Blind Alley is going to air on Turner Classic movies on Tuesday, March 25th at 11:00pm EST.

Blind Alley was one of three movies Ann Dvorak filmed at Columbia in 1939. Based on a play by James Warwick, the story involves an escaped convict (Chester Morris) who, with his gang, takes over the lakeside home of a psychology professor (Ralph Bellamy) and holds the family hostage while waiting for a getaway boat. Dvorak is Morris’ devoted gun-toting moll.

This psychological drama is far less gruesome than the play it was based on, and it’s sometimes a bit hokey when taking us into the troubled psyche of a hoodlum. That said, it’s still one of my favorite Ann Dvorak films of her post Warner Bros career and I have watched it many a time. She looks stunning and it’s not often she had the chance to play a character with such a nasty streak. Chester Morris is a favorite of mine (loved him in The Big House), so it’s great Ann got to play dame to his thug. Blind Alley was remade a few years later as The Dark Past with William Holden and Nina Foch.

I can’t recall the last time Blind Alley was aired on TV, so this one is not to be missed.