Aggiungi una trama nella tua linguaArt curator George Steele experiences a train wreck...which may not have actually happened. Is he cracking up, or the victim of a wicked plot?Art curator George Steele experiences a train wreck...which may not have actually happened. Is he cracking up, or the victim of a wicked plot?Art curator George Steele experiences a train wreck...which may not have actually happened. Is he cracking up, or the victim of a wicked plot?
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- Nagging Wife on Train
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Trama
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- QuizThe footage of the oncoming train was used again in other RKO films including Bersaglio umano (1949), Nei bassifondi di Los Angeles (1951) and Le jene di Chicago (1952).
- BlooperAlbrecht Dürer's "Adoration of the Magi" (called "Adoration of the Kings" in the film), and the forgery that is passing for it, are shown as paintings on canvas, which people roll up in several scenes. However, the real painting is on a wood panel.
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Terry: [opening her car's passenger door] Come on. Get in.
George Steele: No thanks, I'll take a streetcar; I can trust streetcars.
[a policeman's whistle is heard and we see two cops running toward Steele. Steele jumps into the car, and they take off]
George Steele: What's your racket girlie? Whad'ya do for a living?
Terry: I'm outta my head. I drive around in cars picking up psychopathic killers.
[softening]
Terry: Someone has to look after you. I was at a party at Reynolds'. Things began to come apart at the seams. I drove Traybin...
George Steele: [interrupting] I know that.
Terry: OK, you know that. You know everything. You're the great Steele. You walk through brick walls. You...
[she pulls over]
Terry: You can wait here. They're going to put in a streetcar soon. Unless... unless you have some dim idea of what you're doing and want me to help you.
George Steele: I always ask one question of people who want to join my club. Who's Traybin?
- ConnessioniEdited into Nei bassifondi di Los Angeles (1951)
The role of WWII in shaping the film noir style should not be underestimated. In 'Crack-Up,' combat veteran George Steele (O'Brien) remarks that his greater fear in the trenches was that his mind might unexpectedly snap "like a tight violin string." These combat-related fears are here transcribed into a society ostensibly recovering from the war, suggesting that the shadow of the twentieth century's most costly campaign was still bearing over America, a sinister spectre of uncertainty and disarray. The film's undisputed centrepiece, though it is never adequately explained, is Steele's recollection of a train crash, a sequence that almost suggests an episode of "The Twilight Zone." As Steele watches the blazing beams of an oncoming train, time appears to stand still. He sits transfixed, calm and emotionless, a deer in the headlights. In classic film noir fashion, both he and the audience know what is about to happen, but all are powerless to stop it. The train barrels towards its predestined fate, a blistering collision of light and flames. Or does it?
Perhaps drawing some inspiration from Lang's 'Scarlet Street (1945),' this film noir concerns itself with the art of art fraud and forgery. The filmmakers' approach to the topic is strictly populist. At the beginning of the film, art critic Steele gives a lecture that openly denigrates the booming popularity of surrealism and "modern art," dismissing the style as being of use only to snobbish social-climbers {an unfair view, since Hitchcock had employed the services of Salvador Dali just one year earlier for 'Spellbound (1945)'}. It is these very same snobs who have planned an elaborate scheme to replace masterpiece canvasses (titled "Gainsborough" and "The Adoration of the Kings," respectively) with worthless replicas, before destroying the copies not for monetary gain, but because they're snobs, and would like to have the classic works of art all to themselves. If all of 'Crack-Up' was as lurid as the opening sequence and train-wreck flashback, then Irving Reis would have had a masterpiece on his hands. As it is, we are left with an entertaining if occasionally stodgy thriller.
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Dettagli
- Data di uscita
- Paese di origine
- Lingua
- Celebre anche come
- Crack-Up
- Luoghi delle riprese
- San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, Stati Uniti(scenes on the ship - Los Angeles harbor)
- Azienda produttrice
- Vedi altri crediti dell’azienda su IMDbPro
- Tempo di esecuzione1 ora 33 minuti
- Colore
- Proporzioni
- 1.37 : 1