Captivating movie !

An Exercise In Nonsense

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

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.

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.

"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-

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.