#46 - Out of the Past (1947, Jacques Tourneur)

There was an episode of Home Movies where Brandon wanted to make a backwards movie. He thought it was a novel idea until numerous examples of films with convoluted story structures - Memento being the purely backwards films, Sunset Blvd. starting with the ending and then showing what led to it. Every possibility is brainstormed: beginning-end-middle, end-middle-beginning, middle-beginning-end, end-beginning-middle, you get the picture.

Out of the Past may be the closest to middle-beginning-end structure I've seen, at least in its story. We first find Jeff Bailey as a small-town gas station owner who gets a visit from an old acquaintance. Sensing that his former life as a private eye may be making a comeback, he explains his situation to his gal in a flashback that takes up a full third of the movie. So I guess it's middle-beginning-middle-end actually.

One of the all-time great noirs, Out of the Past marked the first starring roles for Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, two of the biggest names in 50s Hollywood. For some odd reason megababe Jane Greer never became the superstar she deserved to be after this tour-de-force as femme fatale Kathie Moffatt.

new #100: Only Angels Have Wings