Mr. DuLac’s review published on Letterboxd:
How big a chump can you get to be? I was finding out.
-Jeff Bailey
Jacques Tourneur made his Hollywood feature film debut under contract with MGM Studios but was released after a few unsuccessful films. He went to work for RKO Pictures, but was relegated to the B-list. It's here that his career dramatically turned around as Tourneur was able to make a few true classics under the B-movie structure (Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie) which caused him to soon be promoted to the A-List and on track to direct the greatest film of his career.
While Daniel Mainwaring (working under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) is credited with adapting his own novel, Build My Gallows High, it's commonly believed that most (if not all) the memorable dialogue in the film was actually written by Frank Fenton. Film-noir dialogue is an art form of it's own and what's featured in Out of the Past is some of the best the genre has to offer. The film is quotable from beginning to end with witty sarcastic dialogue delivered perfectly by it's main cast.
As with numerous great films, it's lead was hardly the studios first choice as they offered the role to several actors before landing a lead for the film. In true form however, Robert Mitchum not only took the role, but completely made it his own. He plays the character of Jeff Bailey with an air of detachment that is total Mitchum. Other actors would have approached the character in a similar fashion, but none would have done it in the same style. Bailey's cool indifference is perfect for the dialogue, and Mitchum delivers perfectly.
This is only Kirk Douglas' second film and he's brilliant in it. He plays the heavy and approaches the role in a completely different manner then most actors would. He's charming and pleasant in every scene but manages to come off as quite menacing at the same time. Jane Greer is the personification of the quintessential femme fatale even though she has to share some screen time with two other leading ladies, her role of Kathie Moffat ends up being more complex then the ones found in the genre's most famous films.
The story centers on Jeff Bailey and Whit Sterling thinking their trying to outsmart each other while their actually both being used and manipulated without realizing it. It all unravels in a complex climax that is pure noir and actually sticks to it's well deserved ending unlike various other films that compromised themselves for a more audience pandering finale.