This movie has not been rated. Today, that generally means one of two things: It’s porn or it’s a documentary. Fortunately, Out of the Past is neither. Its lack of rating is due to the fact that it is not a movie of today or yesterday or even 20 years ago. Filmed in 1947, Out of the Past falls under the genre of film noir.
For those unfamiliar with this type of movie, I’ll briefly go over some of the basic characteristics. These films were chiefly produced during the 1940s, but some scholars claim they were made as late as the 1960s. A major theme in film noir is morality. Lines between good and evil are always blurry; to convey this mood of moral ambiguity many scenes are filmed in the shadows. Characters are never how they first appear, switching motives and loyalties at least once over the course of the film. In nearly every film, the protagonist ends up in a situation where he is powerless?this is usually due to some fatal weakness, and often that weakness is women. The female characters usually fall under two stereotypes. They are either femme fatales, leading men to their demise, or they are the “loyal but too innocent for their own good” types?Out of the Past, the ultimate film noir, has one of each.
Within the genre there are many different levels. At the bottom of the ladder there are the overacted melodramatic ones (Leave Her to Heaven). One step up are the commercialized and cheesy ones usually starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake (Blue Dahlia); then comes the classic must-sees with Humphrey Bogart (The Maltese Falcon). Finally, the genre includes plain brilliant movies such as Out of the Past.
Out of the Past moves from the mountains of northern California to Acapulco to San Franciso to Lake Tahoe. Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) is a man trying to erase his past. However, like most film noir characters, he can’t escape from his former life. After an old acquaintance finds him, Bailey realizes he must clear up what happened before he can truly start a new life. Much of the movie is done in flashback format, another film noir trademark. Bailey tells his new fianc?e about his life as a private investigator. In his final case he was supposed to find a woman for a sketchy man named Whit (Kirk Douglas). Bailey found the woman and ran away with her.
The story continues to be rather complicated, involving double crosses, triple crosses, murder, romance and some suspense. The ending can only be described with one word: poignant. Yes, the ending is poignant because there is no other word in the thesaurus that can simultaneously mean heartwrenching, sad, agonizing and touching. Out of the Past is a great movie. For some reason it has never received as much critical attention as works like The Maltese Falcon or Double Indemnity, but that is not a reflection of its quality. This movie is a must-see.
