Out of the Past

A tough but vulnerable hero, a dastardly femme fatale, a ruthless crime boss, and a fate that tightens its grip with every wrong turn are orchestrated in a visually rich road to perdition. Eddie Muller calls Out of the Past the pinnacle of film noir style.

Private detective Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) is hired by gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) to track down Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), who shot Sterling and supposedly fled with $40,000 of his money. Sterling wants Jeff to bring her back. It’s not, he says, that he wants revenge: “I just want her back. When you see her, you’ll understand better.”

Jeff finds Kathie—and falls for her, and off they run. Years later, after betrayal and murder breaks up the pair and forces Jeff into hiding, he is drawn back into their lives, where another murder, a frame-up, and Kathie’s treachery leave him struggling to escape a past that refuses to let him go. The convoluted plot is worth every twist and turn.

Kathie is played by stunning 22-year-old Jane Greer. She famously recalled receiving simple instructions from director Jacques Tourneur: play good girl for the first half, bad girl for the second half. Mitchum and Douglas, both thirty, were on the edge of stardom. One critic describes the three as “the sexiest triangle in movie history.”

Ultimately, the story becomes a character study of Jeff Bailey and his self-destructive psyche. We see the depth of his obsession when he first finds Kathie hiding out in Mexico. She insists she didn’t take Sterling’s $40,000 and the shooting was self-defense. Jeff’s answer is simple and reckless:

“Baby, I don’t care.”

That is the moment Jeff seals his fate. He knows Kathie is dangerous, knows that following her means crossing a line—and goes willingly. From then on, he seems less interested in escaping a "destiny" than in surrendering to it. Lust, fatigue, fatalism, and a woman he cannot resist carry him inexorably to a dramatic end.

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