Short containing a psychology lesson with a whodunit crime story. Interesting because of the time in which it was made, 1944, when psychology wasn't given much credibility. Not a great film, but competent and historically interesting.
6 Reviews
Silly psychological mumbo-jumbo, though quite enjoyable.
planktonrules24 November 2013
"Dark Shadows" is yet another Crime Does Not Pay short from MGM. However, like several other of the wartime films in this series, the format has changed--with no MGM Crime Reporter or fake government official to introduce the film. The only big similarity with the other films is that the film is rather violent.
Henry O'Neill stars in this film as an investigating psychiatrist. When another psychiatrist is murdered, he helps the police investigate the dead man's patients to see if any of them is responsible. Ultimately, he uncovers the culprit--leading to a sensationally violent ending.
This film was heavily influenced by Analytic psychology--the work of Freud and his contemporaries. Because of this, the film suffers from a few common assumptions of the day--assumptions which would today be seen as inaccurate or even silly. First, the whole murder plot boils down to a patient who hates his mother. Mothers were a common source of mental illnesses according to analysts--and moms took a HUGE beating for decades because of this. Second, symbolism was very important--with repetitive patterns--such as trains and graves in this short. While people do sometimes repeat patterns (such as marrying a spouse similar to their father or mother), the need to find patterns and shapes was very much in vogue in 1944.
The bottom line is that this film is enjoyable. Also, parts of it made me laugh, since I used to be a practicing psychotherapist and see how antiquated therapy was back in the day--with an almost instant cure at the film's end and an over-reliance on unproven (and often inaccurate) theories. Still, it is interesting to see a film based on psychiatry and mental illness--a real rarity at the time.
Henry O'Neill stars in this film as an investigating psychiatrist. When another psychiatrist is murdered, he helps the police investigate the dead man's patients to see if any of them is responsible. Ultimately, he uncovers the culprit--leading to a sensationally violent ending.
This film was heavily influenced by Analytic psychology--the work of Freud and his contemporaries. Because of this, the film suffers from a few common assumptions of the day--assumptions which would today be seen as inaccurate or even silly. First, the whole murder plot boils down to a patient who hates his mother. Mothers were a common source of mental illnesses according to analysts--and moms took a HUGE beating for decades because of this. Second, symbolism was very important--with repetitive patterns--such as trains and graves in this short. While people do sometimes repeat patterns (such as marrying a spouse similar to their father or mother), the need to find patterns and shapes was very much in vogue in 1944.
The bottom line is that this film is enjoyable. Also, parts of it made me laugh, since I used to be a practicing psychotherapist and see how antiquated therapy was back in the day--with an almost instant cure at the film's end and an over-reliance on unproven (and often inaccurate) theories. Still, it is interesting to see a film based on psychiatry and mental illness--a real rarity at the time.
Dark Feelings
kapelusznik1825 May 2017
Warning: Spoilers
***SPOILERS**** The ending of the movie-or better yet short-was in fact used 15 years later in the "Twilight Zone" episode "Perchance to a Dream" that has the troubled and terrified man in it do himself in not in real life but in a dream he had that causes him to drop dead of a massive heart attack before he could wake up from it. Here we have a suspected killer after he's exposed jumps out of a closed window in finding out by his psychiatrist Dr. Everett Colner, Henry O'Neill, that his sickness is based on his own guilt feelings not from what anyone did to him that he feels drove him mad.
It was Dr. Colner who suspected that the person who murdered his colleague Dr. Parkson and later his nurse was one of his patients who didn't like or care for his evaluation of his mental state. Having a deep hatred of his mother the killer mistook Dr. Parkson for her and ended up killing him. It was the killer's mother that he blamed for his father's death that lead him to go mad as an adult. But with her being already dead he used poor Dr. Parkson as a substitute for his anger. It's when Dr. Colner brought that all up to him he just lost it and went totally bananas.
***SPOILERS***Luckely for Dr. Colner Police. Let. Pat McKay played by the "Eternal Colonel" himself-before he was promoted- Morris Ankrum and a half dozen policemen broke into Dr. Colner's office causing the killer to freak out and dive to his death below out the window that he didn't, in it being closed shut, bother opening! Only 21 minutes in length "Dark Shadows" more or less was a filler sandwiched between two full length movies that is one of the first movies out of Hollywood that explores the human mind that so many like "Spellbound" a year later were to follow it.
It was Dr. Colner who suspected that the person who murdered his colleague Dr. Parkson and later his nurse was one of his patients who didn't like or care for his evaluation of his mental state. Having a deep hatred of his mother the killer mistook Dr. Parkson for her and ended up killing him. It was the killer's mother that he blamed for his father's death that lead him to go mad as an adult. But with her being already dead he used poor Dr. Parkson as a substitute for his anger. It's when Dr. Colner brought that all up to him he just lost it and went totally bananas.
***SPOILERS***Luckely for Dr. Colner Police. Let. Pat McKay played by the "Eternal Colonel" himself-before he was promoted- Morris Ankrum and a half dozen policemen broke into Dr. Colner's office causing the killer to freak out and dive to his death below out the window that he didn't, in it being closed shut, bother opening! Only 21 minutes in length "Dark Shadows" more or less was a filler sandwiched between two full length movies that is one of the first movies out of Hollywood that explores the human mind that so many like "Spellbound" a year later were to follow it.
How Are We To Know That Crime Does Not Pay Unless The MGM Crime Reporter Says So?
boblipton30 May 2020
Psychiatrist Henry O'Neill tracks down a serial killer by asking irrelevant questions and wandering to a grave site in this episode in MGM's long-running series.
It's one of the many short and long-form movies of the period which thought that psychiatry would uncover all our dark impulses and solve crime. The best known example is Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND, but there were many others, including a pipe-smoking Lee J. Cobb.
It's not one of the better entries in the series. And since there's no MGM Crime Reporter to tell you, I will: CRIME DOES NOT PAY!
It's one of the many short and long-form movies of the period which thought that psychiatry would uncover all our dark impulses and solve crime. The best known example is Hitchcock's SPELLBOUND, but there were many others, including a pipe-smoking Lee J. Cobb.
It's not one of the better entries in the series. And since there's no MGM Crime Reporter to tell you, I will: CRIME DOES NOT PAY!
babbling scene
SnoopyStyle12 November 2022
It's the "A Crime Does Not Pay Subject" series. Someone killed Dr. Elton Parkson. The files of his psychological patients are strangely laid out on the floor. Dr. Everett Colner carefully examines them. He is assisted by Parkson's nurse Jean Smith and then she is killed. Colner interviews the staff and the patients connected to Parkson's files.
This starts like any other mystery TV procedural. It's a little weird that a doctor is looking at patients' files for murder motives. The questioning scene gets a bit hokey. I can't take the babbling nonsense. It's all due to a little childhood incident. It's not one of the best in the series.
This starts like any other mystery TV procedural. It's a little weird that a doctor is looking at patients' files for murder motives. The questioning scene gets a bit hokey. I can't take the babbling nonsense. It's all due to a little childhood incident. It's not one of the best in the series.
Painful to watch Psyco-babble
billsoccer4 September 2020
If your knowledge of Psychology hasn't advanced beyond Freud, or you're a superstitious type, you may like this. Otherwise, you'll likely be appalled at the insights the Psychiatrist pulls out of - very - thin air. Everyone seems to be driven by Oedipal impulses so blatant it's embarrassing.
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