[Petey and Jeff watch Meta walking away]

Petey: Nice!

Jeff: Awfully cold around the heart.
Jeff: How big a chump can you get to be? I was finding out.
Jeff: You say to yourself, "How hot can it get?" Then, in Acapulco, you find out.
Fisher: You know, a dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.
Jeff: You know, maybe I was wrong and luck is like love. You have to go all the way to find it.

Ann: You do to keep it.
Jeff: I sell gasoline, I make a small profit. With that I buy groceries. The grocer makes a profit. We call it earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere.
Whit: My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven't been able to find them.
Jeff: You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.
Jeff: It was the bottom of the barrel, and I was scraping it.
Whit: Joe couldn't find a prayer in the Bible.
Kathie: Don't you see? You've only me to make deals with now.

Jeff: Well, build my gallows high, baby.
Ann: She can't be all bad. No one is.

Jeff: Well, she comes the closest.
Jeff: I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end.
Ann: They say the day you die your name is written in the clouds.
Kathie: I didn't know what I was doing. I, I didn't know anything except how much I hated him. But I didn't take anything. I didn't, Jeff. Don't you believe me?

Jeff: Baby, I don't care.
[Kathie is playing roulette]

Jeff: That's not the way to win.

Kathie: Is there a way to win?

Jeff: There's a way to lose more slowly.
Kathie: I think we deserve a break.

Jeff: We deserve each other.
Eels: All women are wonders, because they reduce all men to the obvious.

Meta Carson: So do martinis.
Jeff: [answering the door] Well, the last guy in the world...

Whit: I hate surprises myself. You wanna just shut the door and forget it?
Jeff: Now, do you wanna talk business, or do you wanna play house?
Whit: You just sit and stay inside yourself. You wait for me to talk. I like that.

Jeff: I never found out much listening to myself.
Kathie: Can't you even feel sorry for me?

Jeff: I'm not going to try.

Kathie: Jeff...

Jeff: Just get out, will you? I have to sleep in this room.
Kathie: Oh Jeff, you ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago.

Jeff: [dryly] There's time.
Jeff: [allowing one slap but blocking a second] That evens us. Now fold your hands or I'll fold 'em for you!
Joe: I often wondered what happened to him. Then one day I'm breezing through here, and there's his name up on a sign.

Marney - Diner Owner: It's a small world.

Joe: Yeah. Or a big sign.
Marney - Diner Owner: Two things I can smell inside a hundred feet: a burnin' hamburger and a romance.

Jim: You got a customer.

Marney - Diner Owner: [to Joe] What'll ya have?

Joe: [not bothering to take the cigarette out of his mouth] Coffee.

Marney - Diner Owner: Nothing else?

Joe: Cream.
Jeff: Why me?

Whit: Well, I know a lot of smart guys, and a few honest ones. And you're both.
Eels: Your uh... cousin is a very charming young lady.

Jeff: No he isn't. His name is Norman, and he's a bookmaker in Cleveland, Ohio.
Jeff: Nothing in the world is any good unless you can share it.
Whit: You're gonna take the rap and play along. You're gonna make every exact move I tell you. If you don't, I'll kill you. And I'll promise you one thing: it won't be quick. I'll break you first. You won't be able to answer a telephone or open a door without thinking, 'This is it.' And it when it comes, it still won't be quick. And it won't be pretty. You can take your choice.
Kathie: I don't want to die.

Jeff: Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last.
Kathie: I'm sorry he didn't die.

Jeff: Give him time.
Jeff: Let's go down to the bar. We can cool off while we try to impress each other.
Kathie: Did you miss me?

Jeff: No more than I would my eyes.
Jeff: Very difficult girl.

Jose Rodriguez: Is there one who is *not* so, Señor?
Jeff: I didn't know you were so little.

Kathie: I'm taller than Napoleon.

Jeff: You're prettier, too.
Meta Carson: You are an idiot.

Jeff: So's he.

Meta Carson: You think so?

Jeff: Why not? He's in love with you.
Kathie: If it gets too lonely, there's a little cantina down the street called Pablo's. It's nice and quiet. The man there plays American music for a dollar. Sip bourbon and shut your eyes... it's like a little place on 56th Street.

Jeff: I'll wear my earrings.

Kathie: I sometimes go there.
Kathie: You don't know Whit. He won't forget.

Jeff: Everybody forgets.

Kathie: Not Whit.

Jeff: So we'll send him a postcard every Christmas.

Kathie: Jeff, I'm glad you're not afraid of him.

Jeff: I've been afraid of half the things I ever did.

Kathie: And this time?

Jeff: I'm only afraid you might not go.

Kathie: Don't be. I'll be there tomorrow.
Jeff: I like surprises. When I was a kid, we were so busted that if we got anything at all for Christmas it was a big surprise.
Kathie: Oh, Jeff. I've missed you. I've wondered about you and prayed you'd understand. Can you understand?

Jeff: You prayed, Kathie?
Jeff: If you'll drop this Junior League patter we may get the conversation down where it belongs.

Meta Carson: You worried about something?

Jeff: I don't know. Should I be?

Meta Carson: Not if you do what you're told.

Jeff: That's why I'm here. I do what I'm told. People trust me. Whit even trusts me twice. Do you?

Meta Carson: Just as far as I have to.
Meta Carson: I was expecting you.

Jeff: Well... I wasn't expecting you.

Meta Carson: Should I take that as a compliment?
Jeff: We got a call to come over and see a big Op.

Ann: A what?

Jeff: An operator. A gambler. He didn't come to see us because he was too high-powered a character. Also because some dame had taken four shots at him with his own 38. Made one of 'em good.
Joe: Newspaper guys. Wise guys! Who do they think they're kidding? So, he shot himself cleaning a cap pistol. So, I shot the ace of spades out of a sleeve during a gin game. A guy can't even get shot in his own apartment by a dame without the whole town starting to buzz like a, like a...

Whit: Like you? Smoke a cigarette, Joe.
Fisher: She must be quite a dame. A wild goose with 40 Gs.
Jeff: [voice-over] Near the Plaza was a little cafe called La Mar Azul, next to a movie house. I sat there in the afternoons and drank beer. I used to sit there half asleep with a beer in the darkness, only the music from the movie next door kept jarring me awake. And then I saw her - coming out of the sun. And I knew why Whit didn't care about that 40 grand.
Jeff: I could go down to the cliff and look at the sea like a good tourist. But, it's no good if there isn't somebody you can turn to and say, "Nice view there." It's the same with the churches, the relics, the moonlight or a Cuba Libre.
Jeff: [voice-over] I went to Pablo's that night. I knew I'd go every night until she showed up and I knew she knew it.
Jeff: [voice-over] She waited until it was late. Then, she walked in out of the moonlight, smiling.
Kathie: You know, you're a curious man.

Jeff: You're going to make every guy you meet a little bit curious.

Kathie: It's not what I mean.
Kathie: You don't ask questions. You don't even ask me what my name is.

Jeff: All right, what's your name?

Kathie: Kathie.

Jeff: I like it.

Kathie: Or where I come from?

Jeff: I'm thinking about where we're going.
Kathie: You know, I'm a much better guide than Jose Rodriguez. Want to try me?
Jeff: I don't like playing games when I'm the fall guy. You might remember that, Whit.
Jeff: You get your five grand back and Stephanos can take over from here.

Whit: You're wrong. I fire people but nobody quits me. You started this an you'll end it.
Jeff: [voice-over] I went alone to LA and I made it easy for him to follow me. He was a good gumshoe. It was the one thing he could really do.
Jeff: You wanna lift, baby?

Kathie: You know, I really hadn't ought.

Jeff: You're a cute little package to be out walking alone at night.

Kathie: You're kinda cute yourself.
Fisher: Your picture don't do you justice, baby.

Kathie: Why don't you break his head, Jeff?

Fisher: Cute.
Jeff: I can give you a tip. You tell Whit where we are, he might slip you a sawbuck.
Fisher: Just pay me off and I'm quiet. But use cash. Don't try to pay me off with a pitch handed to you by this cheap piece of baggage!
Jeff: Well, I told you it wasn't a nice story.

Ann: And I told you once that whatever happened was done.

Jeff: Yeah, but you should have known about it long ago.

Ann: It's all right. I understand. But, it's all past.

Jeff: Maybe it isn't.
Whit: Well, you told me about your business. Mine is a little more precarious and I earn considerably more.

Jeff: So I've heard.

Whit: So has the government.

Jeff: Well, this may sound ridiculous, but you could pay 'em.

Whit: Oh, that would be against my nature.
Whit: You know San Francisco, don't you?

Jeff: Yeah, I was there once for a party.

Whit: And you got around?

Jeff: Like the monkey and the weasel.
Meta Carson: Would you like a gin and tonic?

Jeff: That'd be nice.

Meta Carson: You may have whiskey if you like.

Jeff: That'd be even nicer.
Jeff: Just remember, I'm coming out of this in one piece, Miss Carson.

Meta Carson: Do you always go around leaving your fingerprints on a girl's shoulder? Not that I mind, particularly. You've got nice strong hands.
Jeff: Keep the martinis dry. I'll be back.
Meta Carson: For a man who appears to be clever, you can certainly act like an idiot.

Jeff: That's one way to be clever! Look like an idiot.

Meta Carson: You look like an underweight ghost.
Jeff: Was there a slip up, baby?
Jeff: I'm the fall guy. There's only one thing missing. The plant. What was it that gives me a motive? I wouldn't kill a guy for a martini.
Kathie: I've never stopped loving you. I was afraid and no good, but, I've never stopped. Even if you'd hated me - did you?

Jeff: Yes.
Jeff: You know, sometimes a bad memory is like what they call an ill wind - it can blow somebody luck.
Jeff: Well, we meet in in all kinds of places.
Kathie: You can't make deals with a dead man, Joe.
Kathie: I never told you I was anything but what I am. You just wanted to imagine I was. That's why I left you.
Kathie: We're starting all over. I want to go back to Mexico. I want to walk out of the sun again and find you waiting. I want to sit in the same moonlight and tell you all things I never told you - until you don't hate me, until sometime you love again.
Kathie: If you'e thinking of anyone else, don't. It wouldn't work. You're no good for anyone but me. You're no good and neither am I. That's why we deserve each other.
Kathie: I'm running the show, don't forget it.

Jeff: I doubt you'll ever let me.
Jeff: Remember La Mar Azul?

Kathie: I remember you were a very clumsy flirt - but I like that.
Kathie: Dirty double-crossing rat!
[last lines]

Ann: Was he going away with her? I have to know. Was he going away with her?
Jeff: [to Kathie, when they first meet, in Mexico] My name is Jeff Markham, and I haven't talked to anybody who hasn't tried to sell me something in ten days. If I don't talk, I think. It's too late in life for me to start thinking.
Kathie: [In Mexico, at a roulette table] Don't you like to gamble?

Jeff: Not against a wheel.
Jim: I was going to kill you.

Jeff: Who isn't?
Jeff: Love me?

Kathie: Poco.

Jeff: What's that?

Kathie: Little.

Jeff: Mucho.
Marney - Diner Owner: Seems like everything people ought to know, they just don't want to hear. I guess that's the big problem with the world.

Out of the Past Quotes

Extended Reading

Out of the Past short comments

Kallie 2022-03-18 09:01:05

9/10. The old-fashioned noir film topic of Femme Girl has a new idea. Thanks to the complex and plump image of the heroine, the romantic love of escaping hand in hand in the front is still the romantic love of running away from the world together. Years later, the two men are still successfully designed to fall into a fight with each other. The predicament and the risk of intention are jaw-dropping, and the limelight even overwhelms other characters. The flashback insert makes the story that has been suspenseful again and again emphasized the sense of crisis, and moves toward a desolate fate in the gloomy night atmosphere~
Makayla 2022-04-21 09:02:54

#CIN216 Out of the Past=prisoners of the past. The private detective in film noir genre represents the reassurance of wrongs can remedied and justice can prevailed. Yet under this apparent inevitability corruption in the city, the detective Bailey is disillusioned, paranoid, and fatalistic, while maintaining a seemingly conventional moral code.