Don't Make a Scene: Out of the Past

The Set-Up: Robert Mitchum lights a cigarette.

Actually, he lights two in this section of Out of the Past (known in the UK as "Build My Gallows High" after the novel on which it is based) and the one recalls an earlier one in which he might have set the match to his own Viking funeral, when he said yes to a questionable job which resulted in him going anonymous and a bit off the grid, changing his name and hopefully his life. Sparing it, hopefully.

But, like one smoke leads to another, Mitchum's character Jeff Markham (or is it "Jeff Bailey"?) can't run away from bad habits. Besides the occasional coffin-nail, Jeff can't resist wanting what he cannot have. It's what got him involved with Kathie Moffat, who turned into something more than an assignment and made him something more of a fugitive. He may change the name but not the man, because it's why he's involved with Ann Miller, whose steady is out of town a lot. He wants what he cannot have, and the tragedy is he knows it and can't escape it, no matter how many lives he leads.

 

But, now his past has caught up with him. And it's time to come clean—fortunate because it gives us a lot of back-story—but not so much because he's going to get dirty again in one of the most melancholy stories in the black soul of film noir.

 

Anybody got a match?

 

The Story: A "town-guy" (Paul Valentine) shows up in Bridgeport, California looking for the owner of the local gas station. That would be "the mysterious" Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) who's "gone fishing"—no, really fishing—with his girl Ann Miller (Virginia Huston). He meets the "guy," who tells him an old client of his (Kirk Douglas) wants to meet him in Lake Tahoe. Bailey agrees, albeit reluctantly. He decides to take Ann along with him to Tahoe. It's a 90 minute drive. He's got a long story to tell.

 

Action.

 

MOTHER...with a man who won't pick you up at the door?

ANN MILLER Don't worry about them. 

ANN Darling. 

JEFF BAILEY It's no good, is it?

ANN It doesn't matter. It's just that they... 

JEFF BAILEY Oh, honey, I know how they feel. 

ANN Don't worry about it. 

JEFF BAILEY I'm not. 

ANN Then don't look so grim. 

JEFF BAILEY No, it's something else. 

ANN What? - 

JEFF BAILEY That guy that showed up today... 

ANN Yes? 

JEFF BAILEY You want to take a ride with me up to Lake Tahoe? 

ANN Now? -

JEFF BAILEY Yes, now. I want to tell you something. 

ANN All right, Jeff. 

JEFF BAILEY You told me once I'd have to tell you sometime. 

JEFF BAILEY Well, 

JEFF BAILEY ...this is it. 

JEFF BAILEY Now, the first thing I wanna get off my chest: My name isn't Bailey, it's Markham.

ANN Markham. 

ANN Jeff Markham? 

JEFF MARKHAM I should have told you before. I meant to, but I kept putting it off...because I didn't like any part of it. 

ANN Please tell me, Jeff.

JEFF MARKHAM Some of it's gonna hurt you. 

ANN It doesn't matter. 

JEFF MARKHAM Well, our friend Markham lived in New York. He worked with a sort of stupid, oily gent by the name of Jack Fisher. 

JEFF MARKHAM We called ourselves detectives. That was about three years ago, maybe more. Wintertime. One of the coldest days I remember in the town. And we got a call to come and see a big op. 

ANN A what? 

JEFF MARKHAM An operator, gambler. He didn't come to see us because he was too high-powered a character. 

JEFF MARKHAM Also, because some dame had taken four shots at him with his own 38. Made one of them good. 

JEFF MARKHAM He was taking it in stride, but he had a friend who was a ball of fire.

Cross-fade...

JOE STEFANOS Newspaper guys, wise guys, 

JOE STEFANOS who do they think they're kidding? So he shot himself cleaning a cap pistol. So I shot the ace of spades out of a sleeve during a gin game. 

JOE STEFANOS A guy can't even get shot by a dame... 

JOE STEFANOS ...without the whole town starting to buzz like a... 

WHIT STERLING Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe. 

WHIT STERLING You just sit and stay inside yourself. You wait for me to talk. I like that. 

JEFF MARKHAM I never found out much listening to myself. 

Sterling laughs and winces in pain...

WHIT STERLING It amazes me how she missed so often. 

JEFF MARKHAM Maybe you were moving. 

JACK FISHER Yaknow, a dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.

WHIT STERLING What's he doing here? 

WHIT STERLING I called you. 

JEFF MARKHAM My partner. 

JEFF MARKHAM Should I ask why you didn't call the law? 

WHIT STERLING Should you?  

JEFF MARKHAM I guess not. 

JEFF MARKHAM Anything happen to her? 

WHIT STERLING She ran out on me. 

JOE STEFANOS With 40,000 bucks. 

WHIT STERLING I want her back.
JEFF MARKHAM Or the money? 

WHIT STERLING You know, I once bet $40,000 on a horse that ran dead last, 

WHIT STERLING so I bought the horse. 

JEFF MARKHAM Yeah, that's what I mean. 

WHIT STERLING Oh, that's where you're wrong. I put that horse in a nice green pasture...so he'd never get his foot caught in a mutuel machine. 

JEFF MARKHAM You should go out and visit it sometime. 

WHIT STERLING No, I just want her back. 

WHIT STERLING When you see her, you'll understand better.  

JEFF MARKHAM Maybe she's just an impulsive girl. 

WHIT STERLING Shall we let it go at that? 

JEFF MARKHAM I can let it all go. 

WHIT STERLING An even 5,000 now and 5,000 when you bring her back.

WHIT STERLING And expenses.  

JEFF MARKHAM Now, that should have been the first thing you said. 

WHIT STERLING Find her, Jeff. Bring her back. 

JEFF MARKHAM Why me? 

WHIT STERLING Well, I know a lot of smart guys and a few honest ones, 

WHIT STERLING ...and you're both. 

JEFF MARKHAM What happens to her? 

WHIT STERLING I won't touch her. 

JEFF MARKHAM Okay. 

Sterling tosses him a wad of bills.

JEFF MARKHAM Get me the stuff on her family, pictures, anything interesting. 

JOE STEFANOS You'll get it. 

JEFF MARKHAM I'll see you. You bring it over, Joe. 

JEFF MARKHAM Come on, let's go. 

JEFF MARKHAM  Oh, by the way, you mind telling me her name? 

WHIT STERLING Kathie Moffat. 

JEFF MARKHAM Thanks. 

JACK FISHER She must be quite a dame. A wild goose with 40 G's. 

JACK FISHER You know, for a smart guy, that Sterling sure trusts you, don't he? 

JEFF MARKHAM  Why not? 

JACK FISHER Am I going along? 

JEFF MARKHAM Nope. 

JACK FISHER Oh, he doesn't like my personality, huh? Well, I'm still in, Jeff, 50/50. 

JEFF MARKHAM Did I say anything different? 

JACK FISHER All right, all right. It's a good soft touch. Don't get hot at me. 

JACK FISHER And don't get any cute ideas.

 

Out of the Past

 

Words by Daniel Mainwaring (writing as Geoffrey Homes), James M. Cain, and Frank Fenton

 

Pictures by Nicholas Musuraca and Jacques Tourneur

 

Out of the Past is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Home Entertainment.