Crack-Up: A Train Wreck or a Suspenseful Noir?

Pat O’Brien and Claire Trevor star in “Crack-Up”, a 1946 film noir, that also fits in the crime and mystery genres. O’Brien plays George Steele, a war veteran and art expert. Trevor plays his love interest, Terry.

In the first 6 or so minutes, we see George break into a museum and slug a cop who tries to stop him. The Board of Directors comes rushing down and they recognize George. Lowell, a doctor, says George is ill, not drunk, and Barton, the director, prevails upon the cop to keep the matter confidential. When George comes to he has no memory of the museum break-in. He thinks he was in a train crash but Police Lt. Cochrane has checked that out and thinks George is nuts, at best, or just another liar.

After Dr. Lowell suggests George try to recall everything that happened before he took the train, Cochrane steps outside for a smoke and a British guy named Traybin talks the officer into letting George go home. Traybin also wants George trailed by two men. The object of this is to determine whether George is involved in something Traybin is working on.

At this point, I was only half-heartedly watching it. Then they went to George’s apartment. The police had tossed it and Terry said: “Cops are notoriously untidy. They mean well, but they like to mess things up and…” Traybin interrupted her train of thought: “It’s strange, but you Americans are always fighting an undeclared war against your police. Why is it? You hire them to do their job, then you dare them to do it, then you almost resent it if they succeed.” And that struck me because, by now, George suspected he was being framed but he didn’t know why or what it was about. Why wouldn’t he suspect the police? Thus, Traybin’s suggested that George cooperate with the police only aroused more suspicion. Heck, George wasn’t even sure he could trust Terry because of an earlier dinner she had with Traybin.

So George set out to find out what was really going on all by himself. There were some pretty wild twists and turns as George got closer to uncovering a major swindle in the art world. I think it should have a higher rating on IMDB than 6.5. I stuck with it to the end and that’s something of a rarity for me. Any movie that I don’t fall asleep on has got to be good.

“Crack-Up” is shown on TCM and on Movies TV! Amazon only has it on DVD and VHS. It’s also available on the Fawesome TV app, although I haven’t tried that one out due to poor reviews.

Cast:
Pat O’Brien……………George Steele, art director
Claire Trevor………….Terry, Steele’s girl
Herbert Marshall……Traybin
Ray Collins……………..Dr. Lowell, board member
Wallace Ford…………..Cochrane, police lieutenant
Dean Harens…………..Reynolds
Damian O’Flynn………Stevenson, museum curator
Erskine Sanford………Barton, museum director
Mary Ware……………..Mary, museum secretary