Out of the Past
Out of the Past (billed in the United Kingdom as Build My Gallows High) is a 1947 American film noir directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas. The film was adapted by Daniel Mainwaring (using the pseudonym Geoffrey Homes) from his 1946 novel Build My Gallows High (also written as Homes), with uncredited revisions by Frank Fenton and James M. Cain.
Plot
Joe Stefanos arrives in Bridgeport, California, a rural mountain town, seeking Jeff Bailey, who owns a local gas station. Joe meets The Kid, Jeff's deaf-mute employee and friend, and asks him about Jeff's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Jeff is fishing with Ann Miller and they are in love. (Her lifelong friend Jim is jealous.) The Kid shows up at the fishing spot and interrupts them, signing to Jeff that someone is asking about him. Jeff returns to the gas station and Stefanos tells Jeff that he must go to Lake Tahoe to meet "Whit" and that it has been a long time since they met.
More details
author | Daniel Mainwaring Frank Fenton James M. Cain |
---|---|
contentLocation | San Francisco |
director | Jacques Tourneur |
editor | Samuel E. Beetley |
genre | crime drama |
keywords | acapulco affidavit american sign language blackmail delivery service drive fish frame gamble gas station hidden body hide out in the closet kill lake tahoe machine gun mountain cabin pack private investigator roadblock run away sign swear want |
musicBy | Roy Webb |
producer | Warren Duff |
productionCompany | RKO Radio Pictures |
publisher | RKO Radio Pictures |
recordedAt | Mexico |
theme | film noir |