The Dark Past (1948) William Holden Eng

After being in the viewing gallery with the latest men having been charged and processed by the police department, police psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Collins believes that he can be of assistance to a young man, angry eighteen year old John Larrapoe, who, without his help, he fears will end up on a downward path to being a career convict. The charging officer, Williams, believes otherwise, that already embedded into his being, John Larrapoe will always be a criminal, Collins' help or not, and that all that will help him and society is him serving a good stretch in prison. To demonstrate to Williams his perspective, Collins tells him a personal story of before his time working for the police in being a college psychology professor, when he and his wife Ruth had invited some friends for a weekend getaway at their cabin. They plus their young son Bobby and their two domestics were taken hostage in the cabin by psychotic escaped convict Al Walker and Walker's three accomplices, including his moll, Betty. Walker had already killed three in his escape. Knowing that it would be occupied by Collins regardless, they had chosen the cabin solely in the convenience of the location, they having planned to wait there for however long for their getaway driver to retrieve them, whether that be a few hours or a few days. Alive to tell the story, Collins relays the relationship he was able to form with Walker, whose neuroses manifested themselves in a recurring nightmare which led to his fear of sleeping. If some professional could have helped Walker earlier by getting to the source of the nightmare and thus the source of his ease in killing, Walker may not have ended on the criminal path that he did.