Out of the Past was produced by RKO Pictures, and the key personnel—director Jacques Tourneur, cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, actors Mitchum and Greer, along with Albert S. D'Agostino's design group—were long-time RKO collaborators. Although the studio focused on making B-films during the early 1940s,[6][7] the post-World War-II Out of the Past was given a comparatively lavish budget.[8]
John Garfield and Dick Powell turned down the lead.[9] Kirk Douglas, in only his third credited screen performance, plays a supporting role but a central part in the story as Mitchum's antagonist. The next time Mitchum and Douglas played major roles in the same picture was in the 1967 Western The Way West, alongside Richard Widmark.
Musuraca also shot Tourneur's 1942 RKO horror film Cat People.[10]
