Out of the Past quotes

View Quote Jeff: [after spilling a drink after seeing Kathie across the room] Sorry.
Whit: Picked up some nerves.
Jeff: I don't need a crack like that any more than I need your dough, which is what I've been telling you. I missed her. The dame caught a boat south.
Whit: Where?
Jeff: Look, I got along before this job. I ate good and I grew as big as you did and if there's something you don't like you can say so.
Whit: I just asked where.
Jeff: Chile, Guatemala...

View Quote Whit: I'm sorry. You missed her and you feel bad. I shouldn't have joked about it.
Jeff: I'll give you back your $5,000 and turn the job over to Stephanos.
Whit: You're on. I fire people, but nobody quits me. You started this and you'll end it. Besides, Joe couldn't find a prayer in the Bible. You'll find her. Take it easy. Take your time.

View Quote Jeff: You didn't have to kill him.
Kathie: Yes I did. You wouldn't have killed him. You would have beaten him up and thrown him out.
Jeff: You didn't have to do it.
Kathie: You wouldn't have killed him. He would have been against us. Gone to Whit.

View Quote Ann: It's all past.
Jeff: Maybe it isn't.
Ann: What'll happen?
Jeff: I don't know. It's been a long time. I don't know how much he knows.
Ann: Don't go, Jeff.
Jeff: I've got to. I'm tired of running. I'd better clean this up someway. Just one thing, Ann. Do you want me to come back?
Ann: Of course.

View Quote Kathie: I had to come back. What else could I do?
Jeff: You can never help anything can you? You're like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another. You can't help any thing you do, even murder.
Kathie: You can't say it was that.
Jeff: I can say one thing. I buried him. What did you tell him? About us? But you couldn't help it, could you Kathie?
Kathie: He knew it. He looked right into me. He knew it.
Jeff: How much?
Kathie: What, Jeff?
Jeff: I mean about Fisher. Did he look into you for that too?
Kathie: No, I didn't tell that.
Jeff: Don't lie to me.
Kathie: I didn't. I wouldn't tell him that. I wouldn't tell anyone that. I swear it Jeff. Believe me.
Jeff: Sure, sure I believe you.
Kathie: I didn't know what to do. I was always afraid of him, and afraid of what I'd done. I couldn't live that way anymore. I couldn't stand it. Jeff, I've missed you. I've wondered about you, prayed you'd understand. Can you understand?
Jeff: You prayed, Kathie?
Kathie: Can't you even feel sorry for me?
Jeff: I'm not going to try.
Kathie: Jeff.
Jeff: Look, just get out, will you? I have to sleep in this room. Just leave it where it all is. Get out.

View Quote Jeff: Just remember, I'm coming out of this in one piece, Miss Carson.
Meta: Do you always go around leaving your fingerprints on a girl's shoulders? Not that I mind particularly. You've got nice strong hands.

View Quote Jeff: Meta always talked about you like you were the ninth wonder of the world.
Eels: She skipped one.
Jeff: For me, it must be the eighth.
Eels: All women are wonders because they reduce all men to the obvious.
Meta: So do martinis.

View Quote Jeff: Doesn't your conscience bother you, crossing a nice guy like that?
Meta: Maybe he isn't such a nice guy. Maybe he crosses people too.

View Quote Jeff: Is there a slip up baby? Did you by any chance send your friend up there to find Eels dead?
Kathie: No Jeff.
Jeff: Tell me. Tell me.
Kathie: Don't Jeff.
Jeff: Don't what?
Kathie: I don't want to die.
Jeff: Neither do I baby, but if I have to, I'm going to die last. Something slipped up, didn't it? They told you they were gonna knock him off, and they haven't done it, have they? They haven't because I tipped him off. He blew.
Kathie: He's all right?
Jeff: Didn't you want him to be?
Kathie: Yes, yes, because if he died, they'll say you did it.
Jeff: You're wonderful Kathie. You're magnificent. You can change sides so smoothly.
Kathie: Don't Jeff. You're hurting me.

View Quote Jeff: Whit wants to get Eels out of the picture. He wants to square an old account with me. Two birds together...A redhead takes me up to visit the chump who has to go. I have a drink. Leave my prints around. I leave and somebody gets him. Eels dies and the tax papers...They were in the briefcase that Meta took, weren't they? Papers go back to Whit. I'm the fall guy. There's only one thing missing - a plant. What was there to give me a motive? I wouldn't kill a guy for a martini. Tell me Kathie.
Kathie: They made me sign it.
Jeff: Sign what?
Kathie: An affidavit.
Jeff: Go on.
Kathie: I couldn't help it Jeff. They made me sign it. I swear I couldn't help it. They said they'd find the body and tell the police I killed him.
Jeff: Fisher. Then you did tell them about Fisher when you told them I did it! Perfect. Foolproof and beautiful. That Whit can really hate, can't he? You said it once, he can remember.
Kathie: I never stopped hating him Jeff. I couldn't help myself. I was caught too. We don't have to be against each other now.
Jeff: Aren't we?
Kathie: No, we can break out of it. All we need is the briefcase. Then we've got them, Jeff. We can get anything we want from them.
Jeff: I'd like that affidavit you signed.
Kathie: We can get it. It's in Eels' office safe. We can make Meta get it. We can make them do anything.
Jeff: Sure.
Kathie: Oh, Jeff. You ought to have killed me for what I did a moment ago.
Jeff: There's time.
Kathie: No, you won't. I've never stopped loving you. I was afraid and no good, but I never stopped, even if you hated me. Did you?
Jeff: Yes.
Kathie: But you don't now.
Jeff: No.
Kathie: We could be together again, in a way we never were. We can go back to Acapulco and start all over as though nothing had happened. [They kiss]

View Quote Kathie: Things are mixed up.
Whit: Bailey mix 'em?
Kathie: I can't talk on the phone. We're trying to get a plane.
Whit: But you're bringing me something.
Kathie: No Whit. I can't explain now darling.

View Quote Jeff: What are you scared about? Joe isn't coming back. He got careless and fell in the river. Did you hear what I said? Joe's dead, Kathie. Can't you find some tears for him?
Kathie: Do you think I sent Joe?
Jeff: Oh, you're wonderful Kathie.

View Quote Jeff: You take the frame off me. You pin the Eels murder on Joe.
Whit: Sure, sure.
Jeff: I get a modest settlement, say, oh, say $50,000. That should be enough for me to spend my waning years in Mazatlan. Not Acapulco, because I'd keep thinking about you Kathie, up there in the women's prison in Tehatchapie. It won't be too bad. Hills all around you. Plenty of sun. You make me nervous. You'd be happier if you let the cops have her Whit. That's what you'll have to do. Somebody's got to take the rap for Fisher's murder. It's not going to be me.
Whit: Wait a minute. I'm not framing any woman.
Jeff: When did you reform? I wouldn't try it, Whit, you're out of shape. Besides, it's not a frame. She shot him.
Kathie: He was going to kill you.
Jeff: You see Whit, self-defense. A cinch to beat. She might not even have to do time.
Kathie: I'll say you killed him. They'll believe me.
Jeff: Do you believe her? Go on Kathie, tell him about Joe. Last time I saw him, he was in the East Walker River.
Kathie: I didn't send him after Jeff. It was his own idea.
Whit: [to Jeff] Did you kill him?
Jeff: He slipped and fell. When I got there, it was too late. That's a mean river.
Whit: He was trailin' you?
Jeff: Well, you don't go fishing with a .45 in your hand.

View Quote Ann: Was it the same?
Jeff: I saw her and it was nothing.
Ann: She can't be all bad - no one is.
Jeff: No. She comes the closest.
Ann: Are you going to see her again?
Jeff: Tonight for the last time.
Ann: Then look at her, look at yourself, and be very sure that there isn't even a little bit of love left for her. Then when you find out and you know it once and forever, send for me.
Jeff: I don't have to find out. I know it now. [They kiss]
Ann: That's all I wanted to hear.
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.

View Quote Kathie: Don't you see you've only me to make deals with now?
Jeff: Build my gallows high, baby.
Kathie: No, no, we're starting all over. I want to go back to Mexico. I want to walk out of the sun again and find you waiting. I want to sit in the same moonlight and tell you all the things I never talked to you - till you don't hate me, till sometime you'll love again.
Jeff: They'll always be looking for us. They won't stop till we die.
Kathie: I don't care. Just so they find us together. If you're thinking of anyone else, don't. It wouldn't work. You're no good for anyone but me. You're no good and neither am I. That's why we deserve each other. [They kiss]