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chapter 5 OUT OF THE PAST (1947): PASSIVE MASCULINITY AND ACTIVE FEMININITIES Out of the Past raises the extravagance of film noir to its highest pitch. This absurd restlessness, these useless murders, this odd nocturnal atmosphere, and these episodes of a fulgurating brutality could only end in the death of the three protagonists. raymond borde and etienne chaumeton, A Panorama of American Film Noir, 1941–1953 Out of the Past (1947) has always been one of my favorite films noirs. It is quintessential noir because, in addition to the ambiguity of the characterizations of the standard cast of noir characters, it also features a true femme fatale rather than a femme attrapée masquerading as a femme fatale. Set primarily in California (Bridgeport, San Francisco), Nevada (Lake Tahoe), and Mexico, Out of the Past features the wonderful, passive, powerful masculinity of Robert Mitchum, who plays the doomed homme fatal; Kirk Douglas as a wealthy, unscrupulous gambler; and Jane Greer as the femme fatale. Directed by Jacques Tourneur and adapted by Daniel Mainwaring from his novel Build My Gallows High, the film features a notoriously complex plot, one that actually caused a reviewer in the 1947 New York Times to close with the comment, ‘‘If only we had some way of knowing what’s going on in the last half of this film, we might get pleasure from it. As it is, the challenge is worth a try.’’1 The plot resonates with many noir themes, and the white male protagonist’s investigation takes him to various exotic locales , including Acapulco, Mexico, and a New York jazz club. Jeff Bailey (Robert 53 Mitchum), like Swede in The Killers, has escaped a past that includes a dangerous dame. He now runs a gas station (Swede only works at one) in the small California mountain town of Bridgeport. He fishes, and romances a local girl. In the first sequence of the film, a man from the past shows up and insists Jeff make the past his present. Although homme fatal Jeff does not motionlessly wait for his demise, he seems just about as sure as Swede was in the earlier film that he cannot escape it. Spectators learn of Jeff’s past in a long flashback sequence (introduced and occasionally narrated with his voice-over) during which Jeff tells his Bridgeport girlfriend, femme attrapée Ann (Virginia Huston) just how bad he has been. In his earlier life as a private detective, Jeff agreed to help a smooth gambler, Whit Sterling (Douglas) find a woman who had shot him and run off with forty thousand dollars. Jeff does find the woman, Kathie Moffett (Greer), in Acapulco. She is beautiful; he falls for her, and they seek to hide out from Whit together. While they are hiding in plain sight in San Francisco, Jeff’s former partner sees them and winds up dead, shot by Kathie. Kathie drives off. Jeff ends up in Bridgeport, and now, as the film opens, Whit wants to talk. Jeff discovers that Kathie has returned to Whit and that Whit wants Jeff’s assistance in beating a tax rap. The caper involves stealing some tax documents from a San Francisco accountant. But the plan really involves murdering the accountant and pinning the blame on Jeff. Jeff realizes this too late, and the accountant winds up dead. Jeff hides out, meets with Whit again, and asserts that Kathie should take the fall (she has been instrumental in all of the criminal activities). Whit agrees, but Kathie shoots him and insists that Jeff go off with her, leaving Bridgeport and the woman he supposedly truly loves behind. Jeff acts as though he is going along with Kathie’s plan, but arranges for the police to stop them in their escape attempt. Kathie shoots him in anger and is killed by a barrage of gunfire. No wonder noir critics Borde and Chaumeton claim that the film ‘‘raises the extravagance of film noir to its highest pitch.’’2 None of the eventually well-known actors who played the leads were huge stars at the time Out of the Past was filmed. Some critics suggest that Greer was a neophyte, a claim that her filmography, as delineated by Karen Burroughs Hannsberry in Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film, disputes.3 Just prior to the release of Out of the Past, in which she plays femme fatale Kathie Moffett, Greer had appeared in They Won’t Believe Me (1947), receiving rave reviews...

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