Out of the Past

"Dry your eyes baby, it's out of character."
"Now get of this room. I have to sleep here." "Baby, I don't care."

Oh, the one-liners in this movie. . .Simply amazing. the dialog flows so quickly between each other. The actors snap great lines back and forth between each other so fast I couldn't keep up. Did people back in the 40's and 50's talk like that anyways? In that dry, lightning fast sarcasm with no remorse? I would love to hear it if my grandparents spoke like that to each other.

Out of the Past is a classic film noir in the sense that it has the femme fatale, the womanizing yet moral hero, and plenty of backstabbing to go around. Yet, compared to other noirs I've seen like Double Indemnity, there are subtle differences that gave the film a much more majestic and powerful feel. The drama is not cramped into a city setting, but out in the country side and open areas, like Lake Tahoe and Mexico. Typical noirs have all the action taking place in urban centers like Chicago and NYC where the hard nosed hero eventually ends up dead.

Was America scared of women back in the 40's and 50's? It seems as if women in almost all films in that day were portrayed as double-crossers and untrustworthy. Maybe it's the idea of the Post War, working woman was bad for society. This portrayal of women quite possibly may have helped the feminist movement.