Cape Fear

 SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

 

In the 1962 version of Cape Fear, one can see the influence of Alfred Hitchcock on director J. Lee Thompson. The musical score, by Psycho composer Bernard Herrmann, with its heavy instrumental stresses and flutterings that suggest shivers, communicates a feeling of impending sinister events. (Martin Scorsese’s violent, graphic remake has a horrific performance by Robert De Niro and utilizes the same score). The title of the movie is of an actual place in North Carolina, but it also sounds like a location that is cloaked in danger. The story presents the two kinds of America that Truman Capote wanted to expose in his book, In Cold Blood: the respectable, law-abiding, pleasant appearance on the surface, and the ugly underbelly of anger and violence simmering and ready to erupt from beneath that benevolent façade. The movie also asks what recourse do people have when regular law enforcement is not legally able to protect those who are being victimized.

 The film starts with Max Cady (Robert Mitchum), a vicious ex-con, entering a courthouse, his unlawful presence an affront to a place of justice (does his name imply that he is the maximum cad?). He walks up a flight of stairs and startles a woman who drops some books she is carrying. This image is an indication that Max is a threat to women. Max seems oblivious of her. His lack of either helping her or even acknowledging her presence immediately shows him to be a cold individual who is only focused on his own agenda. He is looking for lawyer Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck, who also produced the film). (Does Sam's last name suggest he is a potential weapon who might fire an arrow from a “bow” at an enemy?). Max sits down and observes the courtroom proceedings with a clenched mouth and a glacier glare which show his animosity toward Sam. 

 Outside, as Sam is about to drive away, Max sticks his hand through the driver’s side window of the car and grabs the keys. It is an invasive act which suggests the inability to escape a threatening presence. Max asks if Sam remembers him, and tells him the number of years, months, and days it has been since they last met, which totals more than eight years of incarceration. The details show the impact on Max of their last encounter. Sam does remember Max, and questions whether he blames Sam for what Max did. Max laughs, and says Sam doesn’t understand what’s going on. That means it will take some time for Sam to realize the full extent of what Max’s presence means to Sam. So, there is an ominous implication that this meeting will not be a one-time incident. As a shapely woman walks by, Max’s predatory sexual nature is evident as he talks about how the female’s “wiggle” is meant to arouse them. (In the book on which the movie is based, Max was convicted of raping a young woman, but that seemed too daring at the time, and is not mentioned in this adaptation). Max is always smoking a cigar, and in his case, a cigar is not just a cigar since it could be seen as a phallic symbol (consider General Ripper in Dr. Strangelove). Max then adds a creepy note as Sam drives away by commenting on how Sam’s wife and young daughter are attractive. The intimidation is obvious when Max tells Sam he should give Max’s “love” to his family and says he will be seeing him again. All of these comments on the surface sound acceptable, but the menace is implied, which fits in with the theme of benign appearance versus malevolent reality.

 

We have lilting, quick-tempo music which reflects Sam’s smiling return home as he hugs his daughter, Nancy (Lori Martin). Sam, his wife Peggy (Polly Bergen), and Nancy’s friend go bowling as part of a typical relaxed family outing. Into this supposedly safe space the scary Max arrives. He orders beer, not a cola. He notes the wedding ring on the young waitress’s finger and asks if it means anything to her. He assumes all women are whores and pushes a twenty-dollar bill towards her, asking if that “means” as much. She runs away from his lewd suggestion of prostitution, and he laughs as if confirming his warped assumption that all women are the same. Sam sees Max staring at him, and then misses the chance to make a spare. Max smiles, knowing he has rattled his prey. He even has the audacity to approach Sam in public, creepily saying he was just getting a good look at Sam’s family before he slithers away.

 

The cautious Sam talks to his friend, Police Chief Mark Dutton (Martin Balsam) about Max. We now get the backstory, as Sam says that he testified against Max eight years prior in Baltimore after he interrupted Max as he was beating up a young woman. She was hospitalized for some time following the assault. Sam says at the trial Max made it clear that he blamed Sam, and now the attorney fears for his family. Dutton wants to help Sam so he orders Max to be picked up for “vagrancy,” a flimsy charge. Sam is beginning to compromise his ethics as he is okay with police harassment here.

 

Max is at a bar where an inebriated, sexy young woman gives him a seductive look. The police arrive and when one of the cops grabs him, he resists. But, he quickly recovers his veneer of acceptable behavior by saying he will be cooperative, but just doesn’t like being “pawed.” It is an animal term, which fits Max’s bestial personality. At the police station, Max shows he has come prepared for any interrogation by the authorities. He declares that he is not drunk, and he has the right to be examined by his own doctor to ensure that the results of an intoxication test are legitimate. Sam enters the room, and Max agreeably consents to a strip search. Max points out that he legitimately has $5,400 in a bank account, which we later find out came from the sale of his property. So, Dutton can’t charge him with vagrancy. Max says he intends to stay in town for quite a while, which drives home how that it will not be easy for Sam to escape his presence. Sam tells Max to stay off of his property. Max just laughs, which seems like it is absurd that he would trespass, but his response really suggests he doesn’t take the warning seriously and that Sam will not be able to stop him.

 

The next shot has the camera behind a line of bushes, and as it rises we look at Sam’s house from the vantage point of a stalker. The family dog, Marilyn (a female, Max’s victim of choice) is barking, which indicates the possibility of an intruder, and the sound builds suspense. Then, the barking turns to canine whining, an escalation of approaching danger. Sam and his daughter go to investigate and become alarmed as Peggy runs toward them saying their dog is having a “fit.” They take Marilyn to the veterinarian, who tells Sam he believes that the animal was poisoned with strychnine and could not be saved. Sam realizes that Nancy was meant to see the loss of her dog, which means he knows the poisoning was an act of terror on the part of Max.

 

Sam shares his apprehension concerning Max with his family and tells Nancy that she must not leave the house or her school area. Max’s intimidation is beginning to sabotage social tranquility by restricting the family’s freedom and peace of mind. Peggy has a dream that contains bits of a conversation she had with Sam. Her anger and fear caused her to say that a man like Max should not have “civil rights.” Her subjective response is understandable, but Sam argued that a man can’t be put away for “what he might do.” He tries to keep to an objective code that requires all to be treated with the same legal requirements for protection against prejudicial impulses. In their talk Sam said that moving away would not stop Max from following, which emphasizes how quickly the course of their safe lives has turned into a road of danger with no exit. Sam knows that a man such as Max thrives on eliciting fear and Sam urged not to give into that emotion. Peggy wakes up from her dream and finds that Sam and Nancy are not in bed. The black and white photography allows no color to brighten the situation, and the shadows cast on the house’s corridors are ominous. As Peggy reaches the bottom of the stairs, no doubt worried that Max might have breached the family castle, she sees what looks like a man wearing a hat and jacket. She is relieved that it is only Sam’s clothes, and that Nancy is getting something to eat while Sam is talking to a policeman who is keeping guard over the house. But, the scene illustrates how Max has spooked Nancy and us to the point that what we see as innocent may contain an element of evil.

 Chief Dutton summons Sam in the middle of a case he is arguing. Here we have more disruption of the normal routine. Dutton says that Max has attained attorney Dave Grafton (Dave Kruschen) to represent him (does the first part of his last name imply corruption?). Max is sly as he has hired a lawyer who specializes in police harassment. In a meeting with the four men, Grafton notes numerous incidents where the police have brought Max in for questioning regarding robberies and theft, and searched his home and car after the poisoning of Sam’s dog. Grafton argues that these public displays of police involvement caused defamation of Max’s character and required him to relocate twice. Sam questions why the cops should not be allowed to do their job. Grafton is surprised that the ethical Sam is losing his objectivity and is not able to see when the line is crossed on the part of the authorities. We have here an example of how laws are made to protect individual rights, but how criminals can exploit those safeguards for their own purposes. Sam does score a point when he wonders how Grafton knew police manpower was used to protect his home. Grafton hesitates and says the information was acquired from cops. But, it is obvious Max told his lawyer based on his surveillance of Sam’s home. The threat of legal action against the police is implied, and Max’s exiting line that he will be seeing Sam again sounds mannerly but is actually threatening. 

 Desperation sets in as Sam wonders what he can do since, as Dutton points out, they can’t arrest a person for what's in his mind in the absence of evidence. Sam sarcastically asks if he is supposed to turn his house into a fort and isolate his family as he hunkers down with a gun. That normal legal means are not sufficient here is evident when Dutton suggests that Sam hire a private investigator, Charles Sievers (Telly Savalas), to dig up something usable. 

 Max is driving around with the woman in the bar, Diane Taylor (Barrie Chase). When she asks why they are taking the road they are on he says it has “better scenery.” She rejects that explanation and knowingly says that Max doesn’t understand beauty or anything that makes “life worth living,” because he is an “animal: coarse, lustful, barbaric,” another reference to Max’s uncivilized, predatory nature. She sees life through a cynical, pessimistic perspective and so she is attracted to the “bad boy,” and says he is “rock bottom.” It is, ironically, a comfort that she knows she can’t “sink any lower,” than to be with him. Max notes Sievers is following him. The rear window of Max’s car has one shoe dangling from it. Is this image a suggestion that we are waiting for Max to let the other shoe drop? 

 Sievers calls the police to report that Max is in a room with Taylor and they can arrest him for “lewd vagrancy,” something that would be considered an obsolete puritanical law today if consenting adults are involved. For the time, the following scene was quite daring as it depicts the bare-chested Max staring menacingly at Taylor in her scanty, black negligee. He forms a fist, and she knows he is ready to unleash his psychotic nature. She tries to escape, but he grabs her. The movie only suggests the violence as we hear her getting hit behind a slatted door. Mitchum’s role here mirrors the one he played in The Night of the Hunter, with both of these male characters drawn to women’s sexuality, while at the same time harboring misogynistic, abusive impulses. When the police arrive, they find the beaten Taylor alone as Max left through a back door. Taylor refuses to say anything to the police or Sievers, and she calls for a cab to take her to the bus station, hoping to escape, even though she doubts that she can. Sievers asks her to prevent Max from adding more names to his list of casualties, but she says that nobody “can protect themselves from a man like that.” She says that Max said that what he inflicted this time was “only a sample” of what might come next, which is Max’s way of making sure she doesn’t press charges. She knows once released he will come looking for her. Her impression paints Max as a man who sees himself as not being subject to the norms of decent behavior.

 

Sam arrives on the scene, and even though Sievers told her about the threat to Sam’s family, she tells him she is “sorry.” She leaves because she is not willing to take the personal risk to stand up to the man who will continue to cause harm to others. Sievers advises Sam to go even further outside the bounds of regular legal channels by hiring a man known to inflict violence for a price. Sievers suggests that with a man such as Max, one must deal with him on his own, brutal level. Sam dismisses the idea as he doesn’t want to approach that deep dark place in which Max resides.

 Max shows up at the dock where Sam’s family is taking care of their boat. Both mother and father leave Nancy for a bit to get some supplies. Bad idea, given that they know about Max being around. Sam sees Max staring down at his daughter and warns him to go away. Max says that his daughter is getting to be as “juicy” as Sam's wife. His words have sexual and food connotations, which fits Max being an animal on the prowl. Max may be trying to provoke Sam, possibly so he can lodge an assault charge against him. Unfortunately, Sam accommodates him by taking a couple of swings at Max, who makes sure those there saw that he didn’t lay a hand on Sam. He does warn Sam that his turn will come, which builds the story’s suspense.

 

The sense of danger increases as Nancy is alone in a car (why do her parents keep leaving her by herself?). She sees the ever-present Max approaching. He is like a pervasive evil entity. She runs off but can’t get into a locked building. She then enters a school as she sees Max following her (a place of innocence being desecrated?). She hears footsteps that she believes come from Max, but instead are caused by an employee. The audience shares her fear since we don’t see who is walking at first. Again, what should be safe feels threatening now. Nancy runs out of the school and, ironically, into the arms of Max, another image of the inability to escape. She runs into the street and gets knocked down by a braking car, but is only bruised. Max’s wish to instill terror is succeeding.

 Back home, the incensed Sam grabs his revolver and sets off after Max. Peggy tries to rein him in by saying how Max didn’t hurt Nancy and if Sam shot the man it would be murder, which would ruin the family, the very thing Sam wants to protect and which Max is trying to destroy. She pleads that he should offer Max money instead. She threatens to call the police to stop her husband. After Sam gets in his car, she follows through with her warning. But Sam, succumbing to Peggy’s logic, comes back in before she talks with Chief Dutton. 

 Sam decides to take Peggy’s advice and has a meeting at a restaurant to offer Max some cash. When asked to come up with a figure, Max says that eight years in prison added to the value of a family brings a high price. When Sam offers twenty thousand dollars, Max says that’s less than three thousand a year for his incarcerated time. He sarcastically asks Sam if he’s heard of the minimum wage. Max tells Sam that he lost his family because his wife couldn’t stand the humiliation of him being in prison, and she left with their son. After getting divorced, she married a “plumber,” and they had children. Max complains that his son doesn’t know who his father is. The cruel Max then basically kidnapped his ex-wife and made her write a letter with “dirty words” in it saying she wanted to be with Max for a while. He implies that he sexually assaulted her and physically abused the woman, but he threatened to give the letter to her husband if she pressed charges. Sam sees that the man is out for revenge, not compensation. Max says that he just wanted to kill “someone” (he is careful not to make a direct threat) for seven years in jail but in the last year he decided it would be more painful to exact retribution in small increments. Sam gets up and calls Max a “shocking degenerate” and the “lowest” of all the people he has encountered. Here he is echoing Taylor who called Max the “rock bottom.” Sam says that it makes him “sick to breathe the same air” as Max, implying the man is a plague infecting the human species. 

 

Sam tells Peggy that Max is after their child, and how it will be difficult to protect her all the time. If he attacked Nancy, she would be forced to testify in detail at her young age at what would be a rape trial (although the word “rape” is not used, the implication is that would be the charge). Sam says that Max would be convicted but not after the damage to Nancy was done. Sam says Max knows that Sam and Peggy wouldn't put their child through that ordeal. 

 

Sam concludes his only recourse is to step outside of the law, which ironically is his job to uphold. He decides to do what Sievers suggested about hiring thugs to hurt Max. The next scene has three men beating Max. But Max is one tough fellow and he is able to overpower his attackers, although he does sustain injuries. After the confrontation, the bruised and bloodied Max calls Sam’s house and Peggy answers. Max is sexually suggestive as he talks to Peggy and when Sam grabs the phone, Max says he will essentially destroy Sam’s life by turning the law against Sam for ordering the assault. Then he is frightening as he says that he has plans for Peggy and Nancy that make what he did to his wife look like “kid’s stuff.” His words not only stress the extreme nature of his threat but also the defilement of innocence by evil.

 

The next scene has Peggy astonished because Sam has obviously been talking about killing Max. Sam tries to reassure her that he will need help and will not proceed until all the details of a plan are in order. The option that he presents argues that the “terror” that Nancy will experience if Max attacks her is worse than if they involve her in the plot. The short scene shows how far Sam is willing to abandon legal options.

 

Attorney Grafton confronts Sam at the courthouse telling him one of the hospitalized thugs admitted that Sam hired him. Grafton says Sam’s career as a lawyer is over and will be arrested. Sam seeks aid from Chief Dutton, who is angry, given what Sam has done, that Sam would ask for help to have a stakeout to catch Max. Sam says there is a houseboat on the Cape Fear River, and he will have Peggy and Nancy there as bait. Grafton wants Sam to appear before a committee in Atlanta. Sam says he knows Max will see him leave and it will give him an opportunity to go after the wife and daughter. Sam will drive back. He wants one policeman to be at the dock to back him up and Nancy will be hidden in an obscure cabin nearby. He frankly tells Dutton he will shoot Max to protect his family. Dutton grudgingly agrees to the stakeout, but warns Sam he can’t kill Max just for trespassing. Sam is walking a legal tightrope here as he sets his trap.

 

Herrmann’s score at this point sounds similar to the heavy stresses that he used for Psycho as the story heads toward its climax. Max can pass for normal as he pretends to be asking about delivering a package to Sam at the airport. He confirms that Sam was on the plane to Atlanta and verifies the date of his return. On the houseboat, Nancy is alert as she hears the engine of another boat approaching. Peggy has a gun as she checks out who is coming. The sound of water sloshing followed by footsteps increases the tension. But director Thompson is pulling a Hitchcock move by faking a threat as it is Sam and Deputy Kersek (Page Slattery) who have arrived. The result is to ratchet up suspense and then offer relief only to be followed by more fear, similar to waves crashing and abating on a beach. Sam intends to join Kersek at an observation point at the water’s edge. Sam first calls Sievers who says that Max was at Sam’s house and confirmed that Sam’s car was there, but Peggy’s wasn’t. Sievers says Max tailed him, but then he didn’t see Max anymore. There is a plot question here as to why Max would have to track Sievers instead of just following Sam and his family as they first arrived at the houseboat. 

 

Sievers heads out to the houseboat pretending to deliver a phonograph to the family. He and Sam hope Max will follow, but Sievers doesn’t see him. Max is clever enough not to use his own car and instead hitches a ride. He observes Sievers’s actions and discovers the houseboat. Sam decides to proceed as planned and he and Kersek go into hiding. There is dissembling by both parties here and each wants to capture the other. Max swims in the river like a water snake. He hears Kersek swat a mosquito, surprises the man, and drowns him. He says to him that he will be found without a mark on him, as if Kersek died in an unmanly fashion. Max sets the houseboat adrift to make it more difficult for anybody to get on the craft. Sam finds Kersek’s body and tells his daughter to phone for help.

 

he bare-chested Max, stripped of civilized behavior, goes onboard the houseboat to confront Peggy. He squishes some eggs and coats her upper body with the liquid in a sexually suggestive image. He says she will say what happened was consensual, as he forced his ex-wife to do, because she feared Max might go after her daughter. He then begins to manhandle her as Sam gets on the boat with a gun. He finds his wife but she has not been raped because Peggy says Max only wanted to lure Sam away from Nancy. Max escaped through a hatch in the boat to go after the girl.

Max breaks the window of the door at the cabin as Nancy cowers in a corner. She grabs a fireplace poker but is too shaken to use it against the powerful man who then drags her away. Sam swims back to the shore but Max surprises him, and the gun Sam was carrying is knocked away. The two men fight, and it appears that Max has drowned Sam. But Sam is also capable of faking appearances. He grabs a rock from the waterbed and smashes it against Max's head. He finds Nancy and tells her to run and hide. Sam goes back for Max, but the man has recovered and has a hunk of wood with a large screw in it that he uses as a weapon. Sam hides and then finds the gun. As Max attacks he gets off a shot wounding Max. Max tells him to finish him off because he doesn’t “give a damn.” Sam uses Max’s own words against him as he says killing him would be too easy. Instead, because he is “strong,” he will be in a cage for the rest of his long life until he “rots.” In a way, for a predatory animal such as Max, that punishment is worse. Sam’s decision also shows that he has returned to using legal instead of vigilante justice. 

 

The family sails away from Cape Fear, but the traumatized look on their faces shows that the horror of the place will reside inside them as they attempt to resume their outwardly peaceful lives.

The next film is Gaslight.

Out of the Past

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.