Top 250 Challenge: 220

Out Of The Past (1947)
Number 187 on IMDb's Top 250

Jeff Bailey, small-town gas pumper, has his mysterious past catch up with him one day when he's ordered to meet with gambler Whit Sterling. En route to the meeting, he tells girlfriend Ann his story. Flashback: Once, Jeff was a private eye hired by Sterling to find his mistress Kathie who shot Whit and absconded with $40,000. He traces her to Acapulco...where the delectable Kathie makes Jeff forget all about Sterling... Back in the present, Whit's new job for Jeff is clearly a trap, but Jeff's precautions only leave him more tightly enmeshed...hilarity ensues.

Trivia: The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Gee, That's all the trivia I could find on this movie.

This movie has everything you would ever want in a Film Noir: The femme fatale that flips sides more then an Olympic gymnast, the private detective with a trench coat on and a cigarette struck in his mouth, the nosy cafe owner who talks too much, guns, dames, fist fights, murder, frame-ups, death by bullet, death by fishing lure, fadoras, snappy dialog, flashbacks, double crossed partners, the guy that has been in love with the hero's girlfriend since gradeschool who takes an opportunity to kill the hero but has a change of heart because he is actually a good guy, a Mexican bar, and a "deaf and dumb" boy who may be the smartest guy of the bunch. Did I miss anything? If I did, I guess you will have to see it to find out.

Next Up: The Lady Vanishes