Dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1947, 97 min. 35 mm
With Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming
In English

Jacques Tourneur’s landmark contribution to the noir genre features a private eye who tries to escape his sordid past by becoming a gas station owner in an off-the-beaten path California town. But his previous life catches up to him when a former client he once betrayed hires him to do another job, instigating a chain of events that examine our complex relationship with the past and question fate.

“The most delicate and nuanced of film noirs, graced with a reflective lyricism that almost lifts it out of the genre.” — The Chicago Reader

“In Jacques Tourneur’s classic 1947 film noir, the glowing sunlight of the great American wilderness serves as truth serum for the grifters who go there in search of an angle, an edge, or an escape.” — The New Yorker

“Direction by Jacques Tourneur pays close attention to mood development, achieving realistic flavor that is further emphasized by real life settings and topnotch lensing by Nicholas Musuraca.” — Variety