A near-classic 'film noir' with shades of The Desperate Hours, as a group of escaped convicts holds a family hostage. A chilling, thrilling offering from German-born director Charles Vidor, who was also responsible for that evergreen of Hollywood erotica, Gilda. It's a tense yarn (scripted by three writers working from a hit play) with moody, highly-skilled black and white photography from Lucien Ballard, the part-Cherokee Indian cameraman who was married to Merle Oberon between 1944 and 1949. It was remade as The Dark Past, starring William Holden, in 1948. This one has an excellent cast for a low-budget second-feature, including Chester Morris, Ann Dvorak, Ralph Bellamy, Ann Doran, Marc Lawrence, Melville Cooper and Milburn Stone, the latter a busy little actor who finally won a share of fame as Doc in the long-running Gunsmoke series on TV.


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