A Man's Past

A Man's Past

A Stirring Tale of Love and Hate in the Searing Sands of Northern Africa!

1927 · 60 min · ★ 6.5 · Drama

Imprisoned at the French garrison on the Isle of St. Noir for putting to death a patient suffering from an incurable illness, Dr. Paul La Roche escapes to the mainland, where he meets Dr. Henry Fontaine, his boyhood friend, and Fontaine's beautiful sister, Yvonne. As Fontaine is going blind, La Roche performs several operations for him, attracting the attention of Dr. Renaud, in Algiers, who offers him a position. La Roche, practicing as Fontaine, reveals his love for Yvonne during an excursion to a Bedouin camp. Then, Lieutenant Destin, from the prison, arrives and threatens La Roche with exposure unless he surrenders the hand of Yvonne.

Directed by George Melford · Written by Emil Forst

Your Rating

Cast

Conrad Veidt Paul La Roche
Barbara Bedford Yvonne Fontaine
Ian Keith Dr. Fontaine
Arthur Edmund Carewe Lieutenant Destin
Károly Huszár Prison Doctor
Corliss Palmer Sylvia Cabot
Edward Reinach Dr. Renaud

Make it a double feature

2h 44m together

A Man's Past

Drácula

Both from George Melford.

More from George MelfordSee all →

The Jucklins

The Jucklins · 1921

Pampered debutante Betty Baylock buys a wishing rug from a peddler and wishes for a dark-haired, blue-eyed man, hoping to rid herself of three annoying suitors. However, her wealthy stockbroker father, Robert Baylock, decrees that Betty must choose one of the young men immediately, and she defies him by dismissing them all. Robert's aggravation compounds when Betty falls in love with Jack Grey, who is penniless after squandering a $100,000 fortune. Robert orders Jack to earn back the money he has lost before he can marry Betty. Jack goes into the laundry business and discovers that Robert writes stock tips on his shirt cuffs. He copies the notations and corners a stock, earning $100,000 at Robert's expense. Admitting defeat, Robert gives the young couple his blessing.

The Ten Commandments

The Ten Commandments · 1956

The Ten Commandments

MovieDramaHistory

Escaping death, a Hebrew infant is raised in a royal household to become a prince. Upon discovery of his true heritage, Moses embarks on a personal quest to reclaim his destiny as the leader and liberator of the Hebrew people.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn · 1945

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.

Remember the Night

Remember the Night · 1940

Remember the Night

MovieComedyRomance

Unexpected love blossoms when an assistant district attorney agrees to take a recidivist shoplifter home so she doesn't have to spend Christmas alone in jail.

Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe · 1941

MovieDramaComedy

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.

The Lady Eve

The Lady Eve · 1941

MovieComedyRomance

It's no accident when wealthy Charles falls for Jean. Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for her mark. When Charles suspects Jean is a gold digger, he dumps her. Jean, fixated on revenge and still pining for the millionaire, devises a plan to get back in Charles' life. With love and payback on her mind, she re-introduces herself to Charles, this time as an aristocrat named Lady Eve Sidwich.

Hail the Conquering Hero

Hail the Conquering Hero · 1944

Hail the Conquering Hero

Having been discharged from the Marines for a hayfever condition before ever seeing action, Woodrow Lafayette Pershing Truesmith delays the return to his hometown, feeling that he is a failure. While in a moment of melancholy, he meets up with a group of Marines who befriend him and encourage him to return home to his mother by fabricating a story that he was wounded in battle with honorable discharge.

Quiet Please, Murder

Quiet Please, Murder · 1943

Quiet Please, Murder

MovieCrimeDrama

A forger steals and kills for a rare book from a library in order to make forgeries to sell to rich suckers.

The Great McGinty

The Great McGinty · 1940

The Great McGinty

Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

California

California · 1947

"Wicked" Lily Bishop joins a wagon train to California, led by Michael Fabian and Johnny Trumbo, but news of the Gold Rush scatters the train. When Johnny and Michael finally arrive, Lily is rich from her saloon and storekeeper (former slaver) Pharaoh Coffin is bleeding the miners dry. But worse troubles are ahead: California is inching toward statehood, and certain people want to make it their private empire.

Drácula

Drácula · 1931

A British estate agent travels to Transylvania to meet the mysterious Count Dracula, who is interested in leasing a London castle. After Dracula enslaves the agent and drives him to insanity, the pair return to London together, where Dracula, a secret bloodsucker, begins preying on socialites.

Call Northside 777

Call Northside 777 · 1948

Call Northside 777

MovieCrimeDrama

In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. McNeal to look into the case. For some time, McNeal continues to believe Frank guilty. But when he starts to change his mind, he meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong.

Blue, White and Perfect

Blue, White and Perfect · 1942

Blue, White and Perfect

MovieCrimeMystery

In order to win back his girlfriend, Mike Shayne promises to give up his detective practice and get a job as riveter in an aircraft plant. He quickly finds himself investigating the theft of industrial diamonds from the plant's safe and, utilizing a variety of false identities, traces them first to a dress factory and later to a Hawaii-bound ocean liner. Escaping several attempts on his life, he is able to uncover a Nazi smuggling ring, but the location of the missing diamonds continues to elude him.

The Egyptian

The Egyptian · 1954

MovieHistoryDrama

In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new Pharoah. Sinuhe's personal triumphs and tragedies are played against the larger canvas of the turbulent events of the 18th dynasty. As Sinuhe is drawn into court intrigues he learns the answers to the questions he has sought since his birth.

Valley of the Sun

Valley of the Sun · 1942

Valley of the Sun

An Arizona frontiersman steals an Indian agent's girlfriend, followed by trouble.

Frontier Marshal

Frontier Marshal · 1939

Frontier Marshal

Wyatt Earp agrees to become marshal and establish order in Tombstone in this very romanticized version of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

More Like This

First Blood

First Blood · 1982

MovieActionThriller

When former Green Beret John Rambo is harassed by local law enforcement and arrested for vagrancy, he is forced to flee into the mountains and wage an escalating one-man war against his pursuers.

Lights in the Dusk

Lights in the Dusk · 2006

Lights in the Dusk

MovieDramaComedy

Outcast by his co-workers and living alone, Koistinen is a security guard who works the night shift in a luxury shopping mall in Helsinki. But when icy blonde Mirja approaches him, the lonely Koistinen falls helplessly for her, unaware she is manipulating him for her criminal boyfriend.

Cape Fear

Cape Fear · 1991

MovieDramaCrime

Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, Bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? 14 years ago, Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Brubaker

Brubaker · 1980

MovieCrimeDrama

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Salvador (Puig Antich)

Salvador (Puig Antich) · 2006

Salvador (Puig Antich)

MovieDramaHistory

The story of Salvador Puig Antich, one of the last political prisoners to be executed under Franco's Fascist State in 1974.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter