Robert Mitchum at RKO

I've not heard the dvd commentary but this would be a top 10 film noir for me, I could never leave it off my list (were I to make one). Roy Webb's music, those stunning visuals, three emphatic leads. Great movie.

I have posted elsewhere how Out of the Past (1947) was probably the first adult film I (at the age of 8 or 9) appreciated more or less as an adult, and how I used to flout it in front of my contemporaries who were enthusing about their favorite cowboy or pirate movies. The start of my lifelong posing as a film connoisseur.

It remains my favorite American film and one of only two (worldwide) to which I award a 10.

Soon after re-discovering it as adult I sought out other Mitchum titles hoping for a similar experience. The Big Steal and Where Danger Lives were sad disappointments.

My runner-up (though a long way behind) is a film wmcclain omitted though also from RKO: Angel Face (1953), but then it stars Jean Simmons so I am biased. Preminger's direction is (as usual) a bit heavy-handed but still a fine film and one of the last genuine Noirs.

I think wmcclain has exaggerated the "complications" of the plot. I found it easy enough to follow even as a child. Certainly modern neo-noirs routinely exceed it in that respect, with their now obligatory scrambled time sequences and "twist and twist again" denouements.

On the other hand, while wmcclain has referenced the snappy dialog, I would go further and say that it has the most memorable and quotable dialog of any movie, even exceeding Bogie's wonderful lines in The Maltese Falcon (1941) and The Big Sleep (1946). The difference being that those movies are intentionally more lighthearted, while Out of the Past probes deeper into the human condition and its one-liners give Nietzsche's aphorisms a run for their money.

Even though I give it a 10, I am not sure that is a perfect movie (nor is my other "10", by the way). There are two possible areas of criticism.

1) When the action switches to San Francisco and we meet Rhonda Fleming and others, there is a change of style back to earlier film noirs like Laura (1944) full of luxury apartments and sophisticated people, but claustrophobic and studio-set bound. It is almost as though shot by a different unit. It may be this change of gear that causes people to say it is complicated.

2) The scenes with Virginia Huston are dull. I get it that she has to be dull to make his continue infatuation with Jane Greer more believable. After all, who would chase after a murderous thieving psycho when they had an attractive, wholesome and very loyal woman on hand? But during these scenes we are restless and anxious to get back to where the action is, while a "perfect" film would enthrall us in every scene. And Huston's other suitor, played by Richard Webb, is worse than dull. He is wooden. This film was the only high spot in either of their unremarkable careers.

Only Double Indemnity (1944) rivals it as a Noir and is probably a more perfectly constructed film. But MacMurray does not have Mitchum's star power and, while Stanwyck may be a weightier actress than Greer, it is less believable than anyone could fall for her so hard as to commit harakiri.

The next year Musuraca was cameraman on another RKO Mitchum film, Blood on the Moon (1948), a western with distinctly noir touches.

Talking of perfection, Noir, and directors of photography reminds me of Sweet Smell of Success (1957) shot by the great James Wong Howe. This may nearer approach perfection, and the two leads easily match Mitchum and Douglas, but then again the two young lovers played by Susan Harrison and Martin Milner are little more than token figures.

No, there is no such thing as a perfect film. Unless it is something like one of Wes Anderson's fairy-tales where everything has been brilliantly pre-planned and immaculately realized. But they are like some exquisite french pastry. No substitute for a three-course meal. Life has rough edges, and the truly great movies have a few as well.

I'm terrible with computers - it's all trial and error with me. Best of luck!

'Angel Face' has some extraordinary camera motion in it. Not showy but subtle movements, like sitting on a see-saw with someone of roughly the same weight.