my favorite movies of 1947:

(1) Out of the Past

(2) Brute Force

(3) Repeat Performance

favorite of 1947:

Out of the Past

(Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming. Directed by Jacques Tourneur.)

As the title of this film noir suggests, Out of the Past masterfully uses the dimension of time, flashing back to the story the protagonist (Robert Mitchum) is telling near the beginning, eventually coming back to when the movie started, and continuing from there into the future.

Imogen Sara Smith, in her book In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, describes Out of the Past in musical terms:

The long flashback that fills in the back story is like a movie within a movie, narrated by Mitchum, strung together by a theme song (“The First Time I Saw You”) that plays everywhere he goes. … Mitchum’s voice is like the lead instrument of a jazz ensemble, setting the pace of the film, giving it a distinctive, coherent sound — his sound, cool and weary and knowing, developed through different moods and tempos and melodies. An accomplished singer, Mitchum referred to his dialogue as “the lyrics” and treated it that way, delivering his lines behind the beat, the way Sinatra sings. Though he has no musical interludes in Out of the Past, no film better captures his musicality, his sense of rhythm, pace and inflection.

The script is one long improvisation on the theme of disenchantment, full of blue notes and hot riffs. Jane Greer (also a singer) contributes her gorgeous, dry contralto and Kirk Douglas, jumping avidly on every line, offers a perfect counterpoint to Mitchum. (“You just sit there and stay inside yourself; you wait for me to talk,” [Douglas] observes on first meeting [Mitchum].)

A video on what makes Out of the Past a great film noir:

I think I’m in a frame. I don’t know, all I can see is the frame. I’m going in there now to look at the picture.

Stream Out of the Past on these Roku channels (some are free) or these sites.

2nd favorite of 1947:

Brute Force

(Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Charles Bickford, Yvonne De Carlo, Ann Blyth, Sam Levene, Ella Raines, John Hoyt. Directed by Jules Dassin.)

Criterion sums up this “prison melodrama with a scathing critique of the punitive American incarceration system at its heart”:

Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins’s dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey’s chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows the lengths men will go to when fighting for their freedom, and asks the question of who society’s real brutes are.

I was sent here today for one reason: to tell you that if there’s any more trouble, if this prison isn’t brought under the strictest control, there’ll be an immediate change in practically all personnel. We don’t want to be bothered any more. Is that clear … ?

Oh, absolutely: you can’t be bothered. Well, that simplifies everything! … You put up prisons, thick walls, and then your job is over, finished. But is it over? … “New personnel”! “Absolute discipline”! Do you know what this prison is … ? One big human bomb. And you say, “Kick it, and it’ll be quiet. Smash it, and it won’t explode.”

Film noir expert Eddie Muller’s intro to Brute Force:

Stream Brute Force on the Criterion Channel (with extras including commentary) or Max. If you don’t subscribe to the Criterion Channel, try a free trial.

3rd favorite of 1947:

Repeat Performance

(Joan Leslie, Louis Hayward, Richard Basehart. Directed by Alfred L. Werker.)

Repeat Performance is a “fantasy noir” — an unusual hybrid of genres. The movie opens with an actress, Sheila Page (Joan Leslie), killing her husband (Louis Hayward) on New Year’s Eve. Distraught at what she’s done, Sheila wishes she could relive the past year, the year when her husband became involved with Paula Costello (Virginia Field), who wrote a play Sheila is starring in. Sheila gets her wish: she’s magically transported back to the beginning of the year. But doing it all over again won’t be easy …

If you don’t mind a movie that indulges in over-the-top melodrama while throwing realism out the window, Repeat Performance is a fun break from standard noir fare.

One subtle thing in this mostly unsubtle movie: the poet played by Richard Basehart (in his debut, before he was in Fellini’s La Strada) is gay in the novel. That’s not made explicit in the movie; it’s “coded” through his soft manner and the fact that his whole role is being a close Platonic friend to Sheila. I suggest focusing on his character and noticing how he’s different from the expected depiction of gay people back in the 1940s. I think this movie was secretly trying to do something ground-breakingly progressive for the time with him.

Stream Repeat Performance on Kanopy, or these sites.

Click here for the full list of my favorite movie(s) of each year from 1920 to 2020.