Customer Reviews:
Great Noir.......2008-02-29
A classic noir with Robert Mitchum as an ex-PI hiding out in a town until the past comes calling. Jane Greer is the femme fatale and Kirk Douglas plays the mobster Mitchum once wronged. I'd recommend this movie along with `The Killers'. Classics.
Diamond Jubilee time!.......2008-01-18
This film is now 60 years old.
Time to get a copy & celebrate. You WON'T be disappointed.
There are 3 compelling reasons. First, good film noirs either have a slow progression of inevitable events that hurtle the characters to their doom, or they have a manic sequence of events as the world goes suddenly mad;this one has a stonking mixture of both.
Second, events usually unwind once the female is heavily involved in affairs. If you think Claire Trevor(Born to Kill) or Peggy Cummins(Gun Crazy) were girls to avoid, Jane Greer in this film is one to run away from-if you can! You get the feeling she is one you'd still feel compelled to commit murder for, to stop her from killing you!
Third, the eternal triangle here has 3 very sharp sides. It ain't just Robert Mitchum loves Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas ditto-1947 Hollywood or not, the 2 male leads are possibly more than best buddies,too. Most interesting variation, this, and subtely etched on by director Jaques Tournier, who was still producing great films 10 years after this(Night of the Demon).
As if 3 superb performances wasn't another definite reason to buy, Steve Brodie, as a creepy Dudley Doright Forest Ranger trying to get the nice country girl, Rhonda Fleming, away from Bob Mitchum is a minor but much appreciated role. Another sign of a good film noir is that black and white become very blurred and interchangeable.
Well, that's enough-the plot you can find out for youself-you surely don't need any more reasons to buy, do you?
Out of the Past.......2007-09-12
This film was originally known as "Build my Gallows High". Although a good film I was thrown by the title given to it in your lists.
Some other customers may wish to note?
Film noir classic.......2007-03-21
Brutal, dark, intelligent and disturbing, but also with a great balance of warm and humour to make it even more complex and fascinating. That is how this film can be described. Made with great craftmanship and intellingence. This film is great example of film noir genre, a true classic.
Also there's no better example of femme fatale than Jane Greer is in this film. Gives me gooze bumps everytime I watch this film- really scarry. Leading men Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas (who gives a short but effective and chilling performance) are stellar.
The picture quality is good enough and the sound is too, though at the beginning of the film the audio track is cracking quite a lot, but in this kind of a film, it only gives more edge to the overall experience.
One of the best film noir.......2007-03-02
Finally available on DVD, I saw this on BBC2 a few months ago when they ran a season of late night b/w noir films.
Although not one of the best known this is easily one of the very best noir films. Robert Mitchum is perfect as the weather beaten anti-hero and he seems to really relish his slouchy role, which I think is a big influence on the Bruce Willis character in last year's Sin City.
If you liked The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, Kiss Me Deadly etc. then this one is definitely for you. I've ordered and am looking forward to a chance to see the great film again...
Amazon.co.uk Review
This gimmicky film noir stars Humphrey Bogart as an escaped criminal who undergoes plastic surgery and holes up at the home of Lauren Bacall's character while healing and preparing to prove his innocence. If you can last through the first half-hour of Dark Passage--which is shot entirely from the subjective view of Bogart's bandaged face, which we don't see until later--you might find ample reason in the stars' performances to stick around for the conclusion. But director Delmer Daves (A Summer Place) tests a viewer's endurance with such an obvious, attention-getting ploy. The least of the Bogart-Bacall vehicles, the other being The Big Sleep,To Have and Have Not and Key Largo). --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Truly a dark Passage.......2005-03-02
Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) is imprisoned for killing his wife. Irene Jensen (Lauren Bacall) who had her father falsely imprisoned for the same thing assumes that Vincent is also falsely accused and waits for her chance to help with his escape. For quite some time we only see the world through his eyes, and never see his face. This perspective has been very effective in other movies and adds to the mystery in this movie.
Who is the guy with the circus tent upholstery in his car?
Will he prove to be innocent?
And will the man and woman strike up a relationship?
What perils lie ahead?
All right this is for all you analyzers these movies contain similar themes:
The escape scene is a classic and the barrel is used again in "Wrongfully Accused" (1998).
The first person prospective is used again in "It Came From Outer Space" (1953) where you see the world from an alien viewpoint.
(Agnes Moorhead) The orange car is close to the red hair in "Bachelor in Paradise" (1961).
The end relates to "On the Beach" (1959).
Second time through this movie, you will find your self, rooting for the good guy, want to warn him that you saw the movie before, and know what is going to happen. However, does he listen? Of course not. Nevertheless, maybe next time he will. Get out your popcorn and be aware of strangers barring chocolates.
Wacky and great fun.......2004-02-16
I was bowled over by this forgotten piece of Forties High Style, wacky and quirky and unpredictable as it is. Yes, the idea of subjective camera for the first third of the film was campy and too much, and certainly neither Bogey nor Bacall added significantly to the allure established elsewhere. The Waxman musical score is great, though, and the supporting cast, and the lines and situations they are given!, is brilliant, one of the best ever. The couple Bogey overhears at the train station! The plainclothes cop with all the weird questions in the diner! And, above all, the cabbie driver and his wild stories about goldfish and the seven hills of San Francisco! I laughed with delight all the way through, and I readily forgive the film that it is no straightforward thriller. So much the better!
Customer Reviews:
Noir with cowboy boots.......2007-08-19
Western noir, and it's pretty good. Angular, shadowy black and white photography (by James Wong Howe), the story told in flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks with the resigned narration of Robert Mitchum, a relentless villian, a hidden family mystery that might contain hints of incest...plus gunfights and New Mexico scenery.
Mitchum and Theresa Wright are very good as the possibly doomed couple. Wright seems to me to always have had a "nice girl next door" air about her that, I think, obscured what an excellent actress she was. Not just in Best Years of Our Lives, but look at her in The Little Foxes (where in her first movie she holds up very well with Bette Davis), The Men and Shadow of a Doubt. She knew how to deliver a line. Dean Jagger was almost as ubiquitous a character actor in the late Forties and Fifties as Thomas Mitchell had been in the Thirties and Forties. Jagger usually, it seemed to me, mostly played decent good guys or well intentioned weakings, and with deliberate speech. It was good to see him play so effectively a decisive-spoken out-and-out bad guy.
The DVD transfer is very good, but no extras
Customer Reviews:
"Awfully cold around the heart".......2004-12-22
Robert Mitchum stars in "Out of the Past" as Jeff Bailey. As the film opens, he is the owner of a small town gas station; he's romancing a beautiful girl (Virginia Huston) and his life seems idyllic. However, a stranger arrives looking for Bailey, and everything changes irrevocably. The story is told partially in flashback - enumerating his past with a cutthroat gangster (Kirk Douglas) and a mysterious moll (Jane Greer) - and partially in the present as his past ensnares him into a complicated morass of murder and revenge.
"Out of the Past" is a quintessential 1940s film noir, right up there with "Double Indemnity" and "The Maltese Falcon," although it's arguably not as well known as those classics. The script is whip-smart and filled with brilliant dialogue - a character asserts to Bailey, "Don't you see you've only me to make deals with now?" and Bailey shoots back, "Build my gallows high, baby." Each scene is perfectly shot with an abundance of ambience; director Jacques Tourneur specialized in moody films, such as "I Walked with a Zombie," and he certainly scores here. The plot is full of crosses and double-crosses - it's admittedly not one of the most complex film noirs; however, the characters are perfectly etched, and the film builds to a heartbreaking conclusion.
Overall, "Out of the Past" is one of the best film noirs I've seen and a top-notch movie in every way. Most highly recommended. DVD extras: the main extra is a somewhat dry but informative commentary by James Ursini, an author noted for writing about film noir.
Classic Mitchum, classic noir.......2004-10-24
Robert Mitchum was made for black and white movies and the noir genre. Here, the lighting captures his features mesmerically, like the extraordinary shadowed beauty of a moonscape. And then there's the voice, slow as sarsaparilla, deep as a honey jar ... just as smooth, but 140 proof! Mitchum's is a very physical presence, a very physical style of acting, but unforgettable.
Told in flashback - hence the title - there is plenty of opportunity for Mitchum to narrate the story, using that voice to carry you along. For a film actor, he has a voice which would have made him a radio star. Director Tourneur clearly understands this and builds on the visual and audio strengths of the production.
Geoff Bailey (Mitchum) is fleeing his past by hiding in a small town, miles from nowhere. His past, in the form of Kirk Douglas, catches up with him. His past also takes on the shape of the femme fatale, Kathy (Jane Greer). Douglas is wonderfully malevolent - there is a dual of the dimpled chins as he and Mitchum indulge in confrontational banter.
It starts out as a simple story, maybe even a love story, then twists like a trenchcoat belt. Mitchum chainsmokes his way through. Will he get the girl, the homespun Anne, the small town girl next door who is so enamoured of him, or will his past suck him back down?
Mitchum is built for a trenchcoat - he wears it in precisely the way Columbo can't. The story hangs about his central character in much the same way. It fits his acting and his presence perfectly. A superb example of the noir genre, a film you can watch and watch.
One of the finest film-noir's.......2002-04-04
'Out of the Past' (aka 'Build my Gallows High')is a brilliant film-noir from Jacques Tourneur- who also made the brilliant 'Cat People'. I think that it is one of the finest film-noir's- along with ,'The Blue Dahlia','Detour','Double Indemnity' ,'In a Lonely Place', 'The Lady from Shanghai' & 'A Touch of Evil' (though for a breakdown & list of ideal viewing read Paul Schrader's brilliant piece on the 'style, rather than a genre').
Robert Mitchum is great here-though his best performance is still that in 'Night of the Hunter'. Jane Greer's career was stalled following this- due to a non-compliance with Howard Hughes' casting couch- though she would appear in the excerable remake 'Against All Odds'. Kirk Douglas plays the vile gangster role- proving he could flip between good guys (like Spartacus) & the venal (though I like his characters in-between, such as those in 'Ace in the Hole' or 'The Bad & the Beautiful'/'Two Weeks in Another Town'). This is what contemporary actors like Tom Hanks could learn- yes, you can play the bad guy! (Mel Gibson has done this, unfortunately in bad films!). This film has many of the facets of film noir- chiaro-scuro, the roads, the sense of impending doom, the love triangle etc. Its influence can be detected in the nouvelle-vague- such films as 'A Bout de Souffle', 'Alphaville', 'Bande a Part' & 'Tirez Sur la Pianiste'. There is also a great allusion to it in Paul Auster's 'Ghosts' (in 'The New York Trilogy'). This is a great film for the performances of Douglas & Mitchum alone & well worth purchase- especially at this budget price. They truly can't/don't make them like this anymore!
Amazon.co.uk Review
This gimmicky film noir stars Humphrey Bogart as an escaped criminal who undergoes plastic surgery and holes up at the home of Lauren Bacall's character while healing and preparing to prove his innocence. If you can last through the first half-hour of Dark Passage--which is shot entirely from the subjective view of Bogart's bandaged face, which we don't see until later--you might find ample reason in the stars' performances to stick around for the conclusion. But director Delmer Daves (A Summer Place) tests a viewer's endurance with such an obvious, attention-getting ploy. The least of the Bogart-Bacall vehicles, the other being The Big Sleep,To Have and Have Not and Key Largo). --Tom Keogh
Customer Reviews:
Truly a dark Passage.......2005-03-02
Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) is imprisoned for killing his wife. Irene Jensen (Lauren Bacall) who had her father falsely imprisoned for the same thing assumes that Vincent is also falsely accused and waits for her chance to help with his escape. For quite some time we only see the world through his eyes, and never see his face. This perspective has been very effective in other movies and adds to the mystery in this movie.
Who is the guy with the circus tent upholstery in his car?
Will he prove to be innocent?
And will the man and woman strike up a relationship?
What perils lie ahead?
All right this is for all you analyzers these movies contain similar themes:
The escape scene is a classic and the barrel is used again in "Wrongfully Accused" (1998).
The first person prospective is used again in "It Came From Outer Space" (1953) where you see the world from an alien viewpoint.
(Agnes Moorhead) The orange car is close to the red hair in "Bachelor in Paradise" (1961).
The end relates to "On the Beach" (1959).
Second time through this movie, you will find your self, rooting for the good guy, want to warn him that you saw the movie before, and know what is going to happen. However, does he listen? Of course not. Nevertheless, maybe next time he will. Get out your popcorn and be aware of strangers barring chocolates.
Wacky and great fun.......2004-02-16
I was bowled over by this forgotten piece of Forties High Style, wacky and quirky and unpredictable as it is. Yes, the idea of subjective camera for the first third of the film was campy and too much, and certainly neither Bogey nor Bacall added significantly to the allure established elsewhere. The Waxman musical score is great, though, and the supporting cast, and the lines and situations they are given!, is brilliant, one of the best ever. The couple Bogey overhears at the train station! The plainclothes cop with all the weird questions in the diner! And, above all, the cabbie driver and his wild stories about goldfish and the seven hills of San Francisco! I laughed with delight all the way through, and I readily forgive the film that it is no straightforward thriller. So much the better!
DVD:
- Peeping Tom - Special Edition [1959]
- Persona [1966]
- Psycho (2 Disc Special Edition) [1960]
- Psycho Collection [1960]
- Ring Of Bright Water [1969]
- Roman Polanski Box Set [1962]
- Scarface [1932]
- Scoop [2006] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Scrooge [1951]
- Solomon And Sheba [1959]
DVD List
DVD
![Out Of The Past [1947]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/218p-KUxmHL.jpg)
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![Crossfire [1947]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000KHX9HY.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
Crossfire [1947]
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The Killers [1946]
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Farewell My Lovely [1944]
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This Gun For Hire [1942]
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The Glass Key [1942]
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![The Naked Spur [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B000FTCLQW.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
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![Gun Fury [1953] (REGION 1) (NTSC)](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00083FZFO.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
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