Post by klep on Nov 2, 2020 9:40:32 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/2: Out of the Past
NOIRVEMBER!
CW: Kirk Douglas
"The past is never dead. It isn't even past." - William Faulkner
We all have things in our past we regret. For most of us it's not terribly significant. Maybe we said something deliberately hurtful in grade school we wish we hadn't. Maybe we didn't ask someone out at a party. Maybe we skipped a road trip to make sure we got some work done. For most people these things are wistful might-have-beens or momentary pangs of conscience. For some it's much more serious.
Jeff Bailey (Ralph Mitchum) runs a gas station in a rural town called Bridgeport. He's built a life, is dating a local woman, and is planning to build a house and settle down. But his past is an aneurysm; something dangerous that threatens to blow up his life with no warning. And it finally happens when Joe (Paul Valentine), someone he knows from the old days, passes through his sleepy little town and spots the guy who gave his (crime) boss Whit (Kirk Douglas) the slip.
You see, Jeff's regret is a woman named Kathie (Jane Greer). She shot Whit and ran out on him, and Whit hired Jeff to track her down and bring her back. As is the way of noirs he fell for her instead, and one dead body later she ran off leaving Jeff with nothing to show for his trouble. Now Whit has caught up to him - with Kathie in tow - intending to take his revenge on Jeff by framing him for murder.
At one point Jeff's current girlfriend Ann (Virginia Huston) wants to know whether Jeff is truly over Kathie, and he insists that he is. In the vast majority of noirs, when the protagonist says he's over the femme fatale from his past he's lying - to both others and himself. But in Out of the Past Jeff really seems to be telling the truth. He learned the truth about Kathie the night she murdered a man in front of him and then ran off, and any little doubts he might have had are fully dispelled when he learns of her complicity in Whit's frame-up.
Jeff is a smart guy. He knows from the jump that Whit doesn't just want to "catch up," and he sniffs out that he's being framed almost instantly. He spends the rest of the film in a struggle to get out from the frame and truly put his past to bed. But the past doesn't let go that easy, and in the end Jeff is undone by underestimating Kathie's ruthlessness. Just when he's worked out a deal with Whit, Kathie kills Whit and dragoons Jeff into going on the lam with her. He tries to call the cops, who set up a roadblock, but in her fury at his perceived betrayal Kathie shoots Jeff dead before the cops shoot her.
Jeff never got to escape his past, but Ann gets her chance. After the funeral she asks Jeff's gas station assistant whether he thinks Jeff was trying to run off with Kathie. He lies and says Jeff was, freeing Ann from feeling like she missed her shot at true love. She gets in the car with her childhood sweetheart, and they drive off into the future.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/9: Solaris (1972)
SPACE WEEK!
For Space Week we're venturing into the unknown and potentially unknowable with Andrei Tarkovsky's other science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, about a man who travels across the stars only to meet with his late wife. Come join us next week for a journey into space - and into the mind. Solaris is available on the Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/3: True Stories
Next week the podcast crew dives into the mind of David Byrne, starting with his film about Americana True Stories. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, available for rent in the usual places.
NOIRVEMBER!
CW: Kirk Douglas
"The past is never dead. It isn't even past." - William Faulkner
We all have things in our past we regret. For most of us it's not terribly significant. Maybe we said something deliberately hurtful in grade school we wish we hadn't. Maybe we didn't ask someone out at a party. Maybe we skipped a road trip to make sure we got some work done. For most people these things are wistful might-have-beens or momentary pangs of conscience. For some it's much more serious.
Jeff Bailey (Ralph Mitchum) runs a gas station in a rural town called Bridgeport. He's built a life, is dating a local woman, and is planning to build a house and settle down. But his past is an aneurysm; something dangerous that threatens to blow up his life with no warning. And it finally happens when Joe (Paul Valentine), someone he knows from the old days, passes through his sleepy little town and spots the guy who gave his (crime) boss Whit (Kirk Douglas) the slip.
You see, Jeff's regret is a woman named Kathie (Jane Greer). She shot Whit and ran out on him, and Whit hired Jeff to track her down and bring her back. As is the way of noirs he fell for her instead, and one dead body later she ran off leaving Jeff with nothing to show for his trouble. Now Whit has caught up to him - with Kathie in tow - intending to take his revenge on Jeff by framing him for murder.
At one point Jeff's current girlfriend Ann (Virginia Huston) wants to know whether Jeff is truly over Kathie, and he insists that he is. In the vast majority of noirs, when the protagonist says he's over the femme fatale from his past he's lying - to both others and himself. But in Out of the Past Jeff really seems to be telling the truth. He learned the truth about Kathie the night she murdered a man in front of him and then ran off, and any little doubts he might have had are fully dispelled when he learns of her complicity in Whit's frame-up.
Jeff is a smart guy. He knows from the jump that Whit doesn't just want to "catch up," and he sniffs out that he's being framed almost instantly. He spends the rest of the film in a struggle to get out from the frame and truly put his past to bed. But the past doesn't let go that easy, and in the end Jeff is undone by underestimating Kathie's ruthlessness. Just when he's worked out a deal with Whit, Kathie kills Whit and dragoons Jeff into going on the lam with her. He tries to call the cops, who set up a roadblock, but in her fury at his perceived betrayal Kathie shoots Jeff dead before the cops shoot her.
Jeff never got to escape his past, but Ann gets her chance. After the funeral she asks Jeff's gas station assistant whether he thinks Jeff was trying to run off with Kathie. He lies and says Jeff was, freeing Ann from feeling like she missed her shot at true love. She gets in the car with her childhood sweetheart, and they drive off into the future.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/9: Solaris (1972)
SPACE WEEK!
For Space Week we're venturing into the unknown and potentially unknowable with Andrei Tarkovsky's other science fiction masterpiece, Solaris, about a man who travels across the stars only to meet with his late wife. Come join us next week for a journey into space - and into the mind. Solaris is available on the Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/3: True Stories
Next week the podcast crew dives into the mind of David Byrne, starting with his film about Americana True Stories. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of this film, available for rent in the usual places.