Memory is a tricky concept – the events of the past tend to take on more grotesque shapes when it comes to being relayed, especially as time has gone on and we start to subconsciously fashion them to be reminiscent of our own idealistic agenda. For a film that spends roughly half of its already paltry running time focusing on the main character relaying his past while venturing into an uncertain future, Out of the Past is one of the smartest and most interesting attempts to explore the power of memory through the guise of a genre that has always used it as a narrative tool, just very rarely with the same self-aware conviction that we see here. Directed by journeyman filmmaker Jacques Tourneur, who works with a gifted cast and crew to bring  Daniel Mainwaring’s script to life (adapted from his own novel, Build My Gallows High, which is a wonderfully evocative alternative title for the film), Out of the Past is a fascinating character study that dives deep into the mind of a complex protagonist, whose journey back and forth between a quiet idyllic suburban life, and one of terror and crime-fuelled despair, only leads him very close to a complete breakdown, both physically and psychologically. Beautifully made and always compelling, the film not only provides the viewer with the enthralling experience we’d expect from a great film noir, but defines the genre in ways that perhaps not even those involved in the creation may have expected, which only leads to a more engaging and captivating work of complex cinematic brilliance that rarely deviates from its daring path.

It’s certainly difficult to imagine anyone other than Tourneur being in charge of bringing this material to life – while he is mostly remembered for some of his horror work (such as the seminal classic Cat People and its sequel), he was someone who could easily adapt to a wide range of genres, being able to craft a terrifying horror just as rapidly as he could mount a charming western drama. Out of the Past is often considered his most important work, not only because it contains some of the director’s most distinctive traits that would go on to become iconic in the development of the film industry, which owes a wealth of gratitude to directors like him, people who may not be considered auteurs by the standard definition, but certainly did enough work in the proverbial trenches (whether in our outside of Hollywood) to be considered important artists in their own right. Visually and narratively, Tourneur occupies a vital role in the transition between the silent and sound era, working in the latter at a time when it was still a relatively new medium, with his efforts being primarily to bring the splendour of silent film (which remains inventive and striking even by contemporary standards, when filmmaking has been overtaken by technological innovation) into a period where many viewed it was being lost. One just has to look at a single frame from any of his films to see how distinctive an eye the director had, and Out of the Past has some of his most unforgettable images, created in communion with director of photography Nicholas Musuraca, who is just as responsible for the creation of this film as Tourneur and Mainwaring, proving it to be a work pulled from the art of collaboration more than anything else.

For as long as the genre has existed (or at least been given a name), there has been a vibrant debate about what could be considered the greatest film noir, a genre that does not have a clear answer. The argument veers in various directions – some look at the earliest formative works as establishing the groundwork, while others focus on the films produced when the genre was at its peak. There is even a small group that look towards later decades, with the advent of neo-noir, to provide support for the later works (especially those produced as a result of the inventive New Hollywood movement) being the most superior distillation of these ideas. The reality is that there is not a definitive answer, and the best way to approach it is to simply see the genre as one composed of chapters. Out of the Past occurs towards the back end of the first chapter of pure film noir – the genre was established enough to be popular and profitable, but still carried a feeling of being relatively new, enough to pique viewers’ curiosity and not be accused of retreading the same cliches that detractors used as an excuse to dismiss the genre. If anything, Out of the Past provides later films with the material that would eventually become the oft-parodied conventions. Dark, dreamlike storytelling that is composed of a range of complex characters that range from lonely souls to genuinely despicable villains, all told with urbane, witty dialogue and a genuinely dark sense of foreboding danger, this film is one of the most vivid depictions of what film noir is supposed to be. It’s not the first great entry into the genre, but it is one that stands as one of the very best, a film that feels established and important, but not in a way that prevents us from being entertained. It is bursting with life, and even at its most bleak, it is deeply enjoyable, especially for those who find value in these stories that may seem traditional from a modern perspective, but were beyond revolutionary at the time they were made.

The list of actors that worked through the hallowed halls of the classic era of film noir is wildly impressive, with some of the greatest screen performers in Hollywood history doing terrific work in films that were often not seen as being particularly noteworthy until after the fact. Robert Mitchum was still a young, dynamic actor that had not ascended to the folkloric status of one of the industry’s most lovable and complex troublemakers, and his performance in Out of the Past is undeniably amongst his very best, which is a bold statement for someone who was nearly always excellent, regardless of the role he was tasked with playing. It’s a very internal performance that requires the actor to play a more subdued role on the surface, while gradually opening up to the audience so that we can see the wealth of complexity that simmers just below it. It often feels like the entire film is structured around Mitchum’s mighty performance – he embodies a complex masculinity that is frequently exuding off every frame of the film, and whether in his more intimate moments, or those in which the actor is tasked with taking some broad strokes, he manages to turn in an incredibly strong performance that provides evidence to the reasons behind his status as one of the greatest actors in the history of the medium, and someone whose refusal to fit into the preordained categorization of what a movie star should be is precisely why he is such a celebrated actor. Supporting performances from Kirk Douglas (in his second film performance ever), Virginia Huston and Jane Greer supplement Mitchum and help add nuance to the nightmarish landscapes in which Out of the Past takes place.

Out of the Past is the kind of film that takes time to ease into – we can tell from the first moments that this is going to be a deeply enigmatic and mysterious film, but it takes a while to fully comprehend the scope of what this film was intent on exploring. Tourneur is a filmmaker who any viewer who is aware of his work knows to trust, because he was not someone who would carelessly throw together a few scenes and call it a film – instead, he handcrafted one of the most bewildering but brilliant examples of film noir from this era, which was a period that was often known for experimenting with a genre that was still finding its place within the industry. It’s hardly surprising that many revere this as one of the defining works of noir from the Golden Age of Hollywood, with the labyrinthine (but never convoluted) narrative, complex characters and unforgettable imagery coalescing in this magnificent but bleak depiction of the world, which is rendered as a series of shadowy deceptions and ferocious betrayals, almost more than a film in any other genre could ever conceivably handle. The quintessential classic era film noir that is as unsettling as it is profoundly moving (with the attention to emotional nuance being just as integral as the narrative details), proving to be a truly disquieting glimpse into the human condition, as shown through the lens of one of its most harrowing genres, which this film assisted in defining and establishing over half a century of worthy explorations of these widely intimidating, but always profoundly moving, cinematic and humanistic conversations.