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Out of the Past (1947)
Sometimes, it all comes together in a single year.
2018 for superhero films. 1964 for movie musicals. 1993 for Steven Spielberg.
Cinema 21 programmer Elliot Levine pinpointed 1947 as that watershed year for film noir. In turn, the Northwest Portland theater has featured 1947 noirs like Nightmare Alley and Body and Soul every Saturday this month.
On July 25, the series capper is Out of the Past, arguably the peak of the genre when it comes to mixing star power, Golden Age Hollywood repartee, and unprocessable postwar doom.
Former private investigator Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum) has successfully started over in a sleepy mountain town—until a gangster (Kirk Douglas) and an old flame (Jane Greer) drag him back into the criminal underbelly. That setup is fairly simple. The question of whether Jeff can believe himself to be a good man ever again is anything but.
Between director Jacques Tourneur’s facility with shadows and writer Daniel Mainwaring’s way with sad flirtations, Mitchum can’t miss as the lovesick antihero.
“Maybe we thought it was a dream, and we’d wake up with a hangover in Niagara Falls,” Jeff waxes about his tryst with Kathy (Greer) before he tried to go off grid.
It’s a pretty way of saying what so many great film noirs have: The bill always comes due.
Also Playing:
Academy: El Mariachi (1992), Savage Streets (1984) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), July 22 and 23. Rio Bravo (1959), SLC Punk! (1998) and Back to the Future (1985), July 24–30. Cinemagic: Before Midnight (2013) and Prince of Darkness (1987), July 22. Escape from L.A. (1995), July 23. They Live (1988) and The Thing (1982) double feature, July 24 and 25. There Will Be Blood (2007), July 26 and 27. Mandy (2018), July 28. Clinton: A Dance in the Rain (1961), July 22. Dune (1984) and The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), July 25. Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010), July 28. Hollywood: Scarlet Warning 666 (1974), July 24 and 25. Pusher (1996), July 26. Pusher II (2004), July 27. The Mack (1973), July 28. Moreland: The Wild Robot (2024), July 22. Dazed and Confused (1993), July 24. Tomorrow: Bend It Like Beckham (2002), July 26.
