Build My Gallows High

SYNOPSIS

Also known as Out of the Past, this classic 1940s film noir contains a memorably languid performance by Robert Mitchum as the ultra-hard-boiled former private eye who falls for the woman (Jane Greer) he's been hired to track by gangster Kirk Douglas. Unfairly underrated for many years, this is in fact a stylish, atmospheric, highly watchable and strongly recommended movie from director Jacques Tourneur, who also made horror classics I Walked with a Zombie, Cat People and Night of the Demon. The film's scriptwriter, Daniel Mainwaring (writing here under the name Geoffrey Homes), also penned the sci-fi gem Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It was remade in 1984 as the inferior Against All Odds (with Jeff Bridges and Rachel Ward).