Film noir as a genre is notorious for not having happy endings. Even with that in mind, Out of the Past has a particularly unhappy ending with just about everyone leaving this Earth. Again, film noir is notorious for having femme fatales, but I think Kathie (Jane Greer) is the most duplicitous and self-serving of any I've seen so far.
Out of the Past is a movie that if I'm being honest, will probably understand and like more on second viewing and probably even more upon the third. The second half of the movie in the present has somewhat of a confusing plot to me - I figured it out in the end, but I can't help feeling my enjoyment of it suffered in the moments when I was wondering what the fuck was happening.
As Roger Ebert notes, this movie is basically a series of one-liners, which could be a problem in any other genre, but really isn't in film noir. And I know I'm picking these movies, but I keep getting blessed with amazing casts. This is the best Kirk Douglas has ever been in the admittedly small amount of movies I've seen him in. (Somewhat underwhelming in Spartacus, decent in Detective Story) And Robert Mitchum was created on this Earth to be a lead in a film noir. Finishing out the main cast, Jane Greer's voice pretty much ensures the doom of any man she meets.
Given the cast, the quality of the movie is not surprising. It is slightly surprised to see the director is Jacques Tourneur, who doesn't seem like a bad director at all, but his most well-known films are "Cat People" and "I Walked with a Zombie" so not the type of director you'd expect. (Both films, I should note, have pretty good ratings on IMDB)
4/4 Stars
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