Jane Greer makes composure look like kindness, and in Out of the Past the mistake is painfully easy to make. We rate her for keeping Kathie Moffat approachable when a more emphatic performance would put us on guard.
Fi1m perspective
In Out of the Past (1947), Jane Greer's Kathie Moffat stays composed enough for Robert Mitchum's Jeff to take comfort in her. Greer makes that mistake plausible without standing outside the scene and signalling that we should know better. We were uneasy watching them together because the attraction is convincing, even as Jeff's judgement begins to fail him. She gives us a reason to understand him, and that makes the trouble harder to dismiss.
In Jacques Tourneur's thriller, Nicholas Musuraca's photography supplies much of the unease, leaving Greer free to seem reassuring. Her calm, quizzical gaze and carefully modulated alto voice let a courteous exchange hold our attention without a display of menace. Alongside Kirk Douglas's Whit Sterling, whose pushy charm makes politeness feel like a demand, her restraint becomes especially effective. Mitchum has to seem drawn to her rather than defeated by a stronger personality, and she gives him space to do that.
Her breakthrough year also included a sympathetic starring role, Janice Bell in They Won't Believe Me (1947). The Big Steal (1949) reunited her with Mitchum for lighter comedy and suspense; The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) placed her alongside Stewart Granger in a swashbuckler. Later came television guest parts and Mrs Wyler in Against All Odds (1984), the Out of the Past remake. That is enough variety to make us wary of assuming Kathie tells us everything about what Greer could do.
The familiar femme-fatale label misses how much believable softness Greer brings to Kathie. A performance that warned us away more insistently would make Jeff's behaviour harder to understand and the film less troubling. Our caveat concerns the tangled plotting, which needs close attention and can distract from the performances. Choose Out of the Past for her, and do not expect to keep up with it while doing something else.
Biography
Jane Greer (born Bettejane Greer) was an American actress. She began her career as a singer with big bands and a model before entering films. Howard Hughes spotted her in a 1942 issue of Life magazine and brought her to Hollywood.
Greer is best known for her role as the femme fatale Kathie Moffat in the 1947 film noir Out of the Past. She appeared in other films including The Big Steal (1949) and the 1984 remake Against All Odds, in which she played the mother of her original character. Her television work included guest roles in series such as Twin Peaks (1990) and Columbo. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.
