Out of the Past was the second DVD I watched from the Warner Bros. film-noir box set, and is very much like the first one I watched, The Set-Up, in that it, too, is a short and direct B-picture. But I think I liked this film better.

Two big stars headline this film, Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum. Douglas is a gangster, and Mitchum is a detective who has slipped into a web of double-crosses and murder, connected to a woman, of course.

The film begins when a man, who works for Douglas, finally tracks down Mitchum, who is now running a gas station in the middle of nowhere. The guy tries to convince Mitchum to come back and see Douglas, who may have another job for him to do. Their conversation, if you’re not really paying attention, seems innocent enough, but of course you know better; if you read between the lines and center on the body language, you’ll realize there’s some dangerous past buried there.

Mitchum is already seen as a sketchy fellow by the people in this small village. He’s dating a nice girl whose parents disapprove. Another one who disapproves is another young man from the town who also has eyes on her; this guy is a straight-arrow kind of fellow, but you know how girls are when it comes to mysterious men.......including men who turn out to have hidden a secret life from them!

But she soon hears the story from Mitchum himself. He tells her he’s really a detective, and he tells her the story which led up to his hiding out in this village and in this gas station, and up to when Douglas comes calling again to bring Mitchum back into the fold.

Mitchum got into this mess when he and his partner are hired by Douglas to find his girlfriend, who shot him and stole $40,000. Of course, Douglas says it’s not the money he cares about; he just wants her back, and that he won’t hurt her (Douglas’s performance is almost comfortable, serene; he behaves so confidently and sure of himself that a lesser mind would be charmed into thinking his character is such a nice guy and not a criminal). Mitchum eventually tracks the woman (Jane Greer) down in Mexico, but instead of bringing her back, he ends up being charmed by her -- and the two enjoy an affair. Mitchum knows what he doing isn’t right, but he doesn’t seem to care -- he sympathizes with her as she tells him she wanted Douglas to die, that she was mistreated by him... and that she didn’t steal the money. Naturally, there’s absolutely no surprise when we find out she’s not as much a victim as she claims to be.

The two have to hide their tracks when Douglas and his goons drop him. Of course Douglas says he wasn’t following them, but merely came down to do business involving a race horse. Soon the couple end up having to escape the sight of Douglas and his men, and also from Mitchum’s partner, who is ticked off for not having been paid his share of the fee charged to find the woman in the first place. It culminates in an fistfight in a cabin in the woods between Mitchum and his partner, and ends with Greer shooting the partner dead, before running off, and before Mitchum discovers the woman did indeed steal the money.

..... and now we’re in the present time. Mitchum returns to Douglas’s mansion to find out Greer has long returned... and that Douglas knows everything about what happened between his girl and Mitchum. Nevertheless, Douglas seems willing to let the past be the past, and wants Mitchum to do another job. He wants him to visit his accountant and steal some incriminating papers; the accountant was able to fudge the books in order to save Douglas a lot of money, but wants to get paid more money for the job, or else, perhaps, he may get these papers in the hands of authorities. Douglas wants the detective to snatch those papers before the accountant decides to do anything with them......

Did I say Douglas seems willing to let the past go? Ah, maybe not..... maybe it’s another double-cross?

This is the sort of movie where nearly everyone is corrupt in some way. The only ones who seem to be simple and pure people are the ones who come from the little rural village where Mitchum hides out. Perhaps it has something to do with that nice country air, with the lack of influence from the big, bad urban underbelly, but all the country folk are relatively innocent, untainted by the lies, lusts, double-crosses, and violence committed by most of the central characters. Mitchum’s character is the least bad of that particular lot; his only real flaw is his willingness to walk right into a trap - nevertheless, he’s still a little too dark and complex for such a simple country girl as the one he’s now dating, isn’t he?

Out of the Past has all the trademarks of the film-noirs I’ve seen. It’s got the convoluted plot involving double-crosses and the like. It’s got the sexy dame who’s also a femme fatale and can’t be trusted (of course, the sultry woman has to be the bad one??). And it’s got some great dialogue. (When asked if he’s familiar with San Francisco, Mitchum says he was intimate with it: “We lived together.” -- there’s other funny bits like that throughout) And most of the main characters are pretty nasty and shady in different ways. Mitchum is only the hero by default; he’s allowed himself to be swallowed up into these criminal types in order to make a living and a dollar, and then continues to wallow in that world due to the lust he has for a woman. He makes mistakes, and now he thinks he’s smarter because he no longer trusts Greer’s character, but in reality he just gets himself in more deeper, when he should have done the smart thing at the start of the movie and stayed far enough away when his past comes calling.

Douglas and Mitchum are the best of the actors; Douglas is confident and energetic, while Mitchum is more brooding. And the story whips by fast with interesting twists and turns -- it’s an entertaining film.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD