Turner Classic Movies hosted a TCM Party watch-along screening of Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past (1947) as part of its Summer of Darkness series. Posts during the watch-along praised John Alton's cinematography, noting that smoke became a lighting tool that produced visible shafts of light and depth in otherwise flat interiors. Several posts cited Roger Ebert's line calling it "the greatest cigarette-smoking movie of all time." Contributors focused on the film's ending, arguing the Kid tells a lie so Ann can let go of the past, and many singled out Robert Mitchum's quiet delivery in key exchanges. One post nominated a shot featuring a looming clock and a ghostly veil as a supreme visual achievement in noir.
