Out of the Past

image from the film Out of the Past

image from the film OUT OF THE PAST

In this definitive film noir, classic tough guys Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas square off in a complicated game of intrigue, duplicity, and lots o’viciousness. Mitchum is an ex-private detective who gets pulled back into the racket by some old criminal associates and then ends up pitted against big time crook Douglas.

Mitchum’s ex-girlfriend Jane Greer is the amoral seductress—every pulp fiction needs at least one—who manipulates them both. True to its name, the film opens with a flashback, which ends up occupying about half the film, and then proceeds to twist itself into a jumbo pretzel of double crosses.

Top