The Dark Past (1948)
The Dark Past is a 1948 American film noir psychological thriller film starring William Holden, Nina Foch, and Lee J. Cobb. Directed by Rudolph Maté, the Columbia Pictures release is a remake of Blind Alley (1939), also released by Columbia, and based on a play by American dramatist James Warwick.
Director – Rudolph Maté
Writers – Malvin Wald (adapted by), Oscar Saul (adapted by), Philip MacDonald (from a screen play by)
Cast –
William Holden as Al Walker
Nina Foch as Betty
Lee J. Cobb as Dr. Andrew Collins
Adele Jergens as Laura Stevens
Stephen Dunne as Owen Talbot
Lois Maxwell as Ruth Collins
Berry Kroeger as Mike
Steven Geray as Prof. Fred Linder
Wilton Graff as Frank Stevens
Robert Osterloh as Pete
Kathryn Card as Nora
Ellen Corby as Agnes
Watch “The Dark Past” (1948)
Plot
Police psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Collins (Lee J. Cobb) tells a detective that he believes that he can help to turn a young suspect away from crime. Through an extended flashback he illustrates his claim with the story of how he came to work for the police.
While Collins (at the time a college professor), his wife, and son head to their vacation cabin, prison escapee and convicted murderer Al Walker (William Holden) and his small gang flee towards the very same secluded cove. Along the way Walker gratuitously shoots the warden he had held hostage in the back, raising eyebrows around him.
Collins is entertaining three guests when Walker, his girlfriend Betty (Nina Foch), and two gunmen break in and hold everyone hostage while waiting for a pickup by boat. With the servants tied in the basement and the others upstairs guarded by Betty and the gangmen, Collins observes Walker’s behavior downstairs closely, explaining that his profession has trained him to cure.
When Fred Linder (Steven Geray), a colleague of Collins, comes to deliver a hunting rifle, he tells Collins about the prison escape but notices that someone is hiding behind a curtain. Pretending to leave, Linder grabs the rifle, but Walker struggles with him, wounding Linder. Throughout, Collins has repeatedly noticed that Walker, an extremely unintelligent, volatile man, is nonetheless drawn to some of his books on psychoanalysis and the subconscious. Betty, who is told to watch Collins while Walker fitfully sleeps, tells the professor that Walker is prone to nightmares (visualized in negative film images) where he is standing under a leaking umbrella with a paralyzed hand and trapped behind bars.
Walker awakens Collins to suggest analyzing his dreams, and Walker agrees. With Collins’ guidance, Walker remembers a scene from his childhood where he hid under a table in a bar and witnessed his father being shot to death by police. The trauma was intensified because the young Walker had told the police where to find him, and because the boy’s hand was covered with his father’s blood, which leaked through the table above him. Collins tells Walker that recovering the lost memory means that his nightmares will not return and that he will no longer be able to kill.
Meanwhile, one of the servants managed to escape and notify the police. The cabin is surrounded. Walker seems ready to shoot it out, but finds that he cannot pull the trigger, even though his fingers are no longer paralyzed.
The flashback ends and the police detective agrees to let Collins analyze the young suspect they had been discussing.