Though we have all become accustomed to November being coined Movember, there is another moniker that is perhaps lesser known. ‘Noirvember’ has, over the last few years, gone viral, making this eleventh month of the year the perfect one to celebrate the shadowy, gloom filled, doom-laden film noirs of the 1940s and 50s.
So, I thought I would start us off with a bang by reviewing the classic 1947 crime noir Out of the Past. Written by Daniel Mainwaring (he wrote the screenplay and the novel the film is based off of under the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes – titled “Build My Gallows High”) and directed by Jacques Tourneur (Cat People), past mistakes meet present danger when gas station owner Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum), who has been hiding in a small California town after a torrid life, is tracked down by Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine), a trusted henchman for a smooth but sketchy gangster named Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas).
Away from the station at the moment Stefanos arrives – as the man is out on a date with a sweet, girl-next-door-type named Ann Miller (Virginia Huston), Bailey is warned by his caring, kind-hearted deaf employee (Dickie Moore) that the ominous-looking man is sniffing around his doorstep. Stefanos delivers an ultimatum to the man, warning him that he better make his way to Sterling’s home the next night.
Bailey finally realizes that it is time for him to reveal his sketchy past to his beloved, so he takes Ann for a ride as he prepares to head up to Sterling’s abode. Telling her of his mysterious history, we learn that the man was a private detective who was hired by Whit to track down his fiery dame Kathie (Jane Greer) – who decided to leave her mobster lover with a bullet in his belly and forty thousand dollars short. We also learn that Bailey’s real last name is Markham.
Featuring an extended flashback, we see the man at work. Markham tracks Kathie to Mexico, quickly falling for her striking beauty, as well as her contradictory mix of stark attitude and flirtatious allure. Let’s just say, sparks eventually fly. Planning on betraying the dangerous mobster, Markham is shocked when Stefanos and his employer arrive unexpectedly in Acapulco, yet he is fortunate that his conniving ways are undiscovered – though it is a very ominous sign.
Eventually, as things do, the past comes knocking and things quickly unravel. In a dire situation, Markham disappeared to Bridgeport, California, changing his name. Once again, ghosts reappear from the distant past, forcing the reclusive man to once again work for Whit as the mobster is supposedly being fleeced by accountant Leonard Eels (Ken Niles). Further complicating things, in walks Kathie, who came crawling back to Sterling (revealing all of their indiscretions that included making a fool of the mobster).
Walking a dangerous tightrope, Markham is unsure of what is fact and what is fiction, whether he is truly working a job or if he is being set up. Making his way through the hilly streets of San Francisco, will he survive his forced re-entry into the realm of skulking private detectives? Will he make it back to the sweet girl that is Ann, or will things be soured with the baleful return of the hard-to-read Kathie?
A prime example of film noir done right, Out of the Past features striking visual shots, starkly dark cinematography, a rich voice-over narration, a shifting pitch-black story, your requisite femme fatale, a sense of fatalism (without feeling predictable) and a fitting ending. Featuring betrayals and double crosses, the rich, complex story is further enhanced by the strong performances. Mitchum is, as always, perfect. His character is smart, skeptical and engrossing, not at all shady like many private detectives from other noir pictures – making him a sympathetic guy whose only mistake was falling for a dangerous dame. Speaking of dangerous dames, Greer is engaging as the femme fatale, both circling piranha and trapped goldfish. Suitably stunning, her air is intoxicating, despite the fact that we know that she is ruthlessly manipulative. Then there is a young Kirk Douglas, who is able to portray a man who is tough to read. Though clearly harbouring a dangerous amount of rancour, his charisma tinged with a certain menace provides him with the easy ability to cajole those he faces.
Featuring the typical hard boiled dialogue of the noir genre, there is plenty to like here. When Kathie tells Markham “I don’t want to die.”, he quickly rebuts with “Neither do I, Baby, but if I have to, I’m going to die last”. Also oozing a sense of humour, lines like “Joe couldn’t find a prayer in the Bible” bring a chuckle while painting a grey world where nothing is truly black and white. Perhaps best capturing this fantastic element, a confused and slightly worried Markham explains to a former friend that “I think I’m a frame . . . I don’t know. All I can see is the frame. I’m going in there now to look at the picture”.
In actuality, things could have turned out quite differently. Mitchum, along with a studio accountant and an assistant to the executive, were being flown in for the first day of shooting, and as they landed, the pilot realized that the brakes were malfunctioning. Plowing through a fence, then jumping over a ditch and finally destroying an outhouse before coming to a complete stop, the pair who were in the back seats were injured and knocked unconscious. With the pilot and Mitchum unhurt, the laconic, blasé film star crawled out of the wreckage, swept off his clothing and then hitched a ride so that he could get to work. Thankfully for us, things turned out okay, and one of the great film noirs was born. So, discover shady past, ominous present and fatalistic future in this Noirvember feature; it will surely slay.