'First half, good girl. Second half, bad girl', said Jacques Tourneur to Jane Greer. Apart from the advice Michael Curtiz allegedly gave Ingrid Bergman about her character's love triangle debacle in Casablanca ('Play it in between'), this is one of the greatest pieces of acting advice ever from a director. Because it is Kathie Moffat to a T.
Written by Daniel Mainwaring, based on his own novel 'Build My Gallows High', Out of the Past (1947, dir. Jacques Tourneur) opens with Joe Stefanos (Paul Valentine) arriving at a gas station in Bridgeport, California. He's looking for Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchum). He's got a job for him: Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas) wants him to find Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer). She shot him, stole his money, then ran off. So Jeff goes after her. He tells his girlfriend Ann (Virginia Huston) the truh about his past in one of the best uses of flashback ever in a film noir. And it begins.
Out of the Past is film noir's film noir. Often cited as the film noir with the most clear-cut noir structure, this is pretty much the movie you'd show an alien if one happened to come to Earth and wanted to learn about film noir, and why wouldn't they? Out of the Past hits all the marks. Classic hero? Check. Flashback? Check. Convoluted plot? You bet. Witty dialogue? Uh-huh. And, uh... what about, uh, a femme fatale? Oh boy.
Kathie Moffat is one of the most evil characters ever put on screen, never mind film noir. And like all femmes fatale, you'd never guess it. In her first scene, she comes in out of the sun, and sits down at a table at La Mar Azul, in Acapulco, Mexico. Jeff is there. He followed her there. She's beautiful, poised, enigmatic and cool. The two begin their romance, until one night, when she shows her true colors...
'Yeah, I shot him. And I'm not sorry about that. But I didn't take his money.' Kathie Moffat
A great, stereotypical, almost comically noir-ish line delivered by a character who's anything but funny. And after that, she shoots Whit's crook Jack Fisher (Steve Brodie), in one of the best twists in noir history. We've seen her be cute, now we're seeing her for who she is. She runs off, leaving Jeff behind. The twists and turns that follow are a direct result of what Kathie does. Murder, deceipt, double-crossing, you name it. We don't get an immediate sense of what she wants, because she ultimately doesn't want anything. Kathie Moffat wants to be fine. She wants to get away with things. She wants to frame people, get people in trouble, while she keeps getting out of it almost unscathed.
Because she's a sociopath. A sociopath who will do anything for herself. She has a warped sense of reality and she doesn't know right from wrong. The look on her face as Jeff and Fisher fight over her is one for the ages. That twisted enjoyment, that sick pleasure, that urge to shoot Fisher... She is so cruel, so vicious, so void of human emotion, that Mitchum's classic hero guy falls out of love with her. This isn't like Criss Cross, or The Killers. Jeff Bailey is a decent person for the most part and he can see her for who she is. And contrary to what the 'kid' (Dickie Moore) says to Ann in order to protect her, he didn't and wasn't going to run away with her. I believe Jeff was in love with Ann, and was on a mission to take down Kathie because he knew how horrible she was.
'She can't be that bad. Nobody is.’ ’Well she comes the closest.' Ann and Jeff
But he couldn't. And that's the heartbreaking thing. A rare example of a sane film noir character who successfully turned his life around, before deciding to ruin the woman who nearly ruined him, and destroyed so many lives, and he didn't quite make it. I've always thought Jeff Bailey would be a great character for this newsletter, but upon reflection, I realized Kathie is the true loser. The real monster.
And this makes for a perfect film noir. Everything in Out of the Past in its place. And Kathie Moffat's evilness lives on. Neary every femme fatale list has her in the top 2, alongside Phyllis Dietrichson. And what great company to be in. Just don't ask Jeff Bailey or Walter Neff.
We bid farewell to Kathie Moffat and Out of the Past. Our next loser returns to his hometown only to find trouble when he really didn't need it. The film is The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (1946), the actor is Van Heflin and the loser... Sam Masterson.
See you on the sunny side of the street.
Even knowing how evil she becomes, you can’t help but love her at the beginning.
Out Of The Past is by far my favorite Film Noir.