Spikeopath 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

Gene Bivins (gayspiritwarrior) This little film is word-for-word, almost shot-for-shot the same as the earlier "Blind Alley" and, I'm sure, the play that film was based on. The few differences all work in this later film's favor. Lee J. Cobb is better as the psychologist than Ralph Bellamy, and William Holden is more subtle if less comfortable in the tough-guy shoes than Chester Morris. Both films are stagey in the extreme, the interest coming mostly from the two main performers, (particularly Lee J. Cobb, who dominates his scenes,) and the better direction of Rudolf Maté. TNT is showing both films this afternoon, in order of their filming. Both are triumphs of craft over weak material.

Neil Doyle 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.

bkoganbing 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.