Love, Money, and Lies: Betrayal in Out of the Past

Erin Hopkins

Professor Philip Hanson

RHET 130-02

12 December 2015

Love, Money, and Lies: Betrayal in Out of the Past

Through the lens of film noir, the 1940s was a time filled with paranoia, betrayal, and deceit. Around every corner, there was another reason not to trust someone. A classic example of film noir, Out of the Past is rife with betrayal—it seems that almost everyone is doing something with the intent to harm someone else at some point in the film. There are double- and triple-crosses that eventually lead to the three main characters meeting a tragic end typical of a Shakespearean-level tragedy. It seems that almost everyone is doomed, either by cruel fates or their own tyrannical greed, which they will do absolutely anything to satisfy.

Out of the Past is the quintessential classic film noir masterpiece; it is a definitive flashback film of melodramatic doom let loose in a world of betrayal, corruption, fatalism and a cynical, perverse, and extensive moral gray areas. From the beginning of the film, we see the characters start to betray each other. The first “real betrayal” we learn of is of Kathie betraying Whit. As far as we know, Kathie stole $40,000 from him before disappearing without a trace. While Whit might not be the most loving or caring partner to Kathie, stealing $40,000 from someone is not typically something that gets forgiven easily. And so, Whit hires Jeff to find Kathie and offers him a reward of several thousand dollars. Whit is placing his trust in Jeff to find Kathie—and, we can assume, not to fall in love with or hook up with her. That is where Jeff fails, though. Not only does he find Kathie and decide not to tell Whit, but he becomes extremely mesmerized and infatuated by Kathie and they soon begin having an affair. Not only is Kathie now further betraying Whit by sleeping with Jeff, but Jeff is breaking the trust put in him by Whit as well as his girlfriend, Ann. And, all this time, Kathie is actually lying to Jeff about...