, 1892 – March 14, 1970) was an American art director. He was nominated for five Academy Awards in the category Best Art Direction. He worked on 339 films between 1921 and 1959. He was born in New York Cit ...

's design group—were long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio focused on making

B-film A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

s during the early 1940s, the post- World War-II ''Out of the Past'' was given a comparatively lavish budget.

John Garfield John Garfield (born Jacob Julius Garfinkle, March 4, 1913 – May 21, 1952) was an American actor who played brooding, rebellious, working-class characters. He grew up in poverty in New York City. In the early 1930s, he became a member of ...

and

Dick Powell Richard Ewing Powell (November 14, 1904 – January 2, 1963) was an American actor, musician, producer, director, and studio head. Though he came to stardom as a musical comedy performer, he showed versatility, and successfully transformed into ...

turned down the lead.Richard B. Jewell, ''Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures'', University of California, 2016.

, in only his third credited screen performance, plays a supporting role but a central part in the story as Mitchum's

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the chief foe of the protagonist. Etymology The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής – ''antagonistēs'', "opponent, competitor, villain, enemy, ri ...

. The next time Mitchum and Douglas played major roles in the same picture was in the 1967

Western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

The Way West ''The Way West'' is a 1949 western novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950 and became the basis for a film starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. The novel is one in the sequence of ...

'', alongside

Richard Widmark Richard Weedt Widmark (December 26, 1914March 24, 2008) was an American film, stage, and television actor and producer. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, ''Kiss of Death'' (1947) ...

. Musuraca also shot Tourneur's 1942 RKO horror film '' Cat People''.

Reception

The film made a profit of $90,000. ''Out of the Past'' is considered one of the greatest of all films noir. Robert Ottoson hailed the film as "the ''

ne plus ultra NE, Ne or ne may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Neutral Evil, an alignment in the American role-playing game ''Dungeons & Dragons'' * New Edition, an American vocal group * Nicomachean Ethics, a collection of ten books by Greek philosopher Ar ...

'' of forties film noir".

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...

, the film critic for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1947, complimented the crime drama's direction and performances, although he did find the latter portion of the screenplay hard to follow: Shortly after the film's release, the staff of the widely read

trade publication A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular trade or industry. The collective term for thi ...

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' also gave it a positive review: Decades later, in his 2004 assessment of the film for the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

'', critic

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

noted:With regard to the production's stylish and moody cinematography, Ebert also dubbed the film "The greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time":Ebert, Roger
"200 Cigarettes"
''Chicago Sun'', February 26, 1999. This review also later appeared in the book by Roger Ebert, ''I Hated Hated Hated HATED This Movie''. The film holds a score of 93% on review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, with an average rating of 9/10, based on 40 reviews.

Adaptations

''Out of the Past'' was remade as '' Against All Odds'' (1984) with

Rachel Ward Rachel Claire Ward (born 12 September 1957) is an English-Australian

in the Greer role,

Jeff Bridges Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bridges comes from a prominent ac ...

filling in for Mitchum, and

James Woods James Howard Woods (born April 18, 1947) is an American actor. He is known for his work in various film, stage, and television productions. He started his career in minor roles on and off- Broadway. In 1972, he appeared in ''The Trial of the ...

as a variation of Kirk Douglas' villain, with Jane Greer as the mother of her original character in ''Out of the Past'' and

in a supporting role.

References

; Bibliography *
''Out of the Past''
by Daniel Eagan in ''America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry'', A&C Black, 2010 , pages 406-408

External links

* *

at Filmsite.org

*
''Out of the Past''
at Moderntimes.com (archived) *
''Out of the Past''
by

Stephanie Zacharek Stephanie Zacharek is an American film critic at ''Time'', based in New York City. From 2013 to 2015, she was the principal film critic for ''The Village Voice''. She was a 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist in criticism. Early life Stephanie Zachare ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Out Of The Past 1947 films 1947 crime drama films American crime drama films American Sign Language films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films American detective films Film noir Films based on American novels Films set in Acapulco Films set in Los Angeles Films set in New York City Films set in San Francisco Films set in the San Francisco Bay Area Films shot in Mexico RKO Pictures films Films directed by Jacques Tourneur Films scored by Roy Webb United States National Film Registry films 1940s American films