Very Cool!!!

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Masterpiece!

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Based on a 1935 Broadway success, this film presents an early "psychological" approach to depicting a cold-blooded criminal, here played by Chester Morris, an excellent and very versatile actor, ably supported by a fine cast including Ann Dvorak and Ralph Bellamy. My wife, Yuyun Yuningsih Nollen, and I are currently writing the first-ever book on Chester Morris, which hopefully will correct any oversights that have been made about this performer and introduce a new generation of classic film fans to his extensive body of work, on film, television and radio. Morris also was a well-respected star on stage, following in the footsteps of his father, William Morris, and sharing the profession with his younger brother, Adrian, who unfortunately died far too soon.

Psychology professor Ralph Bellamy finds himself the victim of the type of criminal he's been studying and teaching students about when a violent gangster (Chester Morris), newly escaped from prison, busts in on his evening dinner party, taking him and his family and his guests hostage. This is an early variation of "The Desperate Hours", but the criminal will find that the tables will be turned on him when Bellamy vows to his wife (Joan Perry) that he will use his knowledge to destroy Morris in order to save them all, especially after Morris shoots and kills one of Bellamy's favorite students in cold blood.It's very ingenious and well crafted, and Bellamy's description to Morris about how the brain works is quite interesting, focusing on the conscience and sub conscience parts and how the conscience refuses to allow the sub conscience to enter that part of the brain in fear of being destroyed. Even a criminal with a violent nature like Morris has an issue that could destroy him, and here, Bellamy uses Morris's dreams in order to get to that sub conscience. In one of the best filmed dream sequences in film history, Morris reveals through his sub conscience the fears he's been living with all of his life. This makes his mistress (a very nervous Ann Dvorak) angry and threatens more violence.Excellent both in its analytical matter and exposition that is never "teachy", "Blind Alley" is an early film noir where the mind is both the villain and the hero. The cast is uniformly excellent, although I'd have to describe Melville Cooper's character as a stupid fool whose actions could get everybody killed. Bellamy and Morris play each other like a chess game, an ironic twist of fate considering the chess board uniquely featured in Bellamy's den. This was remade less than a decade later as "The Dark Past" which explored even more of its film noir elements, but the original version is equally as thrilling.

This thriller isn't a bad way to spend 69 minutes, thanks to some decent acting, a good supporting cast of character players, and fast pacing. But the novelty of psychoanalysis-as-solution has worn off after 70 years, and most modern audiences have heard the "blame the parents" ploy so often that it seems hackneyed. The director includes some special effects which also might have seemed novel at the time but now seem amateurish.Ralph Bellamy plays a teacher of psychoanalysis who has to put his theories to work on a mad killer who has decided to use the prof's country house as a temporary hideaway. Chester Morris is the trigger-happy escaped con in a part that would have been more compelling with Cagney or Bogie in the role. This adapted play is stage-bound but keeps enough interest going to make you stay put for the explosive ending.Watch for John "Perry White" Hamilton in a very small, non-speaking part.

I saw this movie when I was seven, 'way back in 1939. I had never seen anything like the dream sequence and the psychiatrist's explanation. They both were shot from the camera's viewpoint, something I wasn't to see again until Robert Montgomery's version of Raymond Chandler's "The Lady In The Lake. This stuck in my cerebellum since. The remake, "The Dark Past," with Wm. Holden wasn't quite as good, but then I was older and more sophisticated when I saw that one. And, anyone who says Chester Morris couldn't act obviously hasn't seen "The Big House," "Three Godfathers" (not the John Wayne one), or any of the Boston Blackie movies. P.S. Where are the Boston Blackie movies?