Cinema
Out of the Past
Jacques Tourneur · 1947
Synopsis
In Bridgeport, a small mountain town in California, Jeff Bailey, the owner of the gas station, goes fishing with Ann Miller, a local girl. Joe Stefanos arrives, henchman of a former employer, who has tracked him down: Whit Sterling, a gambler, wants to see him at his house on Lake Tahoe. On the way, Jeff reveals to Ann his real name, Markham, and his past as a private detective in New York: Whit had hired him to find his mistress, Kathie Moffat, who had shot him and run off with forty thousand dollars.
Context
The film comes from a novel by Geoffrey Homes, pseudonym of Daniel Mainwaring, published in 1946; the author himself wrote the screenplay under that name, and later sources say that James M. Cain rewrote it without credit. Released in the United States in November 1947, it appeared in Great Britain under the title of the novel, Build My Gallows High; in France, cassettes also circulated it under the title Pendez-moi haut et court. It was Mainwaring's last novel, as he then devoted himself to cinema.
Who it is for
One hour thirty-seven; much of the story lies in a long flashback told by the hero.
Prizes and reception
Well received on its release, it was added in 1991 to the United States National Film Registry.
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