Out of the Past quotes

View Quote You say to yourself, "How hot can it get?" Then, in Acapulco, you find out. I knew she had to wind up here because if you want to go south, here's where you get the boat. All I had to do was wait. Near the plaza was a little cafe, called La Mar Azul next to a movie house. I sat there in the afternoons and drank beer. I used to sit there half-asleep with the beer and the darkness. Only that music from the movie next door kept jarring me awake.

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 I never saw her in the daytime. We seemed to live by night. What was left of the day went away like a pack of cigarettes you smoked. I didn't know where she lived. I never followed her. All I ever had to go on was a place and time to see her again. I don't know what we were waiting for. Maybe we thought the world would end. Maybe we thought it was a dream and we'd wake up with a hangover in Niagara Falls. I wired Whit but I didn't tell him. 'I'm in Acapulco,' I said. 'I wish you were here.' And every night I went to meet her. How did I know she'd ever show up? I didn't. What stopped her from taking a boat to Chile or Guatemala? Nothing. How big a chump can you get to be? I was finding out. And then she'd come along like school was out, and everything else was just a stone which sailed at the sea.

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]

View Quote A dame with a rod is like a guy with a knitting needle.

View Quote It was the bottom of the barrel and I scraped it. But I didn't care. I had her.

View Quote [to Jeff] You'll never be happy until you square yourself.

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 I sell gasoline, I make a small profit. With that I buy groceries. The grocer makes a profit. We call it earning a living. You may have heard of it somewhere.

View Quote [to Jeff] She must be quite a dame. A wild goose with 40 G's...You know, for a smart guy, that Sterling sure trusts you, don't he?

View Quote [to Jeff] You dirty, double-crossing rat.

View Quote It was meeting her somewhere like in the first times. There was still that something about her that got me - a kind of magic or whatever it was. I held her and we could laugh because we were together again. We'd played it smart and forgotten nothing. Forgotten nothing except one thing. He had followed her.

View Quote My feelings? About ten years ago, I hid them somewhere and haven't been able to find them.

View Quote I wasn't sorry for him or sore at her. I wasn't anything.

View Quote [to Whit] You liked me because you could use me. You could use me because I was smart. I'm not smart anymore. I run a gas station.