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Posted

Ghost, I love that one. It is shown pretty often on the movie channels here (so is 'Laura'). Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer were a wonderful combination.

My favorite Jacques Tourneur film.

Posted (edited)

This is one b/w noir that even my jaded 20 year-old students "get" and enjoy ... That moment when Kathy (Jane Greer) walks into that Mexican cafe is just cinema magic ... were films ever that good?

The remake, with Jeff Bridges and James Woods has its moments too ... and Jane Greer played a cameo in that ...

Brownie, you might know that Nick Musuraca, the cinematographer, also shot THE CAT PEOPLE, and the scriptwriter, Joseph Mainwaring went on to do INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS.

"I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked" (Mitchum, voice over..)

"Two things I can smell inside a hundred feet. Burning hamburger and a romance." (Bit player..)

"You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another." (Mitchum to Greer).

GREAT STUFF!

Edited by garthsj
Posted

Garth, I am a great fan of Nick Musuraca's cinematography too!

I'm out of the past and am constantly in awe of the black and white works of Musuraca, Arthur Miller, Greg Toland, Bert Glennon, Russell Metty, James Wong Howe, Stanley Cortez and many others. Masters of the light all.

Posted

This is one of my two or three favorite film noirs, and one of my favorite Michum films of all time, AND one of my favorite films of the forties! ...I like it. Lots.

It's about damn time it came out on DVD! I hope they did it right, with a good transfer and all. (Still waiting for "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" to be released.)

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

For those who love classic noir:

OutofthePast

LAURA was supposed to come out on DVD last fall and didn't--still haven't heard what happened with that.

Missed this thread before, it is a great movie! And Jane Greer.... :wub:

I forgot all about Laura coming out(Or that it didn't) I remember reading years ago that there were music rights issues, bet that is what has happened again...Think this is mentioned in Leonard Maltin's guide a few years back....

Posted

For those who love classic noir:

OutofthePast

LAURA was supposed to come out on DVD last fall and didn't--still haven't heard what happened with that.

Missed this thread before, it is a great movie! And Jane Greer.... :wub:

Yes, Jane Greer's a--ahem, well, an attractive woman. :wub: Hopefully THE BIG STEAL, another movie she did with Mitchum, will eventually make its way to DVD.

LAURA was slated for DVD release last November; Amazon had it listed for pre-order, and then it mysteriously vanished (how appropriate, eh?) just before street date. Thankfully we hung onto our VHS copy... hopefully any rights issues will get worked out eventually.

Posted

Out Of The Past is one of those films that just gets more brilliant everytime I watch it...and I've probably seen it at least 10 times over the years. It's one of those films that you just can't find any damn faults with, everything fires on all cylinders from beginning to end. This is easily my favorite Mitchum performance and Jane Greer gives an amazingly sexy performance...femme fatale indeed! (Why in the hell didn't she become a bigger star anyway, she's stunning).

I agree with all comments regarding the technical aspects, but what's intersting is that I always find myself so wrapped up in the story I forget to really "focus" on that stuff like I usually do...which I suppose is the real point after all.

Another big Thumbs Up for The Big Steal...it's too bad they didn't bundle it together with this movie on the same DVD, it's only about 65 minutes long...

Posted

About Jane Greer, if I remember well her Hollywood career was put to a near end after she refused to

become one of Howard Hugues' girls. Saw a filmed interview of her on French TV several years ago where she

mentioned this.

She still looked great and obviously aged gracefully.

Posted

Out Of The Past is one of those films that just gets more brilliant everytime I watch it...and I've probably seen it at least 10 times over the years. It's one of those films that you just can't find any damn faults with, everything fires on all cylinders from beginning to end. This is easily my favorite Mitchum performance and Jane Greer gives an amazingly sexy performance...femme fatale indeed! (Why in the hell didn't she become a bigger star anyway, she's stunning).

Shawn, have you ever read a book titled Movie Love in the 50's by James Harvey? It has an entire chapter devoted to Out of the Past, in which he goes through the film scene by scene. Harvey is one of the best "close readers" of movies that I've ever come across, and he does a hell of a job on Out of the Past. Worth checking out of your local library.

Posted

Wow! OUT OF THE PAST is also coming out as part of a 5-DVD Warners noir box that will list for $49.95:

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of The Film Noir Classic Collection: Volume 1 for 27th July 2004. Five of the hardboiled genre's greatest hits featuring tough guys and femme fatales including Robert Mitchum, Kirk Douglas, Dick Powell, Robert Ryan and Marilyn Monroe, have been digitally remastered for their WHV DVD debuts. Available in both a five-disc set, for $49.92 SRP, or individually for $19.97 SRP, the DVDs feature commentaries from directors Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese and actor James Whitmore as well as other film noir experts Alain Silver, Jim Ursini and Glenn Erickson.

The films...

The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - Nominated for four Academy Awards® and long considered a noir classic, John Huston’s heist film about a million-dollar jewelry store burglary stars Sterling Hayden, Louis Calhern, James Whitmore and features an early appearance by Marilyn Monroe in just her seventh film.

The DVD bonus material includes an introduction by John Huston, commentary by USC Cinema History professor Drew Casper with James Whitmore and the theatrical trailer.

Murder, My Sweet (1944) - Starring Dick Powell and Claire Trevor, the film captures perfectly the sharp wit and style of Raymond Chandler’s novel Farewell, My Lovely, about a gumshoe Philip Marlowe searching for a missing moll named Velma. Renamed so American filmgoers wouldn’t mistake it as a Powell musical; it turned the actor’s career around, helping him to shun his choir-boy image. Edward Dmytryk directed.

The DVD extra content includes commentary by film noir expert and Prime Suspects producer Alain Silver and the theatrical trailer.

The Set-Up (1944) - Robert Wise directs noir icons Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter in the movie, set in boxing’s palooka world, about a down-on-his luck fighter who thinks he’s one bout away from the big payoff.

The DVD bonus material includes commentary by Robert Wise and Martin Scorsese.

Out Of The Past (1947) - Another definitive noir classic (remade in 1984 as “Against All Odds” with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward) about a trio to reckon with – a troubled PI (Robert Mitchum), a drop-dead beauty (Jane Greer) and a moneyed mobster (Kirk Douglas). Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, the private eye hired to find mobster Whit Sterling’s (Douglas) mistress Kathie (Greer) who had shot Whit and absconded with $40,000. The film winds up in Acapulco…where the luscious Kathie makes Jeff forget all about Sterling.

The DVD extra content includes commentary by film noir expert Jim Ursini.

Gun Crazy (1949) - Peggy Cummins and John Dall star in this cult favorite, shockingly dark and brutal for its time, directed by Joseph H. Lewis. A searing forerunner to Bonnie and Clyde, the film tells the story of a gun-obsessed twosome who meet at a carnival, run off to get married and then commit a string of daring robberies across the country. The screenplay was adapted by MacKinlay Kantor from his magazine article and was co-written by the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo, credited under the name Millard Kaufman.

The DVD bonus material includes commentary by film noir expert Glenn Erickson.

Amazon has it priced at $34.95! :excited:

NoirDVD

  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...
Posted

The box came this week, and my wife & I watched OUT OF THE PAST last night. Man, has it held up... and did Robert Mitchum ever have a better role? Kind of like Bogart in THE MALTESE FALCON, where you just can't imagine anybody else in that part after you see it. Looking forward to watching everything else in the noir set over the coming weeks... late summer is a great time to watch such flicks IMO.

Still hoping that THE BIG STEAL surfaces eventually on DVD as well.

Posted

Out Of The Past is one of those films that just gets more brilliant everytime I watch it...and I've probably seen it at least 10 times over the years. It's one of those films that you just can't find any damn faults with, everything fires on all cylinders from beginning to end.

To me the film does have one flaw, and that is a scene towards the end that appears spliced in and for me at least greatly reduced the impact of the movie's denouement. I suppose I am being too vague here, but I would rather not spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it. I do think it is a great film, but this one scene always bothers me. Probably some editor just didn't trust the audience to follow the last major plot twist.

Anyway, I think I'll be ordering the Film Noir set pretty soon.

Eric

  • 2 months later...
Posted

Greer & Mitchum in THE BIG STEAL:

mitchum_janegreer_bigsteal_still.jpg

I just read the other day that this was the first flick Mitchum made after getting out of prison for his pot bust--and that Greer was 4 months pregnant by the time they started shooting the scenes w/her & Mitchum together.

Posted

Great movie! :tup

Yes, I just watched it again with my dad last weekend--man, do I hope that they put it out on DVD! Also learned that the director was the same guy who went on to do the DIRTY HARRY films. The movie was thrown together in part to help persuade the judge in Mitchum's case to let him off with a light sentence.

Posted

Also learned that the director was the same guy who went on to do the DIRTY HARRY films.

Don Siegel. Not only did he direct the first (and by far the best) of the Dirty Harry films, but also Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Beguiled, Riot In Cell Block 11, the underrated 1964 version of The Killers, and one of my favorite films of all time: Charley Varrick. Whatta guy!

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