Out Of The Past (1947): a monologue

Kirk Douglas(?) and others

The intro

OK, small town, smirking henchman type, highly good-looking petrol pump attendant deaf-mute kid (soon, turns out to be Mitchum’s sidekick: clearly going to be central to the film).

Mitchum fishing, pretty blonde woman, he’s got a shady past which is threatening to suck him back in when the gangster asks him to come and see his boss. Lots of slick dialogue. I’m all over this.

Right, he used to be a detective in New York (explains the trenchcoat and expert cocky slant of trilby), actually called Jeff Markham, flashback surely…

The flashback

So now we’re in New York, there’s the smirker, there’s Mitchum and there’s head honcho. Fuck me, is that Kirk Douglas? It can’t be, these are the old days, older even than the old days when Kirk Douglas was around. Whoever he is, he’s very cheerful considering his girlfriend just shot him and skedaddled with $40,000. He pays Mitchum $10,000 to bring her back.

Mitchum goes to jazz bar, talks to girlfriend’s maid. How did he know she’d be in here? Girlfriend got vaccinated so he decides she’s gone to Mexico City. He goes, but she’s left her hotel. So he takes “the bus south, like she did” to Acapulco. “I knew she had to wind up here because if you want to go south, here’s where you get the boat. All I had to do was wait.” In a small cafe as it turns out, drinking.

If I was a private detective in an old film looking for someone who’d disappeared, I’d ask more questions about stuff. This guy will never find her. Oh, she’s walked into his cafe.

Time for a rethink. This is private detection at its finest. Forget logic, asking questions and looking things up. It’s those kind of ideas which are stopping me from being Robert Mitchum. Look at him – how many people can drawl with their eyes and their walk as well as their voice?

Absurd handsomeness going on all round

Back to the film. She’s sitting down, Mitchum’s getting up to go over… Hang on, why didn’t he finish his beer? It was half full! Never mind, he’s distracted. She is pretty, Not-Kirk-Douglas was right. Some sparky back and forth, she sort of invites him to a bar.

He goes to bar, and sticking to tactics that are clearly foolproof, sits there and drinks. She walks in. No prizes for guessing where this is headed.

Well, well, look who it is. Uncanny. Maybe that is Kirk Douglas. He grins too much though, and looks smaller than in Spartacus. His name isn’t on the front of the DVD box. Can’t be.

San Francisco now. Trouble, his old partner’s found them and he’s working for Not-Kirk now. A fight, impressively they manage to sock each other on the jaw about every second with a sound like a high five, a gunshot, Mitchum’s hair is messed up, she’s legged it, she did steal the money…

The present

So he’s finished telling story to blonde woman and they’ve arrived at Not-Kirk’s house. Talk of breakfast; Not-Kirk’s pretty rich, should be good. No, incredible, Mitchum gingerly sips at his coffee and then leaves! Have a fried egg man, a quick glass of juice!

Some of these one-liners are stretching it a bit. Still, that’s what a real star was back then: a guy who could read anything you asked him to and make it sound like his last dying imparting of wisdom. The words take a shortcut from your ears, past your brain and straight to the grin reflex. ‘Cool’, you evaluate. No wonder Not-Kirk can’t wipe the smile off his face.

Alright, getting a bit complicated now. Someone helped Not-Kirk dodge his income tax, but then he wanted more money than he was paid, but he could get some money for turning Not-Kirk in… Not-Kirk wants Mitchum to get some income tax records off him. Think that’s right. Still with it, no problem. Off to San Francisco again.

The collapse

A secretary, an attorney, drinks, lots of taxi journeys and different buildings, it’s all getting a bit confusing. That’s better, a corpse, you know where you are with a corpse. Is that the guy from before?

She’s not the secretary at all, she’s the girlfriend. But she’s pretending to be the secretary. What’s the girlfriend doing here? Ooh, cool line. An affidavit? Fisher? Now they’re kissing. I think everybody’s pretending, but maybe I’m just confused. Maybe it’s not that complicated, and I do know what’s going on.

Wait, who’s he? What did he just say?

Don't remember this bit at all

The petrol pumper! I was a little off on that one, haven’t seen him since the beginning. Ha! With a fishing rod!

Well strike a light, it is Kirk Douglas. I should’ve thought to check the back of the box earlier really. Looks a lot more like him now the grinning’s stopped.

Plane? Desert? How’s the poor pilot supposed to know where to go with those instructions?

I don’t think much of this love story. The blonde woman’s a bit boring and that sheriff goon keeps popping up. Doesn’t he realise that by saying things like “I’ve loved her ever since I fixed her rollerskates”, he painfully illustrates the contrast with a man who at times wears his trilby at a slant that seems vertical?

Another corpse, but I’ve stopped trusting them. Does he have to go with her? Time to face it, the intricacies of the plot have escaped me. Unless, the – oh, it’s finished. Quite an ending, and Mr Petrol Pump was pivotal after all. To paraphrase Mitchum/Bailey/Markham, was Out Of The Past a winner? I was finding out.

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