BLIND ALLEY is considered the forerunner of the home invasion sub-genre, which would become popular in the 1950s. It is a modestly budgeted Columbia programmer with a very strong cast of players, even the minor roles are performed by competent character actors. It does what many films set out to do yet often fail to achieve: it tells a provocative story in a thoughtful way that leaves you with some new perspective on human behavior.
The 69-minute drama starts with a deceptively calm prologue that features a college professor of psychiatry (Ralph Bellamy) with his students on an idyllic American campus. These are mostly well-mannered kids with a sense of humor who look up to their instructor. One student (Stanley Brown) practically worships Bellamy and views him as a mentor, and will miss him when he goes off to serve an internship.
The film's gentle introductory sequence lulls us into a sense of complacency. As a result, we are totally unprepared for the jolt we receive when the action cuts to a prison escapee (Chester Morris) traveling down a country road with his moll (Ann Dvorak), his pals (which include Milburn Stone) and a warden who's along as a hostage. The car comes to a sudden stop after they cross a state line. Morris orders the warden out and then shoots him point blank. Now that's vicious!
From here we see Morris, Dvorak and their cronies drive to a lakefront area where they will meet a boat to get away after it's dark. While waiting to be picked up, they decide to take over a home near the lake. And you guessed it, the home is owned by Bellamy, a place he shares with his beautiful wife (Rose Stradner) and their precocious son (Scotty Beckett).
It just so happens that Dr. Shelby and his wife will be entertaining dinner guests. So there's a houseful of people when Morris and Dvorak barge in with their gang and begin aiming their weapons at innocent people. There is a sense of immediate danger and tension. Morris and Dvorak now control everything that occurs inside the professor's home, and everyone must put on an act when the professor's star pupil stops by on his way out of town. The ruse is repeated again later when cops come by to check on things.
There's another unexpected killing scene, and we watch the various subplots play out in the different rooms upstairs and downstairs. As part of the writers' comment on social class, we even see the maids locked in the basement, finding a way out. Ultimately, what takes place is a series of smaller dramas amongst the guests which will occasionally pit the criminals against their hostages in unexpected ways.
The story heads into unique territory with the 'treatment' that Bellamy performs on Morris, while being held captive. He knows Morris is haunted by the past, and he starts to explain in psychiatric terms how Morris' brain is constructed and how parts of his brain are at war with each other. To be honest, I expected some of the mental doctoring to be a bit phony, with some naive Freudian concepts lobbed at viewers, but actually the dialogue was most restrained and logical.
Part of the fun is watching Morris play his villain as a guy with a huge vulnerable spot which Bellamy is able to penetrate by analyzing a surreal dream that plagues Morris every time he tries to get some shuteye.
I especially thought Charles Vidor's direction was superb in the presentation of Morris' troubling recurring nightmare, which employs some imaginative special effects. And later when the dream is fully decoded and we see the first man Morris killed as a kid, we get another jolt.
This is a great motion picture that leaves the audience with some profound realizations. I can only imagine what it was like for moviegoers in 1939 who expected a routine humdrum Hollywood programmer, and instead were given a smart think piece in the form of cinematic entertainment.
The 69-minute drama starts with a deceptively calm prologue that features a college professor of psychiatry (Ralph Bellamy) with his students on an idyllic American campus. These are mostly well-mannered kids with a sense of humor who look up to their instructor. One student (Stanley Brown) practically worships Bellamy and views him as a mentor, and will miss him when he goes off to serve an internship.
The film's gentle introductory sequence lulls us into a sense of complacency. As a result, we are totally unprepared for the jolt we receive when the action cuts to a prison escapee (Chester Morris) traveling down a country road with his moll (Ann Dvorak), his pals (which include Milburn Stone) and a warden who's along as a hostage. The car comes to a sudden stop after they cross a state line. Morris orders the warden out and then shoots him point blank. Now that's vicious!
From here we see Morris, Dvorak and their cronies drive to a lakefront area where they will meet a boat to get away after it's dark. While waiting to be picked up, they decide to take over a home near the lake. And you guessed it, the home is owned by Bellamy, a place he shares with his beautiful wife (Rose Stradner) and their precocious son (Scotty Beckett).
It just so happens that Dr. Shelby and his wife will be entertaining dinner guests. So there's a houseful of people when Morris and Dvorak barge in with their gang and begin aiming their weapons at innocent people. There is a sense of immediate danger and tension. Morris and Dvorak now control everything that occurs inside the professor's home, and everyone must put on an act when the professor's star pupil stops by on his way out of town. The ruse is repeated again later when cops come by to check on things.
There's another unexpected killing scene, and we watch the various subplots play out in the different rooms upstairs and downstairs. As part of the writers' comment on social class, we even see the maids locked in the basement, finding a way out. Ultimately, what takes place is a series of smaller dramas amongst the guests which will occasionally pit the criminals against their hostages in unexpected ways.
The story heads into unique territory with the 'treatment' that Bellamy performs on Morris, while being held captive. He knows Morris is haunted by the past, and he starts to explain in psychiatric terms how Morris' brain is constructed and how parts of his brain are at war with each other. To be honest, I expected some of the mental doctoring to be a bit phony, with some naive Freudian concepts lobbed at viewers, but actually the dialogue was most restrained and logical.
Part of the fun is watching Morris play his villain as a guy with a huge vulnerable spot which Bellamy is able to penetrate by analyzing a surreal dream that plagues Morris every time he tries to get some shuteye.
I especially thought Charles Vidor's direction was superb in the presentation of Morris' troubling recurring nightmare, which employs some imaginative special effects. And later when the dream is fully decoded and we see the first man Morris killed as a kid, we get another jolt.
This is a great motion picture that leaves the audience with some profound realizations. I can only imagine what it was like for moviegoers in 1939 who expected a routine humdrum Hollywood programmer, and instead were given a smart think piece in the form of cinematic entertainment.