Product Details

• Actors: William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunne
• Directors: Rudolph Maté
• Writers: Albert Duffy, James Warwick, Malvin Wald, Michael Blankfort, Oscar Saul
• Producers: Buddy Adler
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: RCA Columbia Pictures Home Video
• VHS Release Date: May 16, 2000
• Run Time: 75 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630282480X
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,717 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychological chessmatch, February 9, 2006

By	Cory D. Slipman (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Dark Past" is an underrated compelling psychological drama owing to the excellent acting performances by two terrific actors William Holden and Lee J. Cobb. The story surrounds the recounting by Cobb, a police psychiatrist, of an incident involving deranged killer and escaped convict Al Walker played by Holden.

Cobb at the time was a professor of psychology at a university. He had planned to spend the weekend at his country house with his family and some guests. Just at that time Holden had escaped from prison and travelling with his mob including girlfriend Betty played by Nina Foch, intending to hide out in the area. They break into Cobb's home holding the group hostage while waiting for a previously planned rendez-vous.

This set the stage for the interesting interplay between Cobb and Holden. Holden was a conflicted psychotic with a penchant for murder but unable to sleep due to recurring nightmares. His psychoses were tied to his past and so deeply ingrained as to cause paralysis of two of his fingers. Cobb, cool under the threat of violence at the hands of Holden, sincerely offered to help him work through his problems, analyzing the source of his dreams. Holden trusting Cobb's intentions and grudgingly subjecting himself to therapy is finally cured and in the process sedated, ultimately surrendering to authorities.

While the psychobabble espoused in the film is of an elementary, simplistic nature the interaction between the characters make it an interesting plot. The movie does get overly didactic at its conclusion with Cobb glorifying the benefits of psychotherapy in treating the criminal mind.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Lost Weekend, June 3, 2007

By	Randy Keehn (Williston, ND United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I watched "The Dark Past" because I (generally) enjoy William Holden films. He plays a rather different role in this movie but he does alright. I recently had seen Lee J. Cobb in one of his best roles in "The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit" and was looking forward to seeing another movie of his from that era. He is good although not as good as in TMITGFS. I noticed Lois Maxwell's name in the cast which made me wonder if it was Miss Moneypenny but I didn't make the visual connection.

"The Dark Past" is based on the play "Blind Alley" if I'm not mistaken. I'm not familiar with that play but I WAS reminded of "The Petrified Forest". The opening and conclusion of the movie makes a reasonable moral statement. The body of the movie is somewhat suspenseful but the real focus is on the psychological study that goes on between Cobb and Holden. It's well done (reminding me somewhat of "Spellbound") but it also made me wonder why there were house guests. They really didn't add much to the plot except to suggest that psychiatrists are poor party planners (who came up with the idea of inviting two men and one woman). Also, the bad guys were a bit inept. How else do you explain that 4 criminals were guarding 9 innocent people, one of them escapes and nobody ever even figured that out.

The psychiatry involved in the movie was rather out-dated but I didn't let it bother me too much. The movie only runs about 75 minutes and is worth seeing (once).

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Superficial and dull, October 8, 2003

By	Carl Tait (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Made seven years before "The Desperate Hours," this film has a similar plot: a family is held hostage after criminals invade their home. "The Dark Past" adds a psychological twist that had the potential to be interesting, but turns out to be a fatal problem. There's nothing here but glib pop psychology of the most lightweight kind, and the movie is both ridiculous and boring as a result. William Holden and Lee J. Cobb struggle valiantly to save the wretched script, but there isn't much they can do.