My Cultural Diet

To his fellow citizens in Bridgeport, California, Jeff Bailey is just the guy running the local gas station and dating the town beauty. But Bailey’s got secrets, secrets that start to emerge — wait for it — out of the past when a former associate rolls into town and insists that Bailey travel to Lake Tahoe for a meeting. Soon enough, Bailey’s secrets land him in a convoluted web involving femme fatales, vicious gangsters, federal crimes, double crosses, and plenty of cigarette smoke. Make no mistake, Jacques Tourneur’s classic film noir is an enjoyable one. Robert Mitchum portrays Bailey with a sort of resigned fatalism that suggests he knows where things are heading the moment he sees his old associate, and yet he still does his damndest to outsmart and outrun fate. Meanwhile, Jane Greer is perfect as the beautiful woman you want to trust even though you know you really shouldn’t. And though you expect a film noir to be set in a gloomy urban environment, much of Out of the Past takes place in picturesque rural and outdoor settings, which is an interesting change. Maybe it’s that last aspect, but Tourneur’s film does lack a certain nihilistic edge that I prefer from noir, one that leaves you with a pit in your stomach.

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