Reaction & Review | Out of the Past

 

Welcome, one and all, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight guys, I'm checking out a drama from 1947. The movie is "Out of the Past".

Now, I was originally going to hold off covering this movie until much later, because there were other movies I wanted to cover on my own schedule. However, there is a reason why I wanted to cover this movie next.

About a week or so ago, I was channel surfing one night and TCM was showing a movie called "Double Indemnity" Which was another movie I wanted review, but I ended up watching the movie on TV. Now I missed about the first 30 minutes of that movie, but what I did end up watching was really good and I ended up almost loving it. Partially because, I am kind of into almost anything noir related. So that's why I ended up bumping this movie as the next Reaction & Review.

I don't really know a whole lot about this movie, other than that it's a film noir, and that it stars Robert Mitchum. And I've always known that Robert Mitchum was a great actor. In fact, the only other movie that I can recall watching that had Robert Mitchum in it was "El Dorado", which is one of my favorite Westerns of all time. I also know that this movie, according to the front cover, also stars Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, and Richard Webb. Outside of Webb, we already have here an all-star cast just with those first four names alone. But just because a movie has a great cast does not always equal a good movie.

I am certainly hoping that this movie will be good, though. And the only way I'm going to know how good this movie will be is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm going to do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Out of the Past".

19 minutes later

Well guys, I can't say much about the movie itself so far, but I will say that I am getting sucked into the story right now. I'm hoping the movie stays that way.

5 minutes later

So after he meets her all of twice, he ends up kissing her on the beach. Seems kind of fast for someone you barely met, but maybe that's just me.

3 minutes later

Wow. So Bailey just threw a wet towel at a lamp. And it was strong enough to not only knock the lamp over, but also strong enough to blow open the front door, which was nowhere near to where the lamp was knocked down. That was...kind of interesting.

20 minutes later

Once more guys, I'm really going to have to apologize for not saying very much. It's just that the story in this movie is that fucking good. I'm genuinely interested to see what happens next.

6 minutes later

So according to Bailey, in order to act smart, you have to act like an idiot. OK. I guess you do learn something new everyday, don't you?

The Review

Well guys, that was "Out of the Past". Let me shut that off...OK. Before I get into the review itself, I need to apologize once more. This movie was that good, that I wasn't able to get out a ton of reactions for it. Which is what I know most of you are here when you read my reviews. So in case you couldn't tell, I greatly enjoyed this movie. But now I need to explain why I enjoyed it.

The writing here, at least the first 35 minutes or so, reminds me a lot of the movie I mentioned at the start of this, which was "Double Indemnity". For those who haven't seen it, I'm going to give a brief summary of that movie. In that movie, there was a murder mystery involving a 'Double Indemnity' clause, where Phyllis, one of the main characters in that movie, talks someone into murdering her husband so she can take a policy out of her husband's insurance. And from there, it's about them taking extra precautions into not being caught, and that's where the first half of "Out of the Past" reminds me of. The only difference is it's not so much a murder mystery, but more of Jeff Bailey, Robert Mitchum's character, falling for a dame named Kathie, after meeting her twice. I'll get to that in just a moment. So basically, Bailey and Kathie are on the run while Bailey's narration goes on about how and he and Kathie were on the run.

Which leads me to my only small gripe with writing. And that is that after meeting with Kathie twice, the suddenly hit it off with each other. And it just seems really weird that they don't know each other, and yet all of a sudden, they just fall for each other just like that. Well, Bailey knows her, because he had been hired by his boss to find her and bring her back. Not so much about the $40,000 she stole from him, no, he only wants her back. But anyway, because of the quick relationship our two characters share, the relationship seems kind of rushed. Now because of the narration by Bailey, we do get glimpses of him and Kathie together and developing some sort of relationship, so I can give the rushed relationship a bit of a pass.

But from that point, the movie starts going down it's own path, rather than copying more plot points from "Double Indemnity". And the story will suck you in from the moment you press play, because even though my small gripes with the rushed relationship are few, it doesn't, in any way, take away from our story, in which our characters are fleshed out and developed. We have writing here that is sharp in both drama and mystery. The only other flaw, and you would have really stretch it to call it a negative, is the ending. And what I mean by that is, if you are someone who has watched or read a lot of noir media, then you might know how those stories end. This movie's ending is no different. But trust me, even with that, the story will continue to pull you in and keep you guessing to see where it goes.

Now, moving on to the acting. There is one thing I have noticed when I was watching this movie, and this ties into dialogue. And that is that the actors in this movie, most of the time, talk really fast. And I think that's mainly because, they didn't use a lot of the more 'realistic' dialogue we have today. So because of it, someone who may have never seen how movies were made back then will watch this and think that the dialogue is incredibly stilted. And I can kinda see why someone may think that, but that isn't the case. Because we have a cast who takes this dialogue and turns it into gold. Because we have Robert Mitchum, we have Jane Greer, and we have Kirk Douglas turning in awesome showings. Most notably, for me anyway, Kirk Douglas. Because his character, Whit, comes off as very smarmy, and kinda slimy, and it just shows in the way he gives out his dialogue. And that's what makes his character work so well. Granted, Douglas's character doesn't appear a lot in this movie, but the short time he is on screen is nothing short of amazing. And every other actor who isn't Mitchum, Greer, or Kirk Douglas, turn in stellar showings as well.

I don't normally touch upon this much, outside of briefly mentioning it in my other reviews, but I want to talk about the lighting for just a moment. One thing I love about this movie's lighting is the attention to detail. Because we will have a couple of shots in this movie where we will have Bailey either standing near a hotel, or it's him just walking, and the lighting will show himself as a shadow as he is walking. And lighting in those shots are beautifully lit. Another shot that I can think of is when we see a close-up of Jane Greer talking with Robert Mitchum's character, as she is standing in the brightest part of the scene while Mitchum isn't. And the shot in that short moment looked amazing. Guys, I never thought about praising the lighting so much in this movie, but that's one of the things that makes a film noir movie look so good.

While I'm on the subject of technicals, the camerawork is really good. The lighting speaks for itself. The sound-mix is done really well. The music here is really well done, too. In fact, that's one thing I can also praise this movie for is that it knows when to use music. Because we don't have a ton of scenes where the music drowns out the dialogue, or music that doesn't play whenever a scene doesn't need it. It knows when to use it, and doesn't use it a whole lot. So the music here is also really good.

So guys, when all is said and done, I'm totally able to recommend "Out of the Past". This movie was awesome. Especially for those who are into classic cinema, and you've never had a chance to see this movie, go ahead and check it out. The movie was about $10 dollars when I picked it up. And I'm going to tell you, this movie is worth every cent. Now, because I'm kinda in the mood for some more noir, I'm going to go and watch the first "Sin City" movie because why not.

Anyway, with that guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all in the near future. Peace.