Out of the Past

Out of the Past (billed in the United Kingdom as Build My Gallows High) is a 1947 American film noir by director Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Geoffrey Homes (Daniel Mainwaring) from his 1946 novel Build My Gallows High (also written as Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain.

Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest films noirs. Its complex, fatalistic storyline, dark cinematography and classic femme fatale garnered the film critical acclaim and cult status. In 1991, the National Film Preservation Board at the Library of Congress selected Out of the Past for preservation to the United States National Film Registry as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” along with 24 other films.

Plot Joe Stefanos drives to the rural mountain town of Bridgeport, California to seek gas station owner Jeff Bailey, and asks him to meet Whit Sterling in Lake Tahoe. Jeff acquiesces and takes his girlfriend Ann Miller to ride along and hear about his past.

Jeff reveals that his real surname is Markham, and three years ago he was partners with Jack Fisher in New York City as private eyes. Gambling kingpin Whit hired Jeff to track down Whit's girlfriend Kathie Moffat, who shot Whit and stole $40,000 from him. Jeff tracked Kathie to Acapulco, and was struck by her seductive beauty. Kathie admitted to shooting Whit, but denied stealing. Jeff and Kathie quickly fell in love; when Whit and Stefanos arrived unannounced to check on Jeff's progress, Jeff lied and said he never found her. Jeff and Kathie then escaped to San Francisco and lived there for several months before Fisher tracked them down to a mountain cabin. There, Fisher and Jeff brawled before Kathie shot Fisher dead and ran away, leaving behind a bankbook revealing a $40,000 deposit.

Ann drops Jeff off at Whit's estate, where Whit inveigles Jeff into a job to clear their slate. Jeff is surprised to see Kathie there as Whit's lover again, but she claims she had no choice but to return. She indicates that Whit knows about their time together but nothing about Fisher's murder. Jeff scornfully rejects her.

Whit explains that San Francisco lawyer Leonard Eels has helped him dodge $1,000,000 in taxes but is now blackmailing him. Whit orders Jeff to meet with Eels's secretary, Meta Carson, who explains the plan to recover the incriminating records. Suspecting a frame, Jeff still joins her at Eels's apartment. He trails Meta, who retrieves the records from Eels' office. Jeff returns to Eels's apartment to find Eels dead; he hides the body.

Jeff sneaks into Meta's apartment and overhears Kathie arranging for the discovery of Eels's body; she is surprised to learn it can't be found. Jeff confronts Kathie, who claims she signed an affidavit for Whit swearing that Jeff killed Fisher. She suggests rekindling their romance and he leaves. Stefanos arrives, assuring Kathie that he killed Eels. Jeff retrieves the tax records as collateral for getting the affidavit. Kathie and Meta are unable to retrieve the affidavit from Eels' office as the police are already there. Whit's thugs capture Jeff but discovers he no longer has the records, as Jeff had already mailed them to himself.

Wanted for the murders of Fisher and Eels, Jeff hides out in Bridgeport. Kathie directs Stefanos to trail Jeff's deaf-mute gas station helper, which leads to a gorge where Jeff is hiding. The kid pulls Stefanos with a fishing line to his death before he can shoot Jeff. Jeff informs Whit about Stefanos' death as well as Kathie's double-cross, and offers to return the records if Whit destroys Kathie's affidavit and surrenders her to police for Fisher's murder. Whit accepts, threatening to kill Kathie if she does not cooperate.

Jim, Ann's childhood friend and former beau, trails Jeff to a meeting with Ann. Ann believes in Jeff's innocence but asks if he is absolutely sure of what he wants. He says he is, and she promises to wait for him. Jeff returns to Whit's mansion and discovers that he has been killed by Kathie, who insists Jeff run away with her or be framed for all three murders. While she packs, Jeff makes a phone call. As Jeff drives them away, Kathie realizes that he has arranged a police roadblock. She shoots him dead and is then gunned down by the police.

In Bridgeport, Jim asks Ann to leave town with him, but Ann demurs. Privately, she asks the kid if Jeff was going away with Kathie. After a pause, he nods disingenuously. A heartbroken Ann gets into Jim's car, and the kid waves a wistful farewell at Jeff's name on his garage sign.

Cast

Production Daniel Mainwaring wrote Build My Gallows High in 1946 while on retreat after writing six screenplays in one year. He had also tired of detective fiction, having written several novels featuring a sleuthing reporter named Robin Bishop.Smith, Kevin Burton. "Robin Bishop", The Thrilling Detective. Accessed April 15, 2025. The title for the novel originated in a poem,Flinn, Tom. "DANIEL MAINWARING ON "OUT OF THE PAST"." Velvet Light Trap, vol. 10, 1973. 44–5. believed by one scholar to be "Haman" from Benjamin Cutler Clark's The Past, Present, and Future (1867).Scruggs, Charles. "Out of the Black Past: The Image of the Fugitive Slave in Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past." African American Review, vol. 44, no. 1, 2011. 97-113, 329. The poem is about Haman's machinations and includes the line, "At length a gallows high he swung, upon which all were to be hung..."Clark, B (Benjamin Cutler). The Past, Present, and Future. In Prose and Poetry. Toronto: Adam Stevenson, & Co., 1867. 51.

A script reader at RKO Pictures recommended the novel as a "worthy addition to the rough, tough school of Chandler, Cain and Burnett...presents an almost perfect story for an actor like Bogart". William Dozier approved the purchase for $20,000, which included Mainwaring as screenwriter. Gallup's Audience Research recommended that RKO change the title to Out of the Past. Warren Duff was unsure about Mainwaring's first draft. One of the problems was that The Kid narrated the film, which convoluted the structure. Duff paid James M. Cain $20,000 to rewrite it, but the second draft was so flawed that Duff hired Mainwaring again to finish the screenplay.

Out of the Past was produced by RKO Pictures. Key personnel—director Jacques Tourneur, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, actor Mitchum, and Albert S. D'Agostino's design group—were all long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio focused on making B-films during the early 1940s, the post–World War II Out of the Past was afforded a comparatively lavish budget.

John Garfield and Dick Powell declined the lead role.Richard B. Jewell, Slow Fade to Black: The Decline of RKO Radio Pictures, University of California, 2016. Kirk Douglas appears in his third credited screen performance, having made his critically noted debut in 1946's The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. The next time that Mitchum and Douglas played major roles in the same picture occurred in the 1967 Western The Way West.Server, Lee. Robert Mitchum: "Baby I Don't Care". St. Martin's Publishing Group, 2002. 408.

Reception Out of the Past is considered one of the greatest of all films noir. Robert Ottoson hailed the film in 1981 as "the ne plus ultra of forties film noir". In a contemporary review, The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther complimented the crime drama's direction and performances, although he did find the latter portion of the screenplay hard to follow:

The staff of the widely read trade publication Variety also gave it a positive review upon release:

In The Nation in 1948, James Agee wrote, "Out of the Past is a medium-grade thriller... Fairly well played, and very well photographed... the action develops a routine kind of pseudo-tension... Robert Mitchum is so very sleepily self-confident with the women that when he slopes into clinches you expect him to snore in their faces."

In his 2004 assessment of the film for the Chicago Sun-Times, critic Roger Ebert noted:

With regard to the production's stylish and moody cinematography, Ebert also dubbed the film "The greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time."

In a 1989 review, Leslie Halliwell gave it two of four stars, stating: "Moody film noir with Hollywood imitating French models; plenty of snarling and a death-strewn climax." Pauline Kael wrote in 1991, "A thin but well-shot suspense melodrama... It's empty trash, but you do keep watching it." TCM Noir Alley host and author Eddie Muller lauded the film in 2021: "Mainwaring's serpentine story is all about mood and movement, dreamily winding its way through various locations, shifting rhythms, seducing the audience toward the black hole at its heart. It nailed the bull's-eye and its reverberations linger after repeated viewings: guilt, duplicity, self-deception, and the lonely hero's need to push it to the bitter end, tempting fate once too often."

The film holds a score of 87% on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 82 reviews. Its consensus summarizes: "Anchored by a wistful Robert Mitchum, Out of the Past is an exemplary noir steeped in doom and sensuality." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the a score of 85 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Box office The film earned a profit of $90,000.

Adaptations Out of the Past was remade as Against All Odds (1984) with Rachel Ward in the Greer role, Jeff Bridges playing the Jeff Markham- inspired role, and James Woods as a variation of Kirk Douglas' villain, with Jane Greer as the mother of her original character in Out of the Past and Richard Widmark in a supporting role.

On November 14, 1987, Mitchum guest hosted Saturday Night Live. Greer made a surprise appearance in a gag sequel called "Out of Gas," in which their characters met again 40 years later at a filling station.

Out of the Past

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