Noir classic “Out of the Past” gets a Warner Archive 4K upgrade
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Robert Mitchum plays service station owner Jeff Bailey, a former New York cool-headed private eye. He and his girlfriend Ann Miller (Virginia Huston) head to Lake Tahoe and during the trip, he tells her about his past.
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“OUT OF THE PAST: WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1947, Not Rated
Best extra: An in-depth commentary with author James Ursini
SELECTED A NATIONAL treasure and registered by the Library of Congress, this film noir classic has it all.
Exhibit A: A double-crossing – no, a triple-crossing, maybe even a quadruple-crossing dame played by the glamorous Jane Greer (Kathie Moffat).
Exhibit B: A private eye with a trench coat, always a cigarette in-hand, played by cool-headed Robert Mitchum (Jeff Bailey).
Exhibit C: Stark black-and-white photography orchestrated by French director Jacques Tourneur and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, a master of shadow and light, who abandoned Hollywood’s backlot to film in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains, using San Francisco for their backdrop.
Opening credits roll over a series of picturesque scenes, then stop on a road sign in the middle of nowhere: Los Angeles 349, Bishop 76, Lake Tahoe 78, Reno 98 and Bridgeport 1.
(1&2) The RKO production was filmed in and around Bridgeport, California, a small town on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Joe Stephanos (Paul Valentine), an errand boy of gangster Whit Sterling has tracked down Jeff Bailey. (3) Jeff's service station attendant The Kid (Dickie Moore). (4&5) Jeff has been fishing and meets Anne at a small Sierra lake.
From the backseat of a convertible, we watch a mysterious driver – hired gun, Joe Stephanos – cruise down quiet Bridgeport, CA. (Orson Welles stole this perspective for his border town film noir, “Touch of Evil”; so did Steven Soderbergh in “Ocean’s Eleven,” with Brad Pitt behind the wheel beside partner George Clooney.) Stephanos pulls into a small gas station, where a sign, ‘Jeff Bailey,’ hangs above. Garbed in black, Stephanos, errand boy of gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas in his second movie), shouts out, “Where’s Bailey?”
We soon realize trouble has found Jeff Bailey – dragging him back to his past.
This thriller unfolds as Bailey tells his sweetheart Ann (Virginia Huston) about his past. He starts by admitting his real name is Jeff Markham, once a New York detective hired by Sterling to find his lover, Kathie Moffat, who shot Sterling with his own .38. She wounded him, then skipped town with $40,000 of his money. Jeff asks Sterling if he wants the money back and is told, “No, I just want her back. When you see her, you’ll understand better.” The gangster offers Markham $5,000 upfront and more on her return – plus expenses.
Jeff says, “Now, that should have been the first thing you said.
Jeff tells Ann how the search led him to Acapulco, where he fell under Kathie’s spell. Then Sterling and Stephanos showed up, just before the couple was to split for San Francisco. Jeff lies, telling them Kathie’s trail has gone cold.
Once in The City by the Bay, the lovers stay low, but are spotted at the racetrack by Jeff’s old partner, Fisher (Steve Brodie). He follows them to a cabin, where Kathie kills him, leaving Jeff to mop up the mess. In her dash to escape, Jeff finds her bank book with a $40,000 deposit, the money she denied taking.
Back in the present – in Tahoe – Ann drops Jeff off, and who does he find back in Sterling’s crib? Kathie. She’s told Sterling about their love affair – and now the gangster has a new job for Jeff: Get his financial records from a blackmailing accountant in San Francisco before the IRS gets them. Nothing good can come from this.
“Out of the Past” is filled with snappy one-liners. The script circulated between a number of uncredited writers, with Frank Fenton providing sophisticated dialogue right up there with “Casablanca” and Howard Hawks’ film noir classic “The Big Sleep.”
(1&2) The story picks up three years earlier. Kirk Douglas, in only his second film, plays gangster Whit Sterling and hires New York private eye Markham and his partner Fisher (Steve Brodie) to find his girlfriend, Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). (3&4) The search leads Jeff to Mexico City and then to Acapulco where he falls under Kathie’s spell.
EXTRAS
The carryover commentary with author James Ursini – who tells how “Out of the Past” changed Mitchum’s career from playing mostly good guys (he earned an Oscar nomination for the World War II docudrama, “Story of G.I. Joe,” 1945) into an actor who could take on Hollywood’s darkest roles as in films like “The Night of the Hunter” (1955) and the original “Cape Fear” (1962) with co-star Gregory Peck.
He covers Greer’s short career; the former child model and nightclub singer was only 22 years old during the production, and Mitchum and Douglas were a little older, both 29. Ursini also discloses how Mitchum and Greer reunited in November 1987, when Mitchum hosted Saturday Night Live. He and Greer resurrected their “Out of the Past” characters in a black-and-white on-location spoof – entitled “Out of Gas,” written/directed by Mitchum’s daughter Trina.
NEW “Turner Classic Movies Noir Alley host by Eddie Muller” (5 mins.) – captured inside the swanky neighborhood bar Three-Fifty-Five in Oakland, Calif., as he introduces “Out of the Past” to the TCM viewers. He says nearly every day he’s asked what he considers the definitive film noir? Muller’s response is always the same: Billy Wilder’s “Double Indemnity” (1944) and “Out of the Past,” with what he calls the “sexiest triangle in film history.”
He also mentions the role of Jeff Bailey was first considered with more established stars, including Humphrey Bogart, Pat O’Brien, John Garfield, and Dick Powell. But, after a run of excellent films and performances in “Crossfire,” “The Locket” and “Pursued,” Mitchum had “forged a distinctive screen presence,” and got the role of Bailey.
NEW “Four 1940s dramatic radio programs”
“We Were Expecting You at Dakar” (30 mins.) broadcast in February 1947, a World War II tale of espionage starring Mitchum.
“Death at Live Oak” (30 mins.) broadcast in May 1947, part of the CBS Radio Suspense series, and also stars Mitchum as David Sutherland, a man facing bankruptcy.
“The Story of Markham’s Death” (30 mins.) broadcast in October 1947, part of the CBS Radio Suspense series, and stars Kirk Douglas as Phil Markham, a writer suffering a severe case of writer’s block.
“Community Property” (30 mins.) broadcast in April 1947, part of the CBS Radio Suspense series, and stars Douglas as George Mason, in an unhappy marriage and his plot to get the full $500K inheritance from his dying uncle.
(1) Sterling and Stephanos showed up just before the couple was to split for San Francisco. Jeff lies, telling them Kathie’s trail has gone cold. (2) Jeff heads to a remote cabin to meet Kathie. (3-5) Fisher, who was to receive half of the money for Kathie’s return, tracks the couple and threatens Jeff. A fight ensues, and Kathie calmly kills Fisher.
VIDEO
The folks at Warner Bros. have given “Out of the Past” a striking new 4K restoration. The previous Warner Archive Blu-ray (2014) looked fine for its day – more likely from a 2K master. But compared to the new 4K and Blu-ray, it lacked fine detail, while the film grain was flatter and less distinct.
The majority of the 4K remaster was sourced from scanning the original 35mm camera negative (1.37:1 aspect) and adding HDR10 and Dolby Vision grading. The results are flawless. In a couple of moments, a second-generation source was used to fill in gaps. But the black levels are deep, deep black with a full range of grays for mid-tones and much better-controlled highlights – especially with the 4K disc. The new Blu-ray also encoded from the new 4K master.
AUDIO
The original Mono track has been restored, removing pops, hiss, and distortion for a clean, 24-bit straightforward DTS-HD soundtrack, with the orchestrated score from seven-time Oscar-nominated Roy Webb (“Notorious,” “Marty”).
This American classic needs to be in your collection.
― Bill Kelley III, High-Def Watch producer
(1&2) Present Day: Ann Miller drops Jeff off at the front gate of Whit’s mansion. (3&4) Jeff is pressured to take another job, this time to retrieve tax documents that Whit claims are being used by a San Francisco lawyer to blackmail him. Nothing goes as planned, and there’s more violence.
(1) The next morning, Jeff Bailey is a wanted man and makes the headlines in the Bridgeport newspaper as Ann and her parents read the news. (2) Stephanos hunts for Jeff in the Sierra high country. (3&4) Jeff and Ann meet up during the final act, and later that night, the Highway Patrol finds two dead bodies. (5) Ann asks The Kid the truth about Jeff’s love for Kathie. “Was he going away with her?”
SPECS:
66 GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
Captured on 35mm black-and-white nitrate film stock (1.37:1 aspect ratio) using spherical lens.
Video bitrate: Averages in the upper 70 Megabits per second, with a running time of 97 minutes.
HDR10 maximum light level: 784 nit
Max frame average light level: 48 nit
Awards: National Film Preservation Board: 1991 winner
Rotten Tomatoes: Top Critics’ 80 percent, Audiences 92 percent.
Metacritic: Critics 85 percent, User score 7.6
IndieWire.com: “The 30 Best Film Noir Movies of all Time” – “Out of the Past” was No. 22. Billy Wilder’s “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) was No. 1.
British Film Institute: “10 Great American Film Noirs” and “Out of the Past” was on the list.
Paste Magazine: “The 100 Best Film Noir of all Time” – “Out of the Past” was No. 7. And Fritz Lang’s “The Woman in the Window” was No. 1.
Collider.com: “10 Most Timeless Classics Film Noir Movies Ranked” – and “Out of the Past” was No. 7. “Sunset Boulevard” was No. 1.
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