Out Of the Past

086840 / 16 / US / 1947 / Tourneur, Jacques / thriller
Out Of the Past / Menneisyyden varjot (HTV) / Varjot menneisyydestä (TV3 1987). © RKO. EX: Robert Sparks. P: Warren Duff. D: Jacques Tourneur. SC: Geoffrey Homes [= Daniel Mainwaring] [and Frank Fenton, James M. Cain] - based on the novel Build My Gallows High (1946) by Geoffrey Homes. DP: Nicholas Musuraca. AD: Albert S. D’Agostino. M: Roy Webb. Locations: Reno, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Acapulco. CAST: Robert Mitchum (Jeff Bailey / Jeff Martin), Jane Greer (Kathy Moffat), Kirk Douglas (Whit Sterling), Rhonda Fleming (Meta Carson), Virginia Huston (Ann Miller). 97’. B&w Academy. MPAA Seal 12082. A fine NFTVA print. Viewed in Helsinki, SEA, Cinema Orion, Tuesday 17 March 1998. **** The first 35mm screening of this classic in Finland. Never released in this country in the cinemas nor on video, it has been previously shown at the Archive and transmitted on TV only on 16mm. - For the first time I had the chance to fully appreciate the moody poetry of Out of the Past. It is a dark, slow film, where even the daytime scenes of California invariably seem to take place under cloudy skies. Robert Mitchum gives an extremely powerful, laconic performance as Jeff Bailey, who has taken the effort to cut himself from his criminal past, but is caught again in the web of fate.