Crack-up (1936)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Crack-up |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 65 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Malcolm St. Clair |
| script |
Charles Kenyon , Sam Mintz |
| production |
20th Century Fox , Samuel G. Engel |
| music | Samuel Kaylin |
| camera | Barney McGill |
| cut | Fred Allen |
| occupation | |
| |
Crack-Up is a 1936 American B-movie in which Peter Lorre plays a patriotic secret agent who is supposed to steal plans for an experimental war plane. The film is based on a story by John F. Goodrich .
action
A new aircraft, the “Wild Goose”, is soon to venture a transatlantic flight to Berlin. The development team is also working on a new, still secret, bomber design; they are interested in the airline's “mascot”, the eccentric, always drunk Colonel Gimpy, who is actually Baron Rudolph Maximilian Tagger and who, as the head of a foreign spy unit, is after the plans for the bomber.
The spy ring finds a possible informant in the pilot of the transatlantic flight, Ace Martin. Ace lies to his young friend and co-pilot Joe to get the plans. But the baron's contact, Spy # 77, is secretly working for another country and wants to cheat the baron. When the transatlantic flight is preferred by the owner of the development company for personal reasons, Spy # 77 has to improvise, with Ace shooting him and rushing to the launch site, which the baron observes.
On the flight, Ace, Joe and the owner of the company discover Colonel Gimpy, who has snuck on board; meanwhile, the theft is noticed in the USA. While Ace saves the plane in a storm that caused a fuel cap to come loose by climbing on the wing, Joe learns over the radio that Ace lied to him. A fight ensues, the plane crashes into the sea, but comes flat.
As they slowly go under, the baron reveals his true identity. At the last second a boat appears in the distance that you can draw attention to; but it is too far away and there is only one life jacket on board. The baron would like to win it for himself with his weapon in order to bring the plans to his country. But Ace can overcome it and Joe receives the vest. Ace, the baron and the owner smoke one last cigarette while the ship goes down and they confess their mutual sympathy.
Trivia
Crack-Up was Peter Lorre's third film in the US; although it is never mentioned in the film, the country he spies for as a baron is possibly Nazi Germany; this would be one of the first US films in which Hitler's Germany is portrayed as an enemy. However, the two Americans and the spy make up in the end.
Web links
- Crack-up in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Crack-Up in the IMDb
- ↑ http://unratedfilm.com/2015/03/crack-up-1936/