This little film is word-for-word, almost shot-for-shot the same as the earlier "Blind Alley" and, I'm sure, the play that film was based on. The few differences all work in this later film's favor. Lee J. Cobb is better as the psychologist than Ralph Bellamy, and William Holden is more subtle if less comfortable in the tough-guy shoes than Chester Morris. Both films are stagey in the extreme, the interest coming mostly from the two main performers, (particularly Lee J. Cobb, who dominates his scenes,) and the better direction of Rudolf Maté. TNT is showing both films this afternoon, in order of their filming. Both are triumphs of craft over weak material.
Review of The Dark Past
