SPOILER ALERT! The plot
will be discussed.
The title, Out of the
Past (1947), implies that something is arriving from the past, but it also
suggests the desire to escape one’s history. The film begins with a stranger
named Joe (Paul Valentine) asking about a man named Bailey at a gas station in
Bridgeport, California, about 300 miles from Los Angeles. The attendant, who is
called The Kid (Dickie Moore), is deaf and doesn’t speak, but indicates Bailey
isn’t there. His not hearing suggests how he blocks out the world’s
wrongdoings, but with the arrival of the suspicious Joe it turns out that
attempt is impossible. The location looks like a sleepy small town near a lake
and mountains, a good place for a person to hide out, or leave behind one’s
past (which is very similar to what happens in the film A History of
Violence).
Joe goes into Marny’s
Cafe and is followed by Jim (Richard Webb), a man whose car has information on
it that shows he works for the state, implying he is a public servant. But this
is a film noir piece so a decent person is not the focus of the story. But even
here, there is that film noir snappy, tough stylized dialogue. Jim asks Marny
((Mary Field) if she changed her hair color. Marny says that she could be bald
for as much as he noticed her before. He asks if she missed him. She says if
she didn’t, she “can’t think of anybody else who did.” The conversation turns
to Bailey spending time with Jim’s ex-girlfriend, Ann. So we know there is
going to be friction between these characters in this love triangle. Joe asks
about Bailey. He says he knew Bailey once and happened to see his name on a
sign while passing by. But we get the feeling his arrival here is no accident.
Jeff Bailey (Robert
Mitchum) is with Ann (Virginia Huston), as they fish near a lake (fishing
becomes a motif in the film, implying people are looking for ways to acquire
information or catch others). Here, the couple is removed from civilization and
its possible threats. She says she looks at the clouds and thinks about all the
places she’s never been. She says that he has been to many locales, and he
says, “too many.” These lines show how she wants to expand her experience, an
innocent wanting to taste more of what life has to offer. He feels like
he has had enough of the world, having seen how life’s temptations can block
any return to paradise. She asks where is his favorite place that he has
visited, and he says, “This one right here.” Her response about how he tells
that to all the “places” instead of using the word “girls” is a smart
substitution, so she may be provincial but she is clever. His words indicate he
likes his withdrawal from the outside world if he can be there with her. He
shows how serious he is about her and his wanting to stay put when he says he
wants to marry her and “never go anywhere else.” She asks if he was married before
and he says, “not that I remember.” It’s a humorous response, but it isn’t a
direct answer, either, which hints at a past that is used to dealing with
deception. She says most people say he’s “mysterious.” Her mother, also unsure
of Jeff, says Ann hasn’t known him long enough to be getting serious. The Kid
arrives and signs information. It’s like a secret code that keeps most people
in the dark about Jeff’s past. Jeff will only reveal at this point that there
is a man who wants to see him.
Jeff goes to the gas
station and meets Joe, apparently an old acquaintance. They both say they wish
they were meeting under better circumstances, which sets the dangerous tone of
the story. Joe still works for a guy named Whit, who Jeff also once did
business with. Joe says Whit wants to see Jeff “worse” than Joe did. He doesn’t
say “more,” and the “worse” makes the reunion with Whit appear ominous. By Joe
saying Whit wasn’t upset that Jeff blew off the best opportunity that Whit
could give him actually implies that Whit carries a grudge. But Joe tells Jeff
that Whit just wants to talk with him. He tells Jeff to go to a house near Lake
Tahoe. Joe tells Jeff about the house that he “won’t miss it,” but then adds,
“you can’t,” which is a threat that means Jeff can’t afford not to be there.
Jeff goes to Ann’s place
and asks if she wants to take a ride to Lake Tahoe. She had said he would have
to tell her about what he was hiding, and he says because of Joe’s appearance
he now must fill her in. (In film noir, the private investigator usually does
the narrating, which puts the audience in the position of finding out the facts
as the story unfolds). Jeff says his real last name is Markham. He worked in
New York as a PI with Jack Fisher (Steve Brodie), who Jeff says is a “stupid,
oily gent.” “Fisher” suggests what a detective should do, which is look for
evidence, but Jeff’s description of his partner adds a tone of seediness
associated with Jeff’s past. It was three years ago when they were called to
see a prominent gambler who had been shot by a woman. Jeff’s story then becomes
dramatized.
Joe is complaining about
the publicity the shooting is receiving, which is not what a criminal
organization wants. Jeff and his partner, Jack, are there with Whit Sterling
(Kirk Douglas), a name that is ironic since his character is a tarnished one.
Whit, who is bandaged after the shooting, says he likes Jeff because he is
quiet while Whit talks. Jeff coolly says he never learned much by listening to
himself speak. (After all, we usually already know what’s on our minds). The
woman who shot Whit (women in the film noir genre associated with crooks or
cops are usually femme fatales) ran off with $40,000. Whit wants her back, even
without the money. He’ll pay Jeff ten grand and expenses to bring her to him.
He says he picked Jeff because he is a smart guy, and an honest one, of which
there aren’t too many around (a bit of an ironic statement considering what
follows). Whit’s low opinion about the honesty of people points to the
underbelly of society that film noir exposes. Whit isn’t going to the cops for
help because he obviously doesn’t want them poking into his illegal operation.
After Whit promises he won’t hurt the woman, whose name is Kathie Moffat (Jane
Greer), Jeff takes the case, asking for information on her. He wants to
handle things on his own, but his partner, Jack, shows his mind is on the money
because he wants half of the fees even if he doesn’t do any of the work.
Jeff finds out from a
former employee of Kathie that her boss received vaccinations and left with
suitcases to go south, probably Florida, because she hated snowy places. But
Jeff concluded that Kathie went out of the country if she received shots, and
discovered that the large amount of luggage went to Mexico City. (As in the
later Touch of Evil, crossing the border can imply moving from the legal
to the illegal, or from safety into danger). He tracked her and eventually went
to Acapulco since if she was headed south, that was the place to catch a ship.
He waited for her to show up at a restaurant near the departure area. When she
appeared, he says, “I saw her coming out of the sun, and I knew why Whit didn’t
care about that forty grand.” She is beautiful, and his line describes her as
an immaculate entity, but the sunshine covers a darker side.
Jeff gets up and drops
his coins, showing her disorienting effect on him. Jeff buys some jewelry off
of a tour guide/peddler, Jose Rodriguez (Tony Roux), and offers them to Kathie,
who says she doesn’t wear earrings. Jeff wittily says that neither does he.
Jeff makes his play by saying that nothing is that good unless you share it.
She says maybe he ought to go home, implying he can find people back there he
can share with (her advice in the long run is sound, considering his future
adoptive home will be where Ann is). He responds that maybe that’s why he is in
Acapulco, where Kathie is (who, as it turns out, is the wrong person to share
anything with). She mentions a place called Pablo’s which is a cantina down the
street that will play American music if you pay for it and will make him at
least feel at home. He humorously says he’ll wear the earrings. As she leaves
she says she goes there sometimes, which implies she may want to see him again.
Jeff doesn’t tell Whit
that he found Kathie and goes to Pablo’s waiting for her to show up. He fits
the film noir character who is seduced by the cunning female, but he is aware
of it and can’t help himself, as he says, “I just thought what a sucker I was.”
He goes to Pablo’s even though he knows she wouldn’t give in so easily by
showing up the first night. That slim chance that she might appear the first
time usurps his better judgment. When she shows up the second night, he says
“she walked in out of the moonlight, smiling.” This line echoes the earlier one
about coming in out of the sunlight. These lines conjure up an image of an
almost supernatural creature who materializes due to celestial influences. It
shows the male superimposing his idea of a dream girl onto the harsh reality of
who she really is.
He sits down at her
table and after a short time she says he is different because he doesn't ask
questions, like where is she from? Again with a good comeback he says, “I’m
thinking about where we’re going.” She asks if she wants her to take him
somewhere else, and he romantically, but wittily says, “you’re gonna find it
very easy to take me anywhere.” He’s practically admitting that she can wrap
him around her finger. She says she is a better guide than Jose Rodriguez, and
Jeff is very eager to go on a trip with her, no matter where it may lead.
They go to a casino. The
witty dialogue continues when she asks, after losing a lot of money, if
there is a way of winning at the roulette table that she doesn’t know about,
and he says, “There's a way to lose more slowly.” The exchange also points to
how her being reckless can be damaging to a passenger going along for a ride
with her, which is exactly what happens later. He isn’t willing to gamble
“against a wheel,” but when she wants to know why he is “so hard to please,” he
says, “Take me where I can tell you.” This sexually charged dialogue shows when
it comes to her, he is willing to go all in.
They walk along the
beach and they kiss. She knows that Whit sent him and asks, “When are you
taking me back?” He smartly asks if that is why she kissed him, suspecting she
is just trying to manipulate him. She says no as she looks worried. He tells
her that Whit didn’t die and wants her back. She says she hates Whit, and is
“sorry he didn’t die.” His tired, resigned response is, “Give him time.” He
sounds like the cynical character Clint Eastwood plays in Unforgiven
when he says, “We’ve all got it coming.” She says she could have run away but
she didn’t when Jeff showed up, as she tries to win him over. She vows she
didn’t take Whit’s money and gets close to him and asks him to believe her. His
response is, “Baby, I don’t care,” and they kiss again. He’s a hooked fish who
doesn’t mind getting caught.
After that he says he
only met her at night, which goes along with the film noir motif of the
darkness outside mirroring the place in the soul where demons reside. Jeff
contacted Whit, but withheld information about Kathie, telling her he was in no
hurry to bring her back. He didn’t know where she was staying, which added to
her mysterious quality. (In a way, Jeff took Kathie’s place as a person of
mystery who ran away when he gets involved with Ann). But one night she asks
him to go to her place as it begins to storm, and as they kiss on her couch,
the wind blows open the door, suggesting that she is sexually opening herself
to him. The flowing, slick water from the rain adds a sexual symbolism to the
scene. But the stormy weather also implies the precariousness that the
onslaught of emotions will bring given her past violence and her connection to
a dangerous man. He now suggests that they go away together before Whit comes
looking for her. He asks her to meet him the next day at the hotel and they
will leave. She says she fears Whit, and he is cavalier when he says they can
send him a postcard around Christmas. She is encouraged that he is not afraid
of Whit, but he says he is used to living with fear, which reveals what a scary
life he has led. He says he is more afraid of her not going with him, but she
says he doesn’t have to worry, as she tightens her hold on him.
As Jeff packs his
clothes, Whit surprises him by showing up with Joe, adding to the danger of the
situation. Jeff says he has not seen Kathie. Whit says he was on his way to
Mexico City to see about a horse and tries to assure Jeff he wasn’t checking up
on him. Suspense builds as there is a knock at the door, but instead of Kathie
showing up, it’s only a hotel worker delivering Jeff’s polished shoes. A pretty
girl is in the lobby, and Jeff stops short, which adds to the tension, but it
isn’t Kathie. While seated at a table at the hotel bar, Jeff sees Kathie coming
through the door, and distracts Whit by spilling a drink. He acts upset that
Whit doesn’t believe that Kathie caught a boat south out of Acapulco, and Jeff
missed her. He tells Whit he can check the information for himself and says
Whit can have his money back if he thinks Jeff failed him. The play works and
Whit tells him to cool down and let him know what else he finds. Whit and Joe
leave for the airport.
Jeff continues to tell
Ann his story noting that he and Kathie went to San Francisco and he opened an
agency which was not paying well, but he was happy to be with Kathie. He says
they were careful at first, but then became more assured and went to public
places. There are scenes of the couple at ballparks and the racetrack. Jeff
says it was a “one in a million shot” that their past would catch up to them.
But sometimes a long shot wins. His old partner Jack Fisher sees Jeff at the
racetrack, and Jeff knows the man would sell him out for some cash. He and
Kathie separated, didn’t get in touch, and he headed to Los Angeles to throw
Jack off the trail.
Jeff and Kathie agreed
to meet secretly at a cabin in the woods. It is dark out, which again fits the
genre, and he talks about her appearing as if in a dream surrounded by light,
only this time he sees her in the car’s headlights. Jeff even calls her hold on
him a sort of “magic.” Alfred Hitchcock in Vertigo showed how dangerous
it is to put your faith in a fantasy woman, and so it is here.
Jeff says they thought
they had been “smart,” but instead of Jack following him, he had followed
Kathie, who didn’t have Jeff’s expertise to shake a tail, and Jack shows up at
the cabin. Jeff knows Whit hired Jack after Jeff vanished, as Jack says he was
the obvious choice to find him, being Jeff’s partner. There is no code of honor
here, as the partner is ready to betray his colleague. Jack says they had a
deal where they would split Whit’s payment, but Jeff notes he only pocketed
five thousand dollars. Kathie is smart and says Jack isn’t going to report that
he found them. Her devious personality knows how like-minded people act and
says that Jack wants the forty thousand dollars that Kathie supposedly took
from Whit. She still says she didn’t steal the money, and Jack insults Kathie,
calling her a “cheap piece of baggage.” That line sparks a fistfight between
Jeff and Jack. Jeff knocks Jack down and then Kathie uses a gun again, this
time on Jack. Jeff is upset saying she didn’t have to kill the man. She says Jeff
would have just thrown him out and then he would have told Whit who would come
after them. Jeff may be tough, but she is lethal. As he looks at the dead Jack,
Jeff hears a car door slam and Kathie leaves him there. In a bit of
contrivance, Jeff happens to see she left behind her bank book which shows a
deposit of forty thousand dollars. So she had lied to him even when she asked
him to believe her. But he told her when they met that he didn’t care about the
truth and called himself a “sucker” for getting involved with her. He must
realize he should have known better.
Jeff finishes the story
of his past. He says he buried Jeff Markham, reinventing himself as Bailey, and
tells Ann he didn’t see Kathie again and doesn't want to. Ann says she doesn’t
care about his past and he doesn’t have to confront it now. He says, “I’ve got
to. I’m tired of running. I gotta clean this up some way.” He most likely feels
that some people can never escape their past, but he thinks he can somehow make
things right. She reassures him that she wants him to come back to her and they
share parting smiles. But the lingering on this image makes it feel that this
may be their last happy moment.
Smart banter ensues when
Jeff meets Whit at the latter’s luxurious house in Tahoe (one can’t help but
think of Michael Corleone’s home in The Godfather Part II). When Jeff
admits to making a small profit selling gasoline at his station, he says it's
called “earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere,” which is the
opposite of how Whit makes money illegally. The law-abiding and criminal worlds
are contrasted here in his statement. Jeff says he “didn’t mean to hurt” Whit’s
“feelings” by what he said. Whit’s coldness shows when he says, “My feelings?
About ten years ago I hid them somewhere and I haven’t been able to find them.”
He says he looked for those feelings in his “pocketbook,” and didn’t have to
search further, which shows that money was all he really needed.
Whit wants Jeff to steal
some phony tax records from someone who helped Mitt defraud the government out
of a million dollars. The man, Leonard Eels (a slimy name for sure) is
blackmailing Mitt now. Jeff suggests Whit could pay the taxes, which Mitt says
is against his “nature,” which is felonious. Jeff declines the job, but then
Kathie enters, which means Mitt knows how Jeff double-crossed him, and feels
Jeff now owes him. Jeff must feel like Michael Corleone in The Godfather
Part III, where just as he is trying to get out, they keep pulling him back
in. Whit tells him to meet Meta Carson, Eels’s secretary who will help him get
the records. He must return to San Francisco for the job. Whit, knowing that
Jeff was in that city with Kathie, teases Jeff by asking if he’s been there. It
is meant to dredge up bitter feelings about Kathie leaving him.
As Jeff writes a letter
to Ann about where he is going, Kathie shows up in his room. She says she had
to go back to Whit because she had no alternative since Whit would always be
after her. He is sarcastic about her arguing helplessness, even when it comes
to murder, when he says, “You’re like a leaf that the wind blows from one
gutter to another.” The use of the word “gutter” shows his contempt for her.
She admits to telling Whit about them but not about killing Jack, who Jeff had
to bury, covering up a crime in one of those film noir dark places. She tells
Jeff she has to believe her, like she did about stealing the money, which of
course, is a ridiculous request at this point. She says that she missed him,
and “prayed'' that he’d “understand.” He says, “You prayed, Kathie?” showing
how hard it is to believe that act, and possibly implying that an unscrupulous
person like her saying she was being religious is a sacrilege. He has had it
with being deceived by her, and tells her to leave because he has “to sleep in
this room.” It’s as if her presence has contaminated the space.
In San Francisco he
meets up with the attractive Meta Carson (Rhonda Fleming) at her apartment.
Witty words are again exchanged as Jeff uses his charm to gain an edge. She
asks if he was acquainted with the city, and he says he was intimate with the
town since “they lived '' together, which sets a sexual tone for the
conversation. After he compliments the feel of her place she says an old
apartment can be “amusing.” He says he lived in an old place in New York, but
“it wasn’t very amusing.” He likes to expose the veneer of phoniness that some
people project. They get down to the specifics about acquiring the papers from
her boss. She also uses sex appeal as a tool when he grabs her shoulder and
says he wants to come out of this job unharmed. She says she wonders if he
always leaves his “fingerprints” on a girl’s shoulder (fingerprints suggest
something unlawful being done and will factor into the plot shortly), but says,
“Not that I mind particularly. You’ve got nice strong hands.”
Jeff rides with a cab
driver he knows who wonders why he looks worried. Jeff says he thinks he’s
being framed. He arrives at Eels’s place where he is supposed to pick up Meta.
She acts like Jeff’s her cousin, and they have to leave. Jeff resists going
along with the plan. And when Meta leaves the balcony, he says to Eels that his
real cousin is “named Norman and he’s a bookmaker in Cleveland, Ohio.” Jeff
says he is from Tahoe, and says they worry about “income tax there,” which
communicates he is connected to Whit. Jeff wonders if he was sent there to
leave his fingerprints which would make Jeff a “patsy,” and Eels (Ken Niles)
might be in danger. He says he will be back. When he joins Meta she says he
acted like an “idiot,” not following the plan. Jeff says Eels is an “idiot”
because he is in love with her. We have another femme fatale here it seems.
They leave in the same
cab Jeff arrived in. When he asks if Meta feels bad double-crossing Eels, she
says maybe he crosses people, too. In the film noir part of the world, nobody
is innocent. When they drop her off, the cabbie comments that Meta looks nice.
But Jeff points out Meta's sinister side by saying she is “awfully cold around
the heart.” Jeff goes into the building where they left Meta. He sees Eels's name
on the directory. He tells the cab driver to follow Meta and meet him at Eels’s
place. He sneaks into Eels’s apartment and finds the man’s dead body. He puts
it in a closet in an apartment that is being renovated. He meets up with the
cab driver, but he says he lost Meta after a cop stopped him for running a
traffic light.
Jeff goes to Telegraph
Hill and finds Kathie there. He sneaks into a bedroom while she is having a
party. He can’t find anything but then the phone rings. He hides, but she
doesn’t reach it in time (no caller ID back then). She calls Eels’s apartment
house to ask the manager to check on Eels since he doesn’t answer his phone.
She obviously knows the plan was to kill him. When the manager calls back and
says Eels isn’t there, Kathie is flustered. She leaves a message for Joe. Jeff
surprises her, and says Whit wanted “Eels out of the picture and to square an
account with me.” That way Whit is free of the blackmailer and would get his
revenge by framing Jeff for Eels’s murder. In film noir, there is a lot of
double-crossing. Jeff acts as if he was able to warn Eels in time. Kathie says
she is glad he got away because she knew that would mean that Jeff would be
blamed. Jeff wonders how easy it is for her to change sides so often. There is
no moral anchor in her character. Meta already took the tax papers and they
were in her briefcase. But what was Jeff’s motive for killing Eels? Jeff
figures that they had to have planted something. Kathie admits that they made
her sign an affidavit which was in Eels’s safe that said Jeff killed Jack. She
says she hates Whit and they can get the tax papers in the manager’s office at
Whit’s club. Then they would have leverage and could go back to Acapulco to
start over. She kisses him and he seems to go along with the plan.
Joe shows up at Kathie’s
place after Jeff leaves. He looks shaken because he killed Eels. Kathie now
realizes that Jeff lied to her to fool her into thinking that the plot against
Eels and him had failed. Jeff goes to the Sterling Club and enters Manager
Baylord’s office. He knocks out Baylord (John Kellogg) and finds the briefcase
hidden under a desk drawer. Jeff takes a cab, but the doorman knows the driver
and Baylord tells his men to track down the fare.
Jeff tells the hotel
desk clerk to have a driver meet him at the airport with a ticket for the
package he hands the man. He still carries the briefcase that is supposed to
contain the tax documents. But, in film noir, appearances are deceiving. Joe
and one of Baylord’s men grab Jeff and push him into Jeff’s waiting cab and
drive back to Baylord’s office. It turns out Jeff substituted the San Francisco
Telephone Directory for the tax records in the briefcase. Jeff doesn’t expose
Kathie about telling him where the tax records were. He says instead he found
out by having Meta followed. Jeff says he will give them the tax records for
the affidavit that would frame him for Jack’s murder, which he notes he didn’t
commit. He wittily says he didn’t kill the guy, only buried him, and “you don't
get the gas for being the undertaker.” Baylord obviously knows that somebody
leaked the information about the affidavit, and this time Jeff doesn’t get
Kathie off the hook. Jeff says that Meta can unlock Eels’s safe and get the
document.
Jeff hides outside
Eels’s building as police arrive with the apartment manager. This is a
complication that prevents acquiring the affidavit. This incident shows how
plans can’t be relied upon when people get tangled in their web of deceit. The
story shifts back to the bucolic safety of Bridgeport as Ann comes down the
stairs in her house as her father picks up the newspaper that was just
delivered. But the upsetting news disrupts the family’s peacefulness. The
article says Jeff Bailey is sought for two murders, including that of Eels.
Ann’s mother says she knew Jeff was no good, and Ann runs off upset.
The newspaper notes that
Jeff escaped and they can't find The Kid who worked for him at the gas station.
There is the belief he may be headed to Bridgeport. Jim, Ann’s ex-boyfriend,
now knows about Jeff and goes to a spot near the stream where Ann likes to
visit. He finds Ann who maintains her faith in Jeff and says she doesn’t
believe Jeff killed anybody. The scene shifts to Tahoe where The Kid meets with
Joe and Kathie. She tells The Kid Whit is fishing and to let Jeff know they’re
sending for him. These are more lies. As The Kid leaves, Joe wonders if what
they are about to do is a good idea, which indicates what is about to happen is
Kathie’s plan, and we know how plans turn out in this tale.
Joe follows The Kid into
the woods where he is fishing (that word again). Joe is up high where he sees
Jeff standing next to a tent where he was camping out. The Kid sees Joe pull
out a gun and The Kid hooks him using his pole and pulls him off the cliff. Joe
falls to his death after having been literally caught in his murderous attempt.
Jeff surprises Kathie at night (in the shadows, of course) in her bedroom while
she sleeps. He tells her about Joe’s death, and she still lies, saying she
didn’t send Joe. She tells him Whit is downstairs and wants to see him.
Jeff says he’ll give
Whit the tax papers if he gets rid of the frame against him and gives him
$50,000. He says Whit can blame Eels’s murder on Joe now that he’s dead. He can
plant a note on Joe’s body that says he committed suicide out of guilt, so he
and The Kid aren’t involved. He then says to give up Kathie for Jack’s death,
and she can get off based on self-defense. She apparently did not tell Whit
about her killing him. He also says to Whit that she sent Joe to his death by
trying to find Jeff. Jeff is just trying to set the record straight, to do away
with the deceptions about the deaths of Eels and Jack, but he is still willing
to let Whit get away with tax fraud to do it and to avoid responsibility for
Joe’s death. Whit looks like he’s having doubts about Kathie’s denials of
responsibility for the deaths of Jack and Joe.
Jeff leaves the room and
Whit shows that his eyes have been opened. He smacks Kathie and says she has
been lying all along about the deaths and how she has tried to manipulate him.
He says she’s taking responsibility for Jack’s death and he will contact the
police. Otherwise, he will make her suffer thinking about when he will kill her
and then have her endure an excruciating death. Whit agrees to Jeff’s terms and
says he will get the money for him. Jeff sarcastically tells Kathie not to
worry, she’ll find a way, as she always has, of escaping punishment.
In the woods back in
Bridgeport Jeff meets Ann. Jim has been spying on Ann, expecting Jeff to show
up, and he lurks close by. She wants to make sure that Jeff has not even a
little love left for Kathie. He assures her there isn’t any. Ann says Kathie
can’t be all bad, but Jeff says, “she comes the closest,” stressing Kathie’s
lack of any moral center. Jeff worries about dragging her into his dirty world.
Ann is the opposite of the femme fatales who inhabit the underworld he has been
dragged back into. Jim confronts Jeff at the car and says he meant to kill him,
but he tries to argue that Jeff already knows the damage to Ann that can occur
if she is in Jeff’s life. Jeff still holds onto the fact that Ann loves him and
is not willing to give that up yet.
Jeff goes back to Tahoe
to finalize the deal, but finds Whit dead. Kathie has killed again making
Jeff’s prediction come true about trying to escape her fate. She tells Jeff, “I
never told you I was anything but what I am. You just wanted to imagine I was.”
What she says comes close to what happens in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, where
Jimmy Stewart’s character believes what he wants to believe when worshiping a
woman, and gives into deluding himself about her true deceptive nature, as Jeff
did here. Kathie tells him he has nobody to clear him now, since Whit and Joe
are gone and he has the deaths of Jack and Eels incriminating him. He only has
her to deal with. His response to her is, “Well, build my gallows high, baby,”
which combines a capitulation to fate with defiance.
But Kathie wants a
replay of the time they had in Mexico. She wants them to recapture that
passion. She says that they were meant for each other, because, she says,
“You’re no good and neither am I. That’s why we deserve each other,” and he
shouldn’t waste his time thinking about anyone else (which means Ann). Her
argument is that sinners were meant to be with their own kind. He says they
will be hunted, but she says she doesn’t care as long as they are together. In
her strange way she loves him, as long as she comes first, as she reminds him
that she is “running the show.”
She goes upstairs to get
some luggage and Whit’s promised cash. She also packs a gun, showing that she
may have a deadly plan for Jeff if he doesn’t play along. While she is upstairs
he makes a phone call. Before they leave she says they “deserve a break,” and
he echoes what she said before that, “They deserve each other.” But underneath
that expression that seems to say that they were meant for each other is the
feeling that mirrors Kathie’s implication that corruption is incestuous. As
they drive away the police show up to block the road, and Kathie, indeed being
the “fatal woman,” shoots Jeff in a struggle, realizing he called the cops. She
shoots at the policemen who return fire. The car crashes and Kathie is killed. Jeff’s
dead body falls out of the car. It seems that the only way to rid oneself of a
dark past and make things right is to quit playing the corrupt game through
self-sacrifice.
Back in Bridgeport Ann
walks with Joe who says he wants to be with her. She breaks away and tells The
Kid that she needs to know if Jeff was going away with Kathie. He nods “yes.”
He lies, too, but knowing he did what Jeff would have wanted, to free Ann from
any feelings that connected Ann to him. She gets into Jim’s car, and leaves Jeff’s
ugly world behind.
The next film is The Hurt Locker.
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