The Dark Past

1948
Approved
1h 13m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

William Holden, Nina Foch, and Lee J. Cobb in The Dark Past (1948)

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.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

2.3K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos75

+ 68

Top cast39

Edit

William Holden

Al Walker

Nina Foch

Betty

Lee J. Cobb

Dr. Andrew Collins

Adele Jergens

Laura Stevens

Stephen Dunne

Owen Talbot

Lois Maxwell

Ruth Collins

Berry Kroeger

Mike

Steven Geray

Professor Fred Linder

Wilton Graff

Frank Stevens

Robert Osterloh

Pete

Kathryn Card

Nora

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)

More like this

6.7

6.8

6.3

6.9

6.4

The Killer That Stalked New York

7.1

7.1

6.9

6.3

6.6

6.8

6.5

Storyline

Edit

Did you know

Edit

Trivia
The 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.

Goofs
Al 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.

Quotes
Betty: [referring to Stevens] How's the tough guy? Is he behaving?
Mike: He's talking business. He wants to make a deal. He thinks his life is worth money.
Betty: [contemptuously] How much did he offer... two bucks?

Connections
Referenced in Discovering Film: William Holden (2015)

Soundtracks
Air
(uncredited)
from Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D Major
by Johann Sebastian Bach

User reviews53

Review

Featured review

5/10

Middling Film Noir with pretentious psycho twist

I have always liked William Holden: handsome, restrained acting, penetrating eyes. In this particular film, he is actually bested by Lee J Cobb, very effective and convincing as the smooth psychiatrist.

Mate's direction is OK. It keeps you watching this unconvincing story but fails to raise production above overall mediocrity. Photography is probably satisfactory for a B noir... but I find it unfair to rate B a flick with a cast of this quality. Ultimately disappointing. 5/10.