I like to think that I’m into film noir, but I seem to be continually tripped up when watching the major players. I just caught Out Of The Past, a film I’ve been holding onto for fear that I’ll run out of quality noir over time, and I wasn’t impressed. As my mind wandered in and out of the film, I tried to figure out why I’ve been so underwhelmed. I think I may be partial to the less classy representations of the form, like Detour, Gun Crazy, Jeopardy and D.O.A. I like how stripped down these movies are, with a straight-forward plot and condensed running time that allows all the anxiety and panic of facing inescapable doom to shine. Out Of The Past was so concerned with its labyrinthine schemes that there was barely any time for Mitchum and Greer to sizzle, let alone get me to care about their plight.