OUT OF THE PAST

US, 1947, 97 minutes, Black and white.
Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Webb, Steve Brodie, Virginia Huston, Dickie Moore.
Directed by Jacques Tourneur.

Out of the Past (Build My Gallows High) has acquired a high reputation as one of the best film noir from the United States after World War Two. There was a trend of black thrillers (Gilda, To the Ends of the Earth, Cornered) which imitated French thrillers of the '30s and portrayed crime and offbeat characters with a directness and even a cynicism. This is typical in its way: a private detective is hired by a gangster to find his girlfriend - who is homicidal. There is a betrayal, falling in love, murders. The film was written by Geoffrey Homes from his novel Build My Gallows High, was directed by Jacques Tourneur (director of several excellent horror films of the '40s, westerns of the '50s) and has excellent performances from its three leads. The film was updated and remade as Against All Odds in 1983. The Robert Mitchum role was played by Jeff Bridges, Kirk Douglas by James Woods, Jane Greer by Rachel Ward. Jane Greer was given a role in the new film.

1. The title and its evocation of memory, secrets, guilt? The original novel and its title? Film noir? The popularity of this kind of thriller in the '40s?

2. Production values, black and white photography, atmosphere of California, Mexico? The strong cast? Editing, pace? The musical score. melodramatic style, chords etc.?

3. The atmosphere in the mid-'40s. the post-war mood, entertainment as well as cynicism? Thrillers. the influence of Europe? Transition of European styles to California? Popular. cynical, grim?

4. The structure of the film: finding Jeff, the service station, the situation, Anne, the crises, ice. the story leading to flashbacks? Grim memory? The change. trap, framing? The crisis and the final double cross?

5. The private eye thriller and its conventions, popularity? The voice-over? The quips. the sardonic style, wit and humour? The blend of the corny and the clever?

6. Black thrillers: innocence and guilt. passion, betrayal. power. control, honour, murder, violence, greed, freedom?

7. The heroine - and the revelation of her guilt? Inscrutable beauty? Evil? The film offering insight into this complex character?

8. The opening: the small town, the gossip. Anne and Jeff. the boy at the garage. the mystery? The atmosphere of romance, pleasant, the transition to danger, the trap, the confrontation. the fencing by talking? The summons and the flashback? Audience involvement?

9. Kirk Douglas' style as Whit? Power, Joe and his hold over him, the deal. the detection? The job and Jeff's taking it? The basic information about Cathy? Her wounding Whit? His hurt pride? The money? Jeff and the trail, Florida. the flight? Mexico, the cafe, the cinema? Her entering the cafe - Jane Greer as the ferme fatale? Effect, talk, meeting and waiting? The voice-over commentary? Her ploy, Jeff's ploy, the telegram? The beginning of the affair - the beach, the room, the rain, the suggestions? Whit's arrival and mounting tension? Jeff's act and escape?

10. The return to California, San Francisco? Style, co-detection, following, caught? Murders, money, the escape and disillusion?

11. The new situation: Whit and his smile, trap? Forgetting and forgiving? Cathy and her return? Her double cross? Joe, Jeff and Anne and trust?

12. The gangster themes: tax, New York, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco and the set-up, the secretary and her smooth style, the tax-man? The death and the hiding of the body? The timing, the taxi?

13. The importance of Cathy and the phone call, Joe, the gambling and the documents? The build-up to violence, the twists, the use of murder?

14. Whit and his power, death, Joe following the boy?

15. The pledge to Anne? The boyfriend? The boy and the honour to Jeff? Death?

16. The finale and the story, the performance by Cathy, the police and the phone call, death for Jeff? The thwarting of her plans?

17. Enjoyment and involvement in the story? Private eye thriller? A struggle and fable of good and evil? A piece of Americana?