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Movies that feel like Out of the Past (1947)

If you loved Out of the Past, the closest films we have are The Big Clock (1948), Criss Cross (1949) and The Narrow Margin (1952). All three share Out of the Past's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality. 7 of the 12 picks below are included with a subscription right now on TCM, YouTube TV and HBO Max Amazon Channel and others, checked against today's data.

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

🍅 87% Rotten Tomatoes8 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Jacques Tourneurgrittytenseatmospheric

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If Out of the Past hit the spot, these will too

The Big Clock poster
The Big Clock
1948 · dir. John Farrow
🍅 100%7.6crime · thriller

Film noir is the engine of both

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

Feels alike?
Criss Cross poster
Criss Cross
1949 · dir. Robert Siodmak
🍅 86%7.4crime · thriller

Both built around film noir

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

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The Narrow Margin poster
The Narrow Margin
1952 · dir. Richard Fleischer
🍅 100%7.6thriller · crime

Both land grit and tension at once

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

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Body Heat poster
Body Heat
1981 · dir. Lawrence Kasdan
🍅 96%7.4thriller · crime

Femme fatale sits at the heart of each

The difference: A 1980s film, from a different era of filmmaking

During an extreme heatwave, a beautiful Florida woman and a seedy lawyer engage in an affair while plotting the murder of her rich husband.

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Odd Man Out poster
Odd Man Out
1947 · dir. Carol Reed
🍅 100%7.6crime · drama · thriller

The same preoccupation in both: black and white

The difference: Leans drama where Out of the Past does not

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

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Touch of Evil poster
Touch of Evil
1958 · dir. Orson Welles
🍅 96%8crime · thriller · drama

Both keep circling back to gangster

A border-town bombing draws Mexican investigator Miguel Vargas into a corruption-ridden police investigation led by crooked captain Hank Quinlan, setting off a deadly struggle over power, justice, and truth.

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Sin City poster
Sin City
2005 · dir. Robert Rodriguez
🍅 76%8crime · thriller

Black and white is the engine of both

Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.

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Blast of Silence poster
Blast of Silence
1961 · dir. Allen Baron
🍅 83%7.4crime · drama · thriller

Crime built on atmosphere, twice over

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

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Shoot the Piano Player poster
Shoot the Piano Player
1960 · dir. François Truffaut
🍅 90%7.4drama · thriller · crime

Gritty thriller in both cases

Charlie is a former classical pianist who has changed his name and now plays jazz in a grimy Paris bar. When Charlie's brothers, Richard and Chico, surface and ask for Charlie's help while on the run from gangsters they have scammed, he aids their escape. Soon Charlie and Lena, a waitress at the same bar, face trouble when the gangsters arrive, looking for his brothers.

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Le Doulos poster
Le Doulos
1962 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 96%7.7drama · thriller · crime

Tense crime, and it commits to that

Enigmatic gangster Silien may or may not be responsible for informing on Faugel, who was just released from prison and is already involved in what should be a simple heist. By the end of this brutal, twisting, and multilayered policier, who will be left to trust?

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Le Samouraï poster
Le Samouraï
1967 · dir. Jean-Pierre Melville
🍅 92%8crime · thriller · drama

Thriller with a pulse of atmosphere, in both cases

After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts, finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.

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Get Carter poster
Get Carter
1971 · dir. Mike Hodges
🍅 85%7.3crime · thriller

Both keep circling back to gangster

Jack Carter is a small-time hood working in London. When word reaches him of his brother's death, he travels to Newcastle to attend the funeral. Refusing to accept the police report of suicide, Carter seeks out his brother’s friends and acquaintances to learn who murdered his sibling and why.

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The best-reviewed films that share Out of the Past's defining feeling.