Out of the Past (1947)

Robert Mitchum: Jeff

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Quotes 

• [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 don't want to die.

  Jeff : Neither do I, baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last.

• Ann : She can't be all bad. No one is.

  Jeff : Well, she comes the closest.

• 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 : Oh Jeff, you ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago.

  Jeff : [dryly]  There's time.

• Kathie : Don't you see? You've only me to make deals with now.

  Jeff : Well, build my gallows high, baby.

• Jeff : You can never help anything, can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.

• Kathie : I'm sorry he didn't die.

  Jeff : Give him time.

• 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.

• 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 : Did you miss me?

  Jeff : No more than I would my eyes.

• Jeff : I didn't know you were so little.

  Kathie : I'm taller than Napoleon.

  Jeff : You're prettier, too.

• 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 : 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.

• Jeff : How big a chump can you get to be? I was finding out.

• Jeff : Why me?

  Whit : Well, I know a lot of smart guys, and a few honest ones. And you're both.

• Jeff : It was the bottom of the barrel, and I was scraping it.

• 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 : 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 : [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 : Let's go down to the bar. We can cool off while we try to impress each other.

• 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.

• Kathie : I think we deserve a break.

  Jeff : We deserve each other.

• Jeff : Now, do you wanna talk business, or do you wanna play house?

• [Petey and Jeff watch Meta walking away] 

  Petey : Nice!

  Jeff : Awfully cold around the heart.

• 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.

• Jeff : Nothing in the world is any good unless you can share it.

• Jeff : You say to yourself, "How hot can it get?" Then, in Acapulco, you find out.

• 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.

• Meta Carson : You are an idiot.

  Jeff : So's he.

  Meta Carson : You think so?

  Jeff : Why not? He's in love with you.

• 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.

• Meta Carson : I was expecting you.

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

  Meta Carson : Should I take that as a compliment?

• 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 : [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.

• 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.

• 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 : [allowing one slap but blocking a second]  That evens us. Now fold your hands or I'll fold 'em for you!

• Jeff : Very difficult girl.

  Jose Rodriguez : Is there one who is *not* so, Señor?

• 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 : 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.

• 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.

• 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]  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.

• 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.

• Jeff : Well, we meet in in all kinds of places.

• Kathie : [In Mexico, at a roulette table]  Don't you like to gamble?

  Jeff : Not against a wheel.

• 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.

• 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.

• Jeff : I can give you a tip. You tell Whit where we are, he might slip you a sawbuck.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• Jim : I was going to kill you.

  Jeff : Who isn't?

• Jeff : Love me?

  Kathie : Poco.

  Jeff : What's that?

  Kathie : Little.

  Jeff : Mucho.