Crack-Up (1946 film)

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Crack-Up

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Irving Reis
Produced by Jack J. Gross
Screenplay by John Paxton
Ben Bengal
Ray Spencer
Based on the short-story "Madman's Holiday" 
by Fredric Brown
Starring Pat O'Brien
Claire Trevor
Herbert Marshall
Ray Collins
Music by Leigh Harline
Cinematography Robert De Grasse
Editing by Frederic Knudtson
Distributed by RKO Pictures
Release dates
  • September 6, 1946 (1946-09-06)
Running time 93 minutes
Country United States
Language English

Crack-Up is a 1946 film noir directed by Irving Reis, remembered for directing many "Falcon" movies of the early 1940s including The Falcon Takes Over. The drama is based on "Madman's Holiday", a short-story written by mystery writer Fredric Brown. The drama features Pat O'Brien, Claire Trevor, Herbert Marshall, and others.[1]

Plot

Art critic and forgery expert George Steele (O'Brien) is stopped by a policeman as he tries to break into the Manhattan Museum. He claims that he was in a train wreck. Police Lieutenant Cochrane (Wallace Ford), however, finds that there has been no recent wreck. Steele, unsure himself what happened, relates the bizarre events leading up to the present. A flashback ensues.

Museum director Barton (Erskine Sanford) reprimands staff member Steele over the style of his public lecture and is annoyed that he wants to demonstrate a forgery detection method by X-raying a masterpiece that was recently exhibited. Afterward, while having a drink with girlfriend and magazine writer Terry Cordell (Trevor), Steele receives an urgent telephone call informing him that his mother has been taken to the hospital. He rushes to Grand Central Station and catches the last train. About forty minutes later, Steele watches helplessly as another train crashes head on with his. Cochrane reveals that Steele's mother was never taken to the hospital.

Anxious to avoid a scandal, Barton pleads with Cochrane not to arrest the man. Stevenson, the curator, and Dr. Lowell (Ray Collins), a member of the museum's board of directors, vouch for Steele's character. In private, Traybin (Marshall), a British art expert investigating the suspicious loss of a Gainsborough painting, tells the lieutenant he wants him freed (with a plainclothes policeman discreetly following him), as he is uncertain if Steele is involved.

Steele sets out the reenact the train ride, hoping to gain some clue of what is going on. He finds out that a drunk was taken off at the next station by two men. He informs Stevenson of his discovery. Steele begins to suspect that the Gainsborough supposedly lost at sea was actually a fake.

Later, Stevenson calls Steele to tell him he has discovered something important and to meet him at the museum that night. When he arrives, however, he finds Stevenson dead. Spotted standing over the body by an employee, Steele flees. Although both Traybin and Cordell plead with him to turn himself in, Steele is determined to exonerate himself.

When he learns that the shipment of another masterpiece, Durer's Adoration of the Kings (the same painting he wanted to X-ray), has unexpectedly been moved up several weeks, he sneaks aboard the ship. Finding a fire burning in the hold, he removes the painting from its crate, only to discover he has been locked in. Fortunately, the ship's crew arrive to put out the fire. Steele escapes from Cochrane by shimmying down the anchor chain.

He gets Mary, a young museum secretary, to get her friend to let him into a building with an X-ray machine. There, he confirms that the work is a fake. However, as he, Cordell and Mary are leaving, he is knocked out and Mary pulls a gun on Cordell. When Steele awakens, he finally meets the mastermind behind all his troubles: Dr. Lowell, who explains that, as a frustrated art lover, he could never own such fabulous works legitimately. Lowell uses a drug on Steele to disprove Cordell's story that he telephoned the police. (The same drug was used to make Steele believe he was in a train wreck.) Lowell and Mary wait for a passing scheduled train to mask the sound of gunshots, but Traybin and the police intervene, and Lowell is shot just in time.

Cast
  • Dean Harens as Reynolds
  • Damian O'Flynn as Stevenson
  • Erskine Sanford as Barton
  • Mary Ware as Mary

Critical reception

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, panned the film, especially the screenplay and direction of the drama. He wrote, "Since Pat O'Brien's noggin suffers a blow which blacks out his memory as the story starts, there probably wouldn't be much sense taking the authors to task for the fantastic events which ensue ... This explosive and promising action sets in motion a chain of circumstances which, no doubt, must have baffled the script writers, too, for they never do give it a logical explanation ... All of the aforementioned principals turn in competent performances, and the mystery is how they managed to get through the picture without becoming hopelessly confused. They certainly were one up on us there. Played at breakneck pace, Crack-Up might have succeeded in covering up its confusion through sheer physical action, but Irving Reis elected to direct in waltz tempo. This gives one time to think about the curious motivation, and when you start thinking about a picture such as Crack-Up you are overwhelmed by its inadequacies."[2]

Time Out Film Guide called the film a "[m]arginally intriguing [film] for its view of art (pro-populist, anti-élitist stuff like surrealism), it's made as a thriller by the excellent supporting cast and fine, noir-ish camerawork from Robert de Grasse.[3]

Critic Dennis Schwartz wrote of the film, "The film takes a populist stand by promoting 'art for the masses' and takes a negative view of the art elitists (art critics and collectors) who favor such art styles as surrealism. That kind of art is considered subversive by George and is not as tame as is the classical style of Gainsborough. The art lesson didn't register, but as a thriller Crack-Up was right on track. The shadowy photography by Robert de Grasse was done in stylish chiaroscuro shadings, giving the film an uncanny feel. O'Brien was convincing as the pig-headed unconscious American who has modern technology work for him and against him, as the inventions from the war are now shared by both criminals and scientists."[4]

References

  1. ↑ Crack-Up at the Internet Movie Database.
  2. ↑ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, September 7, 1946. Last accessed: July 24, 2013.
  3. ↑ Time Out - London. Time Out Film Guide, film review, 2008.
  4. ↑ Schwartz, Dennis. Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, June 12, 2002. Last accessed: January 5, 2008.

External links

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