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| Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer in Out of the Past (1947) |
Raise your hand if you've never seen this film. I'm always surprised—and in fact a little disappointed with myself—whenever I see an old movie I've never seen before, never even heard of it, and it turns out to be great. That was Out of the Past (1947) for me about ten years ago. This is classic film noir. It was selected for the National Film Registry in 1991, and Roger Ebert included it on his list of "Greatest Movies." He called it "one of the greatest of all films noir."
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Robert Mitchum plays Jeff Bailey, the owner of an automotive service station in Bridgeport, a small town, a real town, on U.S. 395 in eastern California. The film opens at Bailey's service station. A man from out of the past shows up, and the movie instantly and irreversibly drives into the land of noir.
As it turns out, my wife and I drive through Bridgeport twice on every trip we take to Death Valley. We most recently passed through the town in 2016. For all I know, the covid-19 pandemic has decimated it. In 2016 it was a quiet, semi-bustling food and fuel stop, mostly for those traveling between Lake Tahoe and Los Angeles. When I first saw Out of the Past, I was familiar enough with Bridgeport that I easily recognized it in the movie, even in black and white, and I could see that it hadn't changed much in sixty years.
A fair amount of film footage was shot on location in and around Bridgeport and at some grand Lake Tahoe mansion that reminds me of Vikingsholm, a beautiful 38-room Nordic mansion in what is now Emerald Bay State Park. My wife and I visited Vikingsholm about twenty years ago. I would almost swear Out of the Past was shot there. Whether or not Vikingsholm stood in for Whit Sterling's (Kirk Douglas's) lakeside home, there's good news: tours of the "castle" are available during the summer. It has a rich history, and it's well worth the time and effort.
The Bridgeport Fire Department is located on the site of the service station that stood in for "Jeff Bailey's Mono Motor Service." (Bridgeport is in Mono County.) Ken's Sporting Goods is on the site of the diner that stood in for "Marney's Cafe."
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Robert Mitchum worked on an assembly line at Lockheed Aircraft during WWII. Next to him on the assembly line was a man named Jim Dougherty. And every day, Dougherty's wife made him the same kind of egg sandwich to take to work. One day Mitchum told Dougherty that his wife should learn how to make a proper lunch for her man. He replied that his wife had other assets that made the sandwiches tolerable, and he offered to show Mitchum the photo of his wife that he always carried with him. Mitchum, deadpan, said "I hope she looks better than that egg sandwich." She did. Two years later she left her husband to pursue a modeling and Hollywood film career and changed her name from Norma Dougherty to Marilyn Monroe.
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Jane Greer plays Kathie Moffat, one of the most riveting femmes fatale in the film noir pantheon. She was born Bettyjane Greer in 1924 in Washington D.C. At age 18, rising in her career as a model, she made the cover of LIFE magazine. Independent film producer Howard Hughes saw her photo (literally, just saw her) and told an underling, "Go find that girl and sign her."
When she arrived in Hollywood with her 7-year contract in hand, it didn't take long for Hughes to try to seduce her. She rebuffed his advances. He pressured her again and again. He became obsessed with her. In retaliation for her lack of cooperation, he refused to assign her any film roles. Fortunately for her, she managed to meet and then marry a Hollywood A-lister, Rudy Vallee, in December 1943. Vallee pulled some strings and got her out of her contract with Hughes. Still obsessed with Greer, however, Hughes continued to hound her during her marriage. That marriage lasted but three months. She and Vallee separated in March 1944 and divorced in July. Greer returned to Hughes's production company, and he finally succeeded in his conquest.
Greer made Out of the Past for RKO in 1946. The movie was released in December 1947. Hughes bought RKO shortly afterward.
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David Sarnoff, the founder and chairman of the boards of RCA and NBC, also founded RKO, along with Kennedy family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy. RKO made monumental films like Cimarron (1931), the first of only three westerns to win the Oscar for Best Picture, the others being Dances with Wolves (1990) and Unforgiven (1992); Morning Glory (1933), for which Katharine Hepburn won the first of her four Oscars for Best Actress; King Kong (1933); all of the Astaire-Rogers dance musicals, from Flying Down to Rio (1933) through The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939); Annie Oakley (1935); Stage Door (1937); Bringing Up Baby (1938); Gunga Din (1939); The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939); Citizen Kane (1941); The Little Foxes (1941); Suspicion (1941); Ball of Fire (1941); The Magnificent Ambersons (1942); The Pride of the Yankees (1942); Cat People (1942); Journey Into Fear (1943); Tall in the Saddle (1944); The Bells of St. Mary's (1945); Notorious (1946); The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); It's a Wonderful Life (1946); The Farmer's Daughter (1947); Out of the Past (1947); and The Bishop's Wife (1947).
RKO began a slow spiraling decline in 1948 after Hughes took over the studio. It filed for bankruptcy in 1959 and ceased film operations.
