Irving Reis - Crack-Up (1946)

Art critic and forgery expert George Steele is apprehended by the police as he desperately tries to break into the Manhattan Museum in the opening scene of Crack-Up, a noir mystery directed by Irving Reis. Steele does not understand his own bizarre actions, but explains that he was in a train wreck and had to get back to the museum. Questioned by Lt. Cochrane, who tells him there have been no train wrecks in months, Steele relates, in flashback, the events leading up to the incident. Earlier in the day the head of the museum had suspended him for alienating wealthy patrons by criticizing "art snobs" in a lecture. He then received a phone call informing him that his mother was sick, and caught the train to the hospital, but never got there. Though suspicious of Steele, Cochrane is persuaded by the shadowy Mr. Traybin to release him so he can follow Steele. The next day Steele retraces his steps and discovers that someone had set him up to be discredited, though he knows neither who nor why. Following the murder of a friend who was trying to help him, he discovers that forgeries of some very famous paintings are at the heart of the matter, but getting to the culprit is a more difficult task.





A film noir set in a Manhattan art museum. It stars Pat O'Brien as George Steele, who is an art lecturer for the museum. He was an army captain during the war, and was considered an expert in tracking down Nazi art forgeries. In the opening scene George crashes through the locked nighttime museum doors and when approached by the beat cop, takes a punch at him and tumbles over a valuable statue. When subdued, the museum's board of directors -- Dr. Lowell (Collins), Reynolds (Harens), Stevenson (O'Flynn), and the museum's head curator, Barton (Sanford) -- come rushing down from meeting upstairs. They refuse to press charges, saying George was either drunk or strangely ill. The museum curator says he wishes to avoid a scandal. George claims he was in a train wreck, but the investigating officer, Lieutenant Cochrane (Ford), says there were no reported accidents. Undercover Scotland Yard investigator, Traybin (Marshall), talks the police into letting George go with a tail on him, saying he could be useful on the loose. The board fires George as a lecturer, as there were previous complaints that his lectures were too plebian.

Since George has no memory of what actually happened, he takes the same train ride to see if it can jar his memory. George remembers boarding the train when he received a call telling him that his mother was ill. George's helped by his newspaper columnist girlfriend Terry Cordeau (Trevor), who is also helping Traybin in his mysterious investigation of the museum. The Scotland Yard investigator figures George must know something, which must be the reason why the guilty party or parties are trying to get George out of the way.

George's big clue comes when the board member who sponsored him, Stevenson (O'Flynn), tells him to meet him in the museum's art vault. George arrives too late, as Stevenson was just murdered. But since the nightwatchman spots him standing over the body, he becomes a prime suspect and goes on the run. But George uncovers a forgery plot to copy paintings from masters on loan to the museum and steal the original and replace it with a copy. George learns a valuable Gainsborough that hung in the museum was a copy and that copy was destroyed in a ship fire off the coast of England. And he further finds out that Barton is forced to go along with the scheme or else his reputation is ruined.

When George rescues Durer's painting of "Adoration of the Kings" from a ship fire, as the painting was being shipped out after exhibiting in the museum, he gets the museum secretary, Mary (Ware), to get him inside the museum where he can X-ray the art work to see if it is a forgery. When he discovers it is a forgery, he is kidnapped by the guilty parties and given another injection of a truth serum. This explains how he thought he was in a train wreck and can't remember anything else.

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. (Dennis Schwartz)







Colapso
El crítico de arte y experto en falsificaciones George Steele es detenido por la policía mientras trata desesperadamente de entrar en un museo de Manhattan, en la escena de apertura de Colapso, film noir "clase B" dirigido por Irving Reis. Steele no comprende sus propios actos, pero explica que estuvo en un accidente de tren y que tenía que volver al museo. Interrogado por el teniente Cochrane, quien le dice que no ha habido accidentes de trenes en meses, Steele le cuenta, en flashbacks, los acontecimientos que condujeron al incidente. En el mismo día, el director del museo lo había suspendido por molestar a los clientes ricos al criticar a los "snobs del arte" en una conferencia. Luego recibió una llamada telefónica informándole que su madre estaba enferma, y tomó el tren al hospital, pero nunca llegó allí. A pesar de sospechar de Steele, Cochrane es convencido por el tenebroso señor Traybin de que lo libere para que lo pueda seguir. Al día siguiente, Steele vuelve sobre sus pasos y descubre que alguien le había hecho una trampa para desacreditarlo, aunque no sabe quién ni por qué. Tras el asesinato de un amigo que estaba tratando de ayudarlo, descubre que el fondo de la cuestión es la falsificación de algunos cuadros muy famosos, pero llegar hasta el culpable será una tarea más difícil.








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