Out Of The Past

Also known as 'Build My Gallows High'. Jacques Tourneur, Mitchum and Greer, 1947
This is classic film noir, and is at its best with those elements. We have the voiceover, the narration commentary. The move to the city is striking, and an interesting study in the urban/ country dialectic on films of the time. In the city there is some wonderful cinematography of Mitchum, skulking in full length from angled cameras at doorways, or medium shots, with shadows in the dark, blowing smoke into black spaces.
The lighting here is often organised so that it is the sides of the faces of the two interlocurs that we don't see that is in light; we have the dark side, whoever on screen is lit on the other half.
There is a certain sleepiness about this film, a strange kind of lazy relaxation. People walk all the way across rooms; perhaps it is partly a product of the non-overlapping, and complex rather than sharp dialogue. The direction is generally pretty down the line, with a bit of a lack of establishing shots.
This is undoubtedly entertaining, with the return of the past being thrown from all angles, a suitably bewildering plot, and some lovely city photography.