Crack-Up

Did you ever wonder if the Kevin Spacey character in the Usual Suspects, Keyser Soze was done before? Well, it was. The Peter Lorre character, Colonel Gimpy (right down to the gimpy limp) is obviously the prototype for the Spacey character. It is interesting to note that not one critic from any of the online review services ever caught this before.

But IMBD has. We caught it when we saw this film, Crack-Up, starring Peter Lorre and Brian Donlevy. Make no mistake, this is a middling, poorly written film. especially in the second half of the movie. But the character of Colonel Gimpy is outstanding, and a fit model for Keyser Soze, decades later. Fascinating to watch just to see where the Keyser Soze character comes from.

For a B film Crack-Up has a more complex plot than usual and some of the characters are clearly modeled on some prominent figures, Brian Donlevy is Floyd Bennett and Ralph Morgan to me represents Orville Wright.

But Peter Lorre steals this film in a turnabout performance. When we first meet him he's a local character who hangs around an airfield who no one quite takes seriously. Than later we learn he's actually the head of a spy ring for an unknown country, but I'm thinking the Soviet Union.

Donlevy is not only an ace pilot, but an aircraft designer and he's got a new type model propeller that Lorre's crowd wants. Circumstances and the film's plot bring Morgan, Donlevy, and Lorre together on a downed plane which Donlevy was piloting on an experimental New York to Berlin run. The dynamics between these three and young Thomas Beck on the plane to Berlin is quite interesting.

This one is a neglected sleeper. Try to catch it.

In this absurd but entertaining spy thriller from 20th Century Fox and director Malcolm St. Clair, brilliant aviation mogul John Fleming (Ralph Morgan) has designed a new plane christened the "Wild Goose". He's planning on taking it for its first trans-Atlantic test flight soon, to be piloted by Ace Martin (Brian Donlevy) and his young partner Joe Randall (Thomas Beck). And then there's Colonel Gimpy (Peter Lorre), a sweet but mentally deranged cripple who the air crew allow to hang around as a mascot. Only not everyone is who they claim to be, and more than one of them have secret agendas. It all comes out during the test flight, one which not all will survive.

The double crosses and triple crosses pass into the realm of silliness long before the movie is finished, and the very ending is ridiculous, particularly the music used, but I still enjoyed this "B" feature, largely thanks to Peter Lorre's terrific performance as Colonel Gimpy. The toy plane special effects only add to the goofy fun.

This B-movie includes spies, murder and a thief trying to sell blueprints to a fancy new airplane....all things that sounds really exciting. Then HOW did the filmmakers drop the ball like they did and create a dud??

The story begins just before a new cross-Atlantic airliner is tested. Into the ceremony comes Colonel Gimpy (Peter Lorre) with some of the most amazing over-acting I've ever seen. Apparently, everyone at the airplane factory things he's a harmless old crank...little do they know that he's a spy seeking to steal the airplane with the help of the pilot, Ace Martin (Brian Donlevy). But the plan does NOT go as everyone expects and it leads to an overly long and bizarre ending which makes no sense....none at all.

What you have here is a B-movie made by a top studio (Twentieth Century-Fox). It has excellent production values, excellent acting (even Lorre's overacting) but what it doesn't have is a good script. It's a shame, as I like old aviation pictures...but this one really suffers from a script that goes no where in the second half of the film. How disappointing.

Nice little B actioner with Peter Lorre as a spy named Gimpy who is a little nuts and Brian Donlevy as a pilot/inventor who sells out because he was ripped off over an invention of his. Donlevy's character's name is Ace Martin and boy you better get used to hearing that because I don't think there's more than three straight minutes in this movie where someone doesn't say his name. Not that you can blame them - it's a pretty cool name.

Worth a look for fans of the stars and anyone who loves seeing planes in old pictures. The scenes on the plane in the latter part of the film are the best parts. And remember: Gimpy needs your prayers it's true but save a few for Ace Martin, too. He only did what he had to do.