Out on Criterion today, the film should no longer be considered as an idiosyncratic 70s neo noir but instead as a powerful dramatization of how you always miss what you can’t see

Year of the Month

Out of the Past features Robert Mitchum, at his all-time best, playing a proto-loser, whose downward trajectory departs from more traditional noirs, such as The Big Sleep, and previews the 70s neo-noirs, such as Chinatown.