Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 20-August-06
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Out of the Past (1947)

Watching "Out of the Past" got me wondering how Brian De Palma's upcoming neo-noir flick "The Black Dahlia" could go wrong. If I had to put money on it, I'd bet it overextends itself by being too complicated, too graphic, or too in love with its retro style — easy pitfalls in this day and age when flash is God and drama is defined as disturbing. When I watch older films I'm consistently amazed how clean their lines are: good/bad, men/women, champions/chumps. They don't seem simplistic, just well formed. As a banner example of this, "Out of the Past" may prove a telling comparison with "The Black Dahlia." (And I'm predicting that Josh Hartnett is no Robert Mitchum.)

Mitchum stars in the classic as a good-tough guy named Jeff who has left the past behind by changing his name and settling off the beaten path. Desirous to have a "normal" life, he has fallen for (and won) the prettiest girl in town (Virginia Huston) and pitches marriage to her during afternoons by the river. When a bad-tough guy (Paul Valentine) stops by his gas station with a summons he can't refuse, Jeff must abandon his Eden and visit his former employer, Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). Whit is a big-time crook who needs dependable men to do his dirty work, and he has a particular reason to pull Jeff out of retirement for a job. This reason, disclosed in a flashback, involves a gorgeous broad (Jane Greer) who shares a sordid history with them both.

The movie's characters are generic types elevated by Geoffrey Homes' dialogue and the easy cool of the stellar cast. It takes about 10 minutes for the viewer to get hooked on Jeff's dilemma (in the face of which he shows no signs of stress) and to fall with him into a world of powerful punks and dangerous dames. You can't tell exactly where the plot is going, but it obviously will be rough getting there even for a man like Jeff. The twists and turns take him from Lake Tahoe to Acapulco to San Francisco, leaving quite a few bodies behind. Through all the action, the quiet town with its pretty girl and steepled church shimmers in the wings like a dream you might lose upon waking.

"Out of the Past" drags slightly towards the finale, but it's a solid specimen of the old-school filmmaking which modern movies would do well to follow.

Copyright © 2006 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.