IMDb RATING
6.3/10
2.2K
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An escaped psychopathic killer who takes the family and neighbors of police psychologist hostage reveals a recurring nightmare to the doctor.An escaped psychopathic killer who takes the family and neighbors of police psychologist hostage reveals a recurring nightmare to the doctor.An escaped psychopathic killer who takes the family and neighbors of police psychologist hostage reveals a recurring nightmare to the doctor.
Charles Cane
- Sheriff
- (uncredited)
Bill Cartledge
- Arrested Man Leaving Wagon
- (uncredited)
Tom Coleman
- Detective
- (uncredited)
G. Pat Collins
- Al's Father
- (uncredited)
Ellen Corby
- Agnes
- (uncredited)
Lester Dorr
- First Man in Police Line-Up
- (uncredited)
Edward Earle
- McCoy
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe re-creation of Al's dream uses a few seconds of footage from Blind Alley (1939), the earlier film version of this story; specifically the shot approaching the saloon, panning to see the policemen following the narrator, and panning back to the saloon side entrance.
- GoofsAl takes a book off of Andrew's book shelf and opens it around page 50 or 60, but in the next closeup, the page Al is looking at the start of Chapter 22. It's highly unlikely that a scholarly book about psychology would average under three pages per chapter.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Discovering Film: William Holden (2015)
Featured review
Talky hostage drama relies on Freud for Dummies
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.
helpful•3012
- bmacv
- Oct 31, 2001
- How long is The Dark Past?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 13 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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