Crack-Up (1946)
Art curator George Steele experiences a train wreck...which never happened. Is he cracking up, or the victim of a plot?
- Irving Reis
- James H. Anderson
- Ben Bengal
- Ray Spencer
- John Paxton
- Fredric Brown
Rating: 5.6/10 by 29 users
Alternative Title:
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 36 minutes
Budget: $0
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: hypnosis, film noir, art gallery, insurance investigator, train wreck, driven mad, forgery, x-ray, insurance scam, oil painting, art curator
If only Irving Reis had cast his net a bit wider when casting his leading man, here - then we could have ended up with a quality, sophisticated crime drama. Sadly, he didn't and we are stuck with a really quite dreary performance from Pat O'Brien as "George", an art critic who finds himself caught up in a train crash (or was it!?) and a well planned, psychologically driven, plot involving art fraud after he had suggested that modern day X-ray techniques be used to verify the authenticity of old masters on loan to a museum - including a Gainsborough and a Dürer. Luckily for him, Claire Trevor "Terry" and Herbert Marshall ("Traybin") are on hand to get to the bottom of it. At times it's quite gripping, and the intricacies of the plot - and of the manipulation it suggests, are clever and quite original but it's far too long, and the sagging in the middle is almost hammock-like. Still, the use of sound is effective and the film is certainly worth catching up with with some tea and a bit of carrot cake.
