Out of the Past (1947)

My Review

Robert Mitchum plays a small-town gas station owner with a troubled background living a quiet life when people start popping up “Out of the Past.” Director Jacques Tourneur (“Cat People” 1942) put together this thriller with a complex storyline, classic femme fatale, dark cinematography (Nicholas Musuraca), and great writing by Daniel Mainwaring, who adapted the screenplay from his own 1946 novel “Build My Gallows High.”

The cast includes Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Rhonda Fleming, Kirk Douglas, Steve Brodie, Virginia Huston, Richard Webb, Paul Valentine, Ken Niles, Theresa Harris, Archie Twitchell, and Dickie Moore as The Kid. The watchable “Out of the Past” is considered one of the best examples of film noir, and was a hit at the box office for RKO Radio Pictures. It was remade in 1984 as “Against All Odds” featuring Rachel Ward, Jeff Bridges, and Jane Greer.