OUT OF THE PAST

OUT OF THE PAST: "Film noir is known for its wise-guy dialogue, but the screenplay for 'Out of the Past' reads like an anthology of one-liners. It was based on the 1946 novel Build My Gallows High by 'Geoffrey Homes,' a pseudonym for the blacklisted Daniel Mainwaring, and the screenplay credit goes to Mainwaring, reportedly with extra dialogue by James M. Cain.

But the critic Jeff Schwager read all versions of the screenplay for a 1990 Film Comment article, and writes me: 'Mainwaring's script was not very good, and in one draft featured awful voice-over narration by the deaf-mute. Cain's script was a total rewrite and even worse; it was totally discarded. The great dialogue was actually the work of Frank Fenton, a B-movie writer whose best known credit was John Ford's 'Wings of Eagles.''"

I always enjoy reading what Roger Ebert has to say about movies, even if I don't agree with him. In the case of OUT OF THE PAST, I do agree, and I found the information quoted above really interesting. The whole review, in fact, is great reading, and I recomend it.