"Jacques Tourneur’s riveting 1947 film noir, usually ranked as one of the best of the genre, was adapted from Daniel Mainwaring’s evocatively titled novel Build My Gallows High (published under the name Geoffrey Homes by Mainwaring, later blacklisted). Late in the film, world-weary gumshoe Jeff Markham (Robert Mitchum) quotes this phrase to Kathie Moffat (Jane Greer), one of the most fatale of cinema’s femmes. When he realizes she’s behind a series of murderous maneuvers that have smashed any chance of hope or happiness in his life, he looks at her and quietly remarks, 'You built my gallows high, baby.' As grimly appropriate as the original title is, the changed version has its own resonance. It’s the past’s death-grip on the present that dominates this film and its doomed characters, threatening the lives of Jeff, Kathie, and the third member of what becomes a lethal triangle, wealthy gambler Whit Stirling (Kirk Douglas)."
Bright Lights Film, filmsite, amazon, YouTube, Noir of the Week
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