William Holden, Nina Foch & Lee J. Cobb in "The Dark Past" (1948) скачать в хорошем качестве

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

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 Ruth (Lois Maxwell), and son Bobby (Robert Hyatt) 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 shoots the warden he had held hostage in the back. 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 boat. Professor 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. Collins notices Walker, an unintelligent, volatile man, is drawn to his books on psychoanalysis and the subconscious. Betty tells the professor that Walker is prone to nightmares. 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. 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. A 1948 American Black & White film-noir psychological thriller film directed by Rudolph Maté, produced by Buddy Adler, screenplay by Philip MacDonald, Michael Blankfort and Albert Duffy, acted by Malvin Wald and Oscar Saul, based on American dramatist James Warwick's 1935 play of the same name, starring William Holden, Nina Foch, Lee J. Cobb, Adele Jergens, Stephen Dunne, Lois Maxwell, Berry Kroeger, Steven Geray, Wilton Graff, Kathryn Card, and Ellen Corby. Screen debut appearance of Robert Osterloh. Released by Columbia Pictures. This hostage drama's cast includes one Oscar winner, William Holden; and two Oscar nominees, Lee J. Cobb and Nina Foch. Lee J. Cobb was borrowed from Twentieth Century-Fox for this film. William Holden and Lee J. Cobb previously appeared in "Golden Boy" (1939). This was a turning point in the career of William Holden, who had a dual contract with Columbia and Paramount. After William Holden's big splash at the age of 21 in "Golden Boy" (1939), his career settled into a series of light leading man roles that took him nowhere. This B-Movie for Columbia was unlike any of the 'smiling jim' roles that Holden had played up to then. After Billy Wilder at Paramount saw this, he cast Holden in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950). Al Walker is first seen with the kidnapped warden speeding along country roads in a 1942 Mercury Eight Town Sedan. Professor Linder drives a 1942 Mercury Eight Club Convertible. The play "Blind Alley", upon which this film is based, opened on Broadway in New York City at the Booth Theatre, 222 W. 45th St. on September 24, 1935 and ran for one hundred nineteen performances. It had a revival in 1940 that ran for sixty-two performances. Director Rudolph Maté, "D.O.A." (1949), had a long and distinguished career as a cinematographer before turning to directing. A remake of "Blind Alley" (1939), which starred Chester Morris and Ralph Bellamy, also released by Columbia. The re-creation of Al's dream uses footage from "Blind Alley" (1939). Specifically the shot approaching the saloon, panning to the policemen following the narrator, and panning back to the saloon entrance. This precursor to "The Desperate Hours" (1955) is a tense hostage-gangster film deals with post-war psychology, and seems to have been forgotten. Psychiatry in America was really just being explored in film, and it was as a result of the trauma soldiers suffered in World War II and the problems they had when they came home. Columbia's unpretentious investigation of a specific criminal type is lucid, taut and adult melodrama makes facile use of the labyrinthine ways of psychoanalysis without tripping over its terminology. An engrossing, well performed remake, with a tense atmosphere and finely honed direction. A bit better than the original. The script is simplistic and dated, but the performances are good. The chemistry between Cobb and Holden is the best part of this intelligent noir and makes it worth watching.