The Dark Past (1948) User Reviews

Killer Personality

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 8 June 2007]

The Dark Past may very well have been a turning point in the career of William Holden. As you remember Holden had a dual contract with Columbia and Paramount and I'm sure Billy Wilder at Paramount must have seen The Dark Past before casting Holden in Sunset Boulevard. This B film for Columbia was unlike any of the 'smiling jim' roles that Holden had played up to now.

The Dark Past has only a 75 minute running time and was playing the bottom end of Columbia double bills when it first came out. It's a remake of another Columbia film Dark Past with Chester Morris in Holden's part as the escaped killer. The part of the psychiatrist played by Lee J. Cobb here was played by Ralph Bellamy in the previous production.

Cobb is now a police psychiatrist, but wasn't always; in fact as he relates in flashback he was a professor when he ran into Holden who was escaping from jail with his mob and his moll. They take refuge in Cobb's summer house where Cobb and family are entertaining guests.

Lee is as cool as he would be emerging from a refrigerator. He starts getting under Holden's skin with his training exposing the real cause of his killer personality. Most disarming in every sense of the word.

If it were only that easy. Still the film in its short run does keep one in suspense. A lot like the duel of minds between Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March in The Desperate Hours. Also look for a very good performance by Nina Foch as Holden's moll who unwittingly leads to her man's downfall when she asks Cobb to find out about a recurrent nightmare Holden has.

If a dose of Freud could only cure all bad behavior.

Good Acting - Dated Script

[wglenn · 7/10 · 6 October 2003]

As others have noted, the Freud 101 psycho-babble almost ruins an otherwise good movie. Yet, if you can brush aside the silliness of the dated script, there's some excellent acting here by Lee J. Cobb and William Holden, and a fairly decent film noir plot. The claustrophobic atmosphere of so many hostages in the house, along with the growing storm outside and the nervous but vicious gangsters creates a palpable tension that builds throughout the film. Holden is at his edgiest, playing the dangerous ex-convict on the lam. But he does what he always does best, mixing in just enough sensitivity with his animal nature to create a more complex character - you actually want to like the guy, even if he has shot people down in cold blood. The chemistry between Cobb and Holden is the best part of the film and makes it worth watching, though there are many better films to spend your time with. There are many worse ones, too.

William Holden Was Great

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 18 June 2007]

This film caught me by surprise to find out that William Holden starred in this film along with Lee J. Cobb in 1948, and found it quite interesting from the very beginning to the very end. Holden plays the role as a criminal named Al Walker who really enjoys killing people and is loved and adored by Betty played by Nina Foch who was very young and attractive. Lee J. Cobb, ( Dr. Andrew Collins) works for the police department as a psychiatrist and tries to help men from continually living in their world of crime. Al Walker has taken over Andrew Collins Summer home and all his guests and there is plenty of tension going on with guns firing all the time. There is a great scene between Al Walker and Dr. Andrew Collins where the doctor is trying to understand nightmares that keep Al Walker from going to sleep and at the same time try to teach him how to play the game of Chess. This is a very unusual film that seems to have been forgotten and put on the shelf.

More post-war psychology...and an odd resemblance

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 1 June 2007]

Lee J. Cobb is a psychiatrist who works to discover "The Dark Past" of convict William Holden in this 1948 drama that also stars Nina Foch and Adele Jurgens. Two of Hollywood's favorite subject matters are part of the film plot: The post-war obsession with psychiatry and a hostage situation, of which there have been many in films over the years. Like Bogart in "The Desperate Hours," Holden's an escaped convict with a gang that holes up in someone's home while waiting for a ride that doesn't arrive when it's supposed to. And, like the later "Desperate Hours," the couple has a child that tries to escape. In "The Desperate Hours," you wanted to kill the kid; at least here, he doesn't cause as much trouble.

Psychiatry in America was really just being explored in film, and it was as a result of the trauma soldiers suffered in World War II and the problems they had when they came home. The script is simplistic and dated, but the performances are good. Holden is terrific as the on-the-edge convict tortured by partial hand paralysis and a recurring nightmare from an incident in his childhood; young, pretty Nina Foch is his girlfriend who loves him but is terribly hurt by his actions. When I was growing up, the striking Foch was in her forties and a constant presence in television, usually playing a neurotic mess. She still acts and is a very prominent drama teacher in Los Angeles. It was wonderful to see her in these early days - she made a fine ingénue. Cobb is convincing as a psychiatrist who keeps his cool as he tries to help the young man.

After William Holden's big splash at the age of 21 in "Golden Boy" in 1939, his career settled into a series of light leading man roles that took him nowhere. Superstardom didn't hit until 1950's Sunset Boulevard. One of the comments on IMDb remarked that in "Golden Boy," he looked like Tom Hanks, which stuck in my mind as I was watching "The Dark Past." Well, it's the strangest version of separated at birth that I've ever seen, but there is the oddest resemblance between these two stars. Here, with his hairline exposed, you can really see the similarity in the shape of Holden's face to Hanks', and there's even a similarity in profile and around the eyes. You'd never catch it unless someone mentioned it to you or you've seen "Golden Boy" where Holden is nearly unrecognizable - and then once you pick it up, it's totally distracting.

The other odd thing about this film which says something about our society today is that these people were getting together for a casual evening in a country home and they were all dressed to the nines - even the criminals were wearing suits and ties! Times sure have changed. Despite this and other dated elements of "The Dark Past," William Holden, a tremendous star, is always worth a look.

Talky hostage drama relies on Freud for Dummies

[bmacv · 6/10 · 1 November 2001]

The return of variously shell-shocked, amnesiac or otherwise afflicted soldiers from the front precipitated a spate of postwar movies purporting to delve into the mysteries of the human psyche. In most cases, psychology was presented either as a sinister black art (to be viewed with the utmost suspicion) or in a laughingly simplistic way. The Dark Past, grindingly earnest, opts for the latter path. Wrong'un William Holden, visibly chafing under the constraints of the script, invades a home and holds its occupants -- family and guests -- hostage. He has the bad luck to find among them psychoanalyist Lee J. Cobb, puffing away at the inevitable pipe, who turns the ordeal into a teaching opportunity. Slowly he breaks down Holden's wall of defenses, until a childhood memory emerges....This Freudian breakthrough, of course, occurs in record time, though for viewers it may seem like a big chunk of eternity. Mercifully, Adele Jergens sashays in and out a few times to lower the picture's tone to tolerable. The Dark Past is a period-piece, of some interest to fans of the noir cycle, but its stagey insights and dated dramaturgy have not aged gracefully.

Do we all have a dark past?

[owl-5 · 7/10 · 7 December 1998]

On a night I couldn't sleep, I came across this movie on the TV set by chance. The house of a psychiatrist is held hostage by an escaped prisoner and his entourage. The prisoner (william holden) battles his mental demons throughout the night while the psychiatrist is intrigued to discover why this man has become the "bad egg" he is today. The dialogue between them both is intriguing, with the psychiatrist trying to enter the escaped prisoner's mind and explain the dream this man has had since childhood. A good movie to watch on a rainy day. One particularly for the crime/noir buffs.

A very good remake...in fact, a bit better than the original.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 17 June 2017]

"The Dark Past" is a remake of the 1939 picture "Blind Alley" which starred Chester Morris and Ralph Bellamy. In this newer version, William Holden and Lee J. Cobb play these roles.

The film begins with a prison break. Al Walker (Holden) is the leader of the band of thugs and he murders the Warden (who they've taken hostage) just for kicks. He decides the gang will NOT hold up in one of the empty vacation homes nearby but one with people in it. This way, he figures, the cops won't suspect where they are hiding. The home happens to be filled with quite a few people, as Dr. Collins and his family are hosting a dinner party. Soon, all of them are prisoners and hoping that the gang doesn't kill them. As for Dr. Collins, he is a psychiatrist and plays a mental game of cat and mouse with Walker.

In many ways, this film is reminiscent of "Suddenly" and "The Desperate Hours"---both films about families being held hostage by killers. All of these are very good films and what sets this film apart is the psychiatrist angle. I enjoyed the film, though as a trained psychotherapist I should point out that Dr. Collins' approach is very Freudian...and rarely used today by therapists. Dream interpretation and mother blaming are rarely discussed in therapy today. And, folks like Walker are NOT cured so quickly and easily!! Ridiculous, sure...but still entertaining.

While I rarely say this, I think this film is actually a bit better than the original. Much of this is due to William Holden's more realistic and less sensationalistic performance.

Insanity and the Criminal Mind.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 31 August 2013]

The Dark Past is directed by Rudolph Maté and adapted by Malvin Wald, Oscar Saul, Philip MacDonald, Michael Blankfort and Albert Duffy from the play Blind Alley written by James Warwick. It stars William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunne and Lois Maxwell. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Joseph Walker.

Al Walker Breaks Jail!

One from a number of classic era Hollywood's ventures into Freudian thrillers. Here we have Holden as escaped convict Al Walker, who along with his loyal crew hold hostage psychologist Dr. Andrew Collins (Cobb) and his guests at the doctor's remote country retreat. With Walker clearly unstable of mind and often showing a cold blooded streak, the good doctor, the calmest man in the house, slowly tries to draw out of Walker the root of his murderous leanings.

James Warwick's play had already had a film adaptation in 1939 as Blind Alley (Charles Vidor), but such was the advent of film noir and crime films of similar ilk, the source material was ripe for a remake in the late 40s. Maté's film is doubly reliant on strong acting performances and strength of subject matter, the former is no problem at all, with Cobb methodically excellent, Holden twitchy and coiled spring like and Foch smooth foil for both of them.

The latter issue isn't totally successful, though, the picture is very talky anyway, but much of the psycho-babble talk about conscious states, dreams, sensor bands and damage childhoods is handled so matter of fact, it's never really convincing as narrative thrust and it slow builds to a finale that lacks dramatic oomph. It's annoying really because Maté paints it in light and shade and a dream sequence, stripped back to negative form, is surreal excellence and befitting the interesting core basics of the psychological issues on the page.

It's definitely worth a look by those interested in the Freud influenced entries in the film noir cycle, while fans of hostage dramas like The Desperate Hours and The Petrified Forest will enjoy the character dynamics on show. But it's not all it can be and the handling of the crime and mental health equation is just too short changed to matter. 6.5/10

Superior remake of Blind Alley, with impressive performances.

[barnabyrudge · 6/10 · 12 October 2006]

Rudolph Mate made some superbly-directed films during his career (D.O.A, Union Station, When Worlds Collide, to name but a few). The Dark Past was Mate's first job as director, and he invests this debut psychological thriller with a suitable sense of urgency and a few fresh plot twists. The film also provides two of Hollywood's most durable actors - Lee J. Cobb and William Holden - with opportunities to prove their versatility. Cobb, usually cast as the heavy, here has a nice time playing a quieter, more thoughtful type. Holden, normally the romantic lead, here stretches himself as a mentally unstable criminal.

Escaped convict and killer Al Walker (William Holden) and his gal Betty (Nina Foch) break into the house of a psychiatrist named Dr Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb). Aided by his gang, the cold-blooded Walker decides to hold Dr. Collins and his family as hostages, while some of his contacts prepare his eventual getaway. Aggressive and snappy at first, Walker is soon worn down by the patient Dr. Collins, who discretely presses him for information about his past. The doctor believes that the violence inherent within Walker is not coincidental, and suspects that something in the young criminal's past may have made him turn into the rotten egg that he is now. Gradually, Dr. Collins discovers that Walker's deep rooted issues stretch all the way back to his childhood. Once brought face to face with his "dark past" the young psycho becomes tamer and is quickly overpowered by the cops.

For a film made in 1948, The Dark Past has a rather ground-breaking plot. The concept that crime in youth could perhaps be explained and treated by psychiatric means was quite radical at that time. Nowadays, we are much more informed on psychological issues, and we probably see this film as a somewhat primitive exercise. Still, The Dark Past has elements that have stood the test of time surprisingly well. The leading performances are impressive by any standards, especially Cobb as the methodical hero who uses his brains to overcome his adversary's brawn. The relatively short running time means that the film is briskly paced and tense, stripped of any additional detail that might slow things up. If you enjoy this film, it is worth noting that it gets its inspiration from a play entitled Blind Alley, which was filmed under its original title in 1939. Both are enjoyable and well-made thrillers, but I'd say that The Dark Past is marginally the better of the two.

One-dimensional social comment film packaged as a crime drama to lure in the unconvinced.

[Wilbur-10 · 5/10 · 25 July 2000]

Preachy story explaining why juveniles turn to crime because of the failure of the system.

Lee J.Cobb is a crime psychologist with a conscience, who is taken prisoner at his weekend retreat by notorious bad boy Al Walker ( William Holden ). While Cobb's guests are guarded by Walker's accomplices, the two form an uneasy truce. This results in Cobb analysing Walker's recurring nightmare, which frees him from his torment and exorcises his vendetta against society. His crimes are traced back to his childhood and lack of parental guidance. The 'message' is conveniently simplistic for the less demanding viewer - society helps create criminals in the way that young offenders are treated by the authorities, and that criminal behaviour in some cases should be treated as an illness not a crime.

While few would dispute there is some truth in this, the film thrusts this idea clumsily and implausibly. 'The Dark Past' is basically dull. Totally forgettable were it not for the presence of the two leads who acquit themselves adequately with the poor material.

Dated, but worthwhile....

[MarieGabrielle · 8/10 · 2 June 2007]

As others have mentioned the new psychology era and traumatic war experiences had been analyzed to death even by 1948. However the performances make this well worth watching this seldom televised film.

William Holden is very believable as a tormented gangster. He hijacks a dinner party in the doctor's (Lee J. Cobb) hunting lodge. Basically the theme is routine, we have seen "Suddenly" and other similar films with people held hostage. Lee J. Cobb is again excellent as a psychiatrist probing the past of the criminal (Holden) why, what causes this behavior?.

My generation is just re-discovering actors such as Holden. It is unfortunate some cable companies STILL do not broadcast these films (Turner Classics is a must, for me anyway).

Nina Foch is also very good as Holden's girlfriend, attempting to help. Her fine performance contrasts with the two women servants tied in the basement,one screaming shrilly and seeming ridiculous.

I liked this better than "Spellbound"; this is a bit more pedestrian but true to life. It is easier to believe Lee J. Cobb as a psychiatrist (he was also the redeeming performance in the film "The Three Faces of Eve" also starring Joanne Woodward). Recommended for anyone who likes suspense and psychological drama. 8/10.

Introductory Psychology Gussied Up as a Crime Film

[evanston_dad · 6/10 · 26 March 2008]

"The Dark Past" is a Psych 101 class disguised as a film noir.

William Holden plays Al Walker, notorious criminal who has escaped from prison and, along with his girlfriend (Nina Foch) and assorted goons, takes a family hostage in their country home while waiting for his getaway. The family patriarch (Lee J. Cobb), however, happens to be a criminal psychologist, and he begins to deconstruct Holden's psyche, eventually rendering him helpless when the ultimate showdown with the police occurs.

This isn't a terribly interesting film, either in style or subject matter. A good portion of the film is spent in Cobb analyzing a recurring nightmare of Holden's, acknowledging it as the key to Holden's anti-social tendencies. But the dream itself is basic Freud, all about anger towards father figures and love for a lost mother. This all might have seemed cutting edge at the time, when psychology as an area of study had become trendy to address in film, but it has a been-there-done-that quality now.

Holden isn't very good in his role, overacting to the hilt, and he's not convincing as a bad guy. But it is nice to see both he and Cobb playing against type for a change. Cobb especially is refreshing, for once playing a character quietly and reservedly rather than as a bellowing lout.

Director Rudolph Mate and his screenwriter could have done all sorts of things to explore the group dynamics of a situation like this, but they don't. For a much better family-taken-hostage story, watch "Key Largo," released the same year as this film.

Grade: B-

Middling Film Noir with pretentious psycho twist

[adrianovasconcelos · 5/10 · 6 July 2021]

I have always liked William Holden: handsome, restrained acting, penetrating eyes. In this particular film, he is actually bested by Lee J Cobb, very effective and convincing as the smooth psychiatrist.

Mate's direction is OK. It keeps you watching this unconvincing story but fails to raise production above overall mediocrity. Photography is probably satisfactory for a B noir... but I find it unfair to rate B a flick with a cast of this quality. Ultimately disappointing. 5/10.

baby hand

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 15 August 2020]

Dr. Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb) is a police psychiatrist working on investigations. He takes an interest in 18 year old criminal Al Walker (William Holden). Al leads a breakout of the prison. He takes the doctor and his friends hostage.

There is a nice bit of tension due to the compelling actors. I like Walker's complicated mental troubles. There could be more intensity. I find it funny that the party guests are left unrestrained while the two old maids are tied up in the basement. The dreamscape struggles to show surrealism but I leave that mostly due to technical limitations. The hostages need to be better controlled by the gang. With a few tweaks, this could be a great intense psychological drama. As for the big memory reveal, my main issue is the baby hand. Again, it's funny when it shouldn't be which is a small problem.

Lecture Hall 101

[dougdoepke · 12 February 2011]

There're really two movies going on here. One is a fairly standard crime drama with a good cast and some atmospherics; the other plays like a commercial for the American Psychiatric Association starring Lee J. Cobb and his pipe. I just wish the producers had stuck with number one. That movie might not have been special, but it would have given such ace performers as Kroeger, Foch, Osterloh, Jergens, and Geray more to do. As things work out, they get to stand around and play stage props to Professor Freud and his therapy sessions. And that does get tiresome. What with Cobb acting like it's all nothing more than Lecture Hall 101, even as Holden sticks a gun in his ear.

So, will Holden finally put an end to Cobb's knows-it-all attitude and give the rest of us some relief. Not for a second. You know that from the beginning since shooting him would reflect on an entire profession for which Cobb's character obviously stands as an icon. Nonetheless, the usually boisterous Cobb does get to show his versatility as an actor. There were a number of these "home invasion" films from that period, nearly all of which are superior to this didactic 75-minutes. I especially like The Night Holds Terror (1955), a tight, no-nonsense B-movie in which a nutty John Cassavetes would have pulled the trigger in nothing flat. Probably something about his dreams.

Psycho-babble ruins a good premise

[monkeyface_si · 6/10 · 7 July 2001]

Lee J. Cobb is a magnificent actor. But, his character here, a well-meaning police psychiatrist, ruins the film. William Holden scores big time in the lead. The tension is well set. But, the psychiatric overlay comes to dominate the movie so much that a pretty good film noir is reduced to a soap opera.

YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU CURE ME...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 2 June 2021]

A film noir from 1948 & directed by Rudolph Mate (D. O. A./The Violent Men) starring Lee J. Cobb & William Holden. Holden is an escaped convict who w/his gang & girl, played by Nina Foch, make it to a cabin where they meet Cobb, a criminal psychiatrist, who's entertaining some friends for the evening. Never giving a reason why he's there, Holden & company hold the rest of the denizens under lock & key (a couple of servants get tied up in the basement) but Cobb, seeing the anguish in Holden's behavior, puts on his shrink cap & begins to diagnose Holden for the remainder of the film while cops (who know he's in the vicinity & have set up roadblocks) tighten their noose on the culprits until the film's last moments. An interesting exercise in tension & suspense told through the prism of psychiatry (which was becoming more en vogue as maladies of the mind & their healing was becoming more common practice), Cobb & Holden become good place holders for the battle between the criminal & rational mind but without this story quirk, the premise kind of falls apart. Also starring Adele Jergens as one of the cabin guests & Miss Moneypenny herself, Lois Maxwell, as Cobb's wife.

Competent Update of Blind Alley - An Intelligent Noir

[mstomaso · 7/10 · 4 May 2020]

A psychology professor (Lee J Cobb) plies his trade on a psychotic prison escapee (William Holden) whose gang has invaded his home during a dinner with friends. The cat and mouse battle of nerves takes place on the fearless and disaffected professor's battleground both in the physical and mental sense - taking place in his home and in the realm of the mind. Dr. Collins is doing more than stalling for time to keep his family and friends alive. He is manipulating the weak-minded criminal. Collins is offering the killer Al Walker an unlikely chance to change his ways and a very likely illusory opportunity to return to sanity. Meanwhile, the tension mounts... consistently... throughout the film.

In this Columbia noir, Director Rudolph Maté stays extremely close to the original production of Blind Alley (directed by Charles Vidor), with some scenes so closely developed that you could very easily lose them in the earlier film. Neither film is really typical of the noir genre. Both are dark, humorless, set pieces based on a very theatrical script and some very solid dramatic acting, particularly from Cobb and Holden. Nina Foch lends strong and sensitive support as the woman who loves Holden.

Of the two, The Dark Past is the more polished film, but given the dates of production neither that nor the darker values of Blind Alley should come as any surprise.

A very solid film, which, contrary to the opinions of some reviewers, has held its entertainment value very well.

A great old cast

[wisewebwoman · 6/10 · 17 April 2008]

In a tired old thriller. **minor spoilers ahead**

Lois Maxwell (Bond's Moneypenny)is lovely in this but very hard to take as the wife of Lee J Cobb, a psychiatrist. She looks like his daughter in it.

The plot has everyone trapped at the cottage with some deranged killers (played by William Holden and Nina Fochs) holding everyone hostage for no discernible reason.

An amusing bit is the servant, played by an hysterical Ellen Corby who takes off in an escape attempt and is never heard from again.

The quickie psychoanalysis is unintentionally funny also. The five minute therapy trick.

Tremendous curiosity value for us tried and true Forties Film Fanatics.

And did I say funny? A hoot.

6 out of 10.

Intelligent But Loquacious Home Invasion Thriller

[zardoz-13 · 7/10 · 16 October 2016]

William Holden plays a troubled prison inmate in Rudolph Maté's claustrophobic thriller "The Dark Past" who takes a college professor and his guests hostage after he breaks out of stir. This represents one of the few examples of Holden cast as a villain but taking top billing over his heroic co-star Lee J. Cobb. Instead of Holden as the hero, Cobb is hero, a shrewd but open-minded police psychiatrist who relies on his fearless intelligence to get himself out of a dangerous predicament. The liberal minded "Dark Past" isn't so much a 'crime doesn't pay' movie as much as it is 'crime can be prevented' movie. Unfortunately, more dialogue than shooting occurs here, but the psychological process of unraveling a murderer's mind compensates for the talkative script. The villains' lack of vigilance, particularly on the part of the henchmen, is what gets them in hot water.

A compassionate police psychiatrist, Dr. Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb of "Lawman"), attends the morning line-up of offenders at the police station. He takes an interest in an embittered 18-year old criminal, John Larrapoe (Harry Harvey Jr.), who has been arrested for armed robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, and resisting arrest. Collins wants to intervene in Larrapoe's behalf because he thinks that the youth doesn't know the way the system works. He wants to send Larrapoe to the psychiatric ward of the county hospital for observation. Initially, the arresting officer, Williams (Robert B. Williams), who wears a bandage on his right temple where Larrapoe struck him when he resisted arrest, doesn't agree with Collins' recommendation. "Don't expect me to make that kind of recommendation in my report to the D. A.," Williams states. "There is nothing wrong with Larrapoe that a good stretch at hard labor won't cure," the detective argues. "He's a bad boy, mean all over." Collins refuses to give up on Larrapoe. "I don't want us hardening him into a hopeless criminal. He's young, something can be done for him while he is young. He's a sick boy, mentally and emotionally." Williams follows Collins into his office and Collins fills Williams in on his experience with a criminal named Al Walker (William Holden of "Born Yesterday") when he was a professor of psychiatry at a small university near the Canadian border. Thus concludes the first act of this melodrama.

Collins plans to spend the weekend in the country. Collins owns a cabin by a lake and he takes his wife, Ruth (Lois Maxwell, who played the first Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond franchise) and his son Bobby (Robert Hyatt) with him. Bobby yearns to go hunting and fishing. Meanwhile, Walker has mysteriously broken out of prison. We know from the get-go that Walker is a ruthless felon because he displays no qualms about gunning down Warden Benson (Selmer Jackson) in cold blood after they set him a foot. Indeed, the exposition during a radio broadcast lets us know that Walker shot and killed two guards during his prison breakout. Anyway, they are heading to the lake where they are supposed to catch a ride in a boat with an accomplice. Although they have found an abandoned shack to hide out in until the boat arrives, Walker wants to take advantage of Collins and his guests. Walker believes that his accomplices and he can lay low with less chance of discovery by the police if they wait it out with Collins and company. The midpoint of this drama concerns a question and answer conversation between Collins and Walker (William Holden) about a recurring nightmare that has plagued the lawbreaker entire life. "I don't kill sick people," Dr. Andrew Collins informs Al Walker, "I cure them." Although it is officially a remake of Charles Vidor's "Blind Alley" (1939), "The Dark Past" reminded me of the home invasion thriller "The Desperate Hours" where Humphrey Bogart broke into Frederic March's house and held his family and him at gunpoint. Collins is a pretty cool customer as he psychoanalyzes the reluctant Walker. At one point, the exasperated Walker thrusts a revolver into Collins' stomach when he cannot understand the professor's line of questioning. Walker suffers from a nightmare that involves an abusive father and rain.

Maté and scenarists Philip MacDonald, Michael Blankfort, and Albert Duffy keep the principals cooped up for about an hour in a loquacious yarn. For the record, "The Dark Past" is an adaptation of the James Warwick's play "Blind Alley." "A little understanding and guidance," Collins observes, "maybe we can salvage some of this waste." The problem with 'The Dark Past" is that Walker lets Collins get the upper hand and prevents him from killing ever again. William Holden is miscast as the murderous escaped convict, but Lee J. Cobb is quietly convincing as the assertive psychiatrist. Otherwise, the rest of the cast is credible. Nevertheless, Collins' ability to undermine Walker after he cures him seems far-fetched, given Walker's homicidal nature. On the whole, "The Dark Past" is an interesting, if somewhat fanciful yarn.

Dated psychological drama with simplistic solution...

[Doylenf · 5/10 · 5 August 2007]

THE DARK PAST is notable only for giving WILLIAM HOLDEN a chance to get away momentarily from the "Smiling Jim" kind of roles audiences were used to seeing him play throughout most of his early career.

It's a film that came along at a time when Hollywood was discovering psychiatric themes (SPELLBOUND, THE SNAKE PIT), but it's minor league compared to those two breakthrough films.

The script is a simplistic tale of a killer whose demons are exposed by a pipe-smoking psychologist (LEE J. COBB in a good performance), who explains to the hot-headed killer why he's motivated to kill. Seems there's a Freudian explanation involving a mother complex and a much hated father figure. What seems even more improbable than Cobb's one dimensional analysis is the fact that Holden, a hot-tempered guy who calls everything he can't understand "screwy", would even listen to Cobb for a single moment.

Nor is NINA FOCH the best choice to play a gun moll, but she does the chore nicely enough to be forgiven in a role that would have been more suitable for someone like Gloria Grahame. Foch is attractive as the moll who is trying to understand Holden's situation while at the same time keeping Cobb's house guests under tight control.

ELLEN CORBY is mind-numbingly silly as a whimpering housemaid bound in the cellar but all the other supporting roles are nicely handled.

It's just that the material seems basically hokey by today's standards. Mercifully, the film runs a brief 75 minutes under Rudolph Mate's direction.

Summing up: Holden gives it his all as a mentally unhinged killer, but it's an uphill battle against a mediocre script and simplistic solutions. Dated elements hold it back.

Interesting film noir

[joweb57-1 · 8/10 · 23 July 2005]

Being a big Bill Holden fan since I was a young woman, I have seen this film many times. I think the psycololical breakdown of the lead character played by Holden was very well done with the usual laid back help from Lee J. Cobb as the psychiatrist being held captive. Cobb is intrigued by Holden's torment and tries to help him, even although he fights the help at first. The dream sequences shown when Holden relates them are well done for the time period of this film. It made a big impression on me when I was young. You have to see this film from a historical perspective, not by today's standards. It was made during a much simpler time.

..kinda dull today, but enjoyable..

[fimimix · 7/10 · 1 June 2007]

I agree with most of the other reviewers: it's dated, but I enjoyed watching it late at night on TCM when the rest of TV is junk.

It was interesting to see Lee J. Cobb do a laid-back role (Dr. Collins), when he usually plays a much darker character. Handsome and much younger William Holden ("Al" somebody) played the psycho, escaped convict-with-a-problem. How convenient he barges into psychiatrist "Dr. Collins'" weekend lodge-party and gets healed. During this process, we get the idea "Al" may have wanted to do sexier things with "mom" while dad is away. Nina Foch, as his mob-gal, plays a very smoothe lady, but her hand is always in her pocket, on her gun. No doubt, she'd rather have her hand in "Al's" pocket....the usual gimmicks are used in this movie as all of its genre do. Although it's a ho-hummer, I enjoyed it.

Actually I have a ulterior motive in writing this: paired with it, a movie called "Suddenly" with Frank Sinatra and (somebody) Hayden. Frankie-Boy had just won an Oscar for "From Here to Eternity", and became an overnight acting-sensation; Hayden was an established actor. You will not find this film on IMDb: almost the same plot at "Past", except Sinatra is going to assassinate a US president, whose train is stopping in the tiny town of "Suddenly". It is based on Eisenhower's trips to Palm Springs (pre-US-1 'copters). After the film was edited, Sinatra was horrified to discover that Lee Harvey Oswald had seen it just before the JFK assassination. He demanded it be shelved, and won....big star, he was; most of his scenes were shot in one take. Therefore, if you ever run-across it, look at it - you'll be seeing an "old" movie become a "new". It's fairly done by rote, but interesting and gives us a notion of all the hullabaloo that happens when a US prez comes to town, in earlier times (usually by train). One of Sinatra's lines is: "They taught me to do it (kill), and I liked it". I say that a lot about teaching young soldiers to become instant killers.....gotta give this movie an 8.......

Beyond Ridiculous

[angelsunchained · 3/10 · 27 August 2021]

I am a big fan of both William Holden and Lee J. Cobb, but this has to be one of their worst films. Their acting is good enough, but the whole story plot is just totally ridiculous. Also, they give Holden the same haircut as Bogart in The Petrified Forest and it's clear that Holden is playing the same type of role of the psychology troubled killer on the run. No much more to say, the whole thing gave me a headache.

Decent Remake

[Michael_Elliott · 25 June 2008]

Dark Past, The (1948)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Remake of 1939's Blind Alley follows the same story and really doesn't offer anything new. A criminal (William Holden) escapes prison and breaks into the home of a psychiatrist (Lee J. Cobb) where he holds him, his family and friends hostage. The psychiatrist decides to try and examine the criminal's mind in hopes that he can make him crack. The original version has Chester Morris playing the criminal against the brains of Ralph Bellamy and I think that version is much better. This remake really doesn't offer anything new, although a few of the characters are somewhat changed. In the original film it was a student who shows up at the house half way through while here it's been changed to a hunting buddy. The first film also managed to get the underlined theme of child abuse past the Hayes Office but that whole plot point has been axed in this remake. Both Holden and Cobb turn in good performances but once again, I think the original worked better. In this film Cobb comes off as a tough guy, as the actor was, and this really takes away from him trying to play with the criminal's mind because there is a scene where the doctor uses his toughness to take a situation over and this just didn't ring true. Nina Foch plays Holden's girlfriend but she adds very little to the film. In the end, this certainly isn't a bad movie but it has been watered down too much to where it can't compare with the original.