Out of the Past quotes

View Quote Marny: Two things I can smell inside a hundred feet. Burning hamburger and a romance.

View Quote Meta Carson: For a man who appears to be clever, you can certainly act like an idiot.

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 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 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 Jeff: [at the roulette wheel] That isn't the way to play it.
Kathie: Why not?
Jeff: 'Cause it isn't the way to win.
Kathie: Is there a way to win?
Jeff: Well, there's a way to lose more slowly.
Kathie: I prefer it like that.
Jeff: Chuck it in.
Kathie: Don't you like to gamble?
Jeff: Not against a wheel.
Kathie: Tell me why you're so hard to please.
Jeff: Take me where I can tell you.

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: I didn't know you were so small.
Kathie: I'm taller than Napoleon.
Jeff: You're prettier too. [They kiss]
Kathie: Did you miss me?
Jeff: No more than I would miss my eyes.

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: 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: My name is Jeff Markam, and I haven't talked to anybody who hasn't tried to sell me something for ten days. If I don't talk I think. It's too late in life for me to start thinking. I could go down to the cliff and look at the sea like a good tourist, but it's no good if there isn't somebody you can turn to and say, 'Nice view, huh.' The same with the churches, the relics, the moonlight or a Cuba Libre. Nothing in the world is any good unless you can share it.
Kathie: Maybe you want to go home.
Jeff: Maybe that's why I'm here.
Kathie: Is it?

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: Whit my friend, there's a million dames in this world. They all look like her.
Whit: No they don't. So she was here.
Jeff: According to all available evidence, she was.
Whit: Maybe you should have sent Stephanos. Could you find one dame in a million, Joe?
Joe: And one with forty grand.

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]