Original poster artwork · Great Cinema Master List
Spoiler-free premise
Gas-station owner Jeff Bailey's hidden past returns when gambler Whit Sterling summons him to account for former lover Kathie Moffat.
Read expanded premiseLonger, still spoiler-free+
Small-town proprietor Jeff Bailey lives quietly until a visitor from gambler Whit Sterling forces him to recount his former work as private detective Jeff Markham. He had been hired to find Whit's lover Kathie Moffat and instead disappeared with her.
Why it belongs
Tourneur makes fatalism elegant through layered flashback, shadowed space, Mitchum's weary reserve, and Greer's Kathie continually rewriting the rules.
Read expanded why it belongsThe fuller editorial case+
Gas pumps, Mexican cafés, fishing streams, doorways, cigarettes, voice-over, and Nicholas Musuraca's low-key photography make the past geographically inescapable. Robert Mitchum's stillness meets Jane Greer's alert reinvention.
Major award wins
No verified wins in this six-institution crosswalk.
Awards are reference metadata only · zero points in 40/40/20
Good for
Film Club
Descriptive guidance derived from rating, genre, runtime, mood, and GCML scores.
Institutional reference ranks
Sight & Sound157IMDb Top 250—AFI 100—
Reference metadata only · not part of the 40/40/20 score
Great Cinema Master List scores
Greatness9.2
Engagement7.1
Ease7.4
English · Not Rated Narrative Feature Mood: Tense & Absorbing
