Jane Greer in Out of the Past: Femme fatale in classic film noir.
Jane Greer movies on TCM: Noir actress
Today is neither Jane Greer’s birth nor death anniversary. Even so, Turner Classic Movies is devoting Saturday evening/night to the dangerously seductive star of a number of (mostly) RKO productions of the late 1940s and early 1950s. And who’s complaining?
Unfortunately, Out of the Past, perhaps Greer’s best-known film and performance, is already in the past. It was shown earlier this evening. Right now, TCM is showing Don Siegel’s Mexico-set crime drama The Big Steal, featuring Greer, her Out of the Past costar Robert Mitchum, William Bendix, Patrick Knowles, and silent film veterans Ramon Novarro and Don Alvarado.
Next comes my favorite Jane Greer performance, as the good girl gone bad – or bad girl attempting to go good – in John Cromwell’s The Company She Keeps. This all-but-forgotten little melodramatic gem is a must for another reason as well: Lizabeth Scott, Paramount’s sultry answer to Warner Bros.’ Lauren Bacall – and a stunning film presence even though Scott wasn’t exactly the greatest actress of the time.
I’ve yet to watch both Station West and Desperate Search, but I can cautiously recommend Run for the Sun. The plot is intriguing – a couple (Greer, Richard Widmark) is hunted by Nazis (!) in some Central American jungle – but Roy Boulting’s handling of the proceedings made me yearn for Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel’s The Most Dangerous Game, of which Run for the Sun is a remake. Having said that, Run for the Sun has two good things going for it: Jane Greer, of course, and Joseph LaShelle’s color cinematography.
Jane Greer movies: TCM schedule (ET)
8:00 PM OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
Director: Jacques Tourneur.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming.
B&W. 97 min.10:00 PM THE BIG STEAL (1949)
Director: Don Siegel.
Cast: Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer, William Bendix, Gilbert Roland, Ramon Novarro, Don Alvarado.
B&W. 71 min.11:30 PM THE COMPANY SHE KEEPS (1951)
Director: John Cromwell.
Cast: Lizabeth Scott, Jane Greer, Dennis O’Keefe.
B&W. 83 min.1:00 AM STATION WEST (1948)
Director: Sidney Lanfield.
Cast: Dick Powell, Jane Greer, Agnes Moorehead.
B&W. 80 min.2:30 AM RUN FOR THE SUN (1956)
Director: Roy Boulting.
Cast: Richard Widmark, Trevor Howard, Jane Greer.
B&W. 99 min.4:15 AM DESPERATE SEARCH (1953)
Director: Joseph Lewis.
Cast: Howard Keel, Jane Greer, Patricia Medina.
B&W. 71 min.
notes/references
Jane Greer movie schedule via the TCM website.