Crackerjack

Ever since the 13th century legend of Robin Hood surfaced, writers have created various good thieves as heroes. "The Adventures of Robin Hood" was first made as a 1922 silent film and then in a 1938 technicolor sound movie that is a classic today. That swashbuckler starred Erol Flynn and Olivia de Haviland and was set in the early Middle Ages.

"The Man With 100 Faces" film is a modern rendition, also set in England. It is based on a 1926 novel by William B.M. Ferguson, "Other Folks' Money: an adventure story." As the mythical Robin Hood before him, "Crackerjack" robs from the rich to help the poor. Only, the real person known as Crackerjack isn't known. And, the Sherwood Forest where the thievery takes places in this film is the world of the wealthy and high society of London.

Tom Walls stars as Jack Drake, aka "Crackerjack," known as such only by his personal secretary, Burdge (played by Charles Heslop), and a couple of other characters who are mostly out of sight except when needed. One can't help thinking that the Batman comic stories seem to have similar characters - masks that hide real identities, only a choice few in on the real people, and heroes for justice. Of course the hero there is independently wealthy.

Jack Drake has been taking from the wealthy for the benefit of the needy and good causes. After some years, he writes a book about his exploits. The best seller earns him considerable "honest" money on which to live - for a time. But, as he continues to give to good causes, he must once again resort to relieving the rich of some of their surplus.

Lili Palmer plays the love of Drake's life, Baroness Von Haltz. The film has a sizable cast of characters, many with substantial roles. All perform very well. Walls is particularly interesting to watch for his different disguises. He is excellent in each of his different roles. A mark of the superb makeup as well as his acting, is that one can barely tell that it is Walls under those disguises. But for the sake of the audience, he makes one or two gestures to convince viewers that this isn't a stand-in or double.

For a very early sound film, this one has quite good quality. It's an interesting story that has some nice scenes of the culture and social landscape of London just before World War II. This is a very good comedy mystery that those who like old films especially should enjoy.

Here are some favorite lines from the film.

Sculpie, after Jack Drake knocks out Benting of Scotland Yard during the airplane heist, "Thanks, brother. What's the big idea?" Jack Drake, "Well, I thought he might prefer a headache to lead."

Superintendent Benting, "From now on, every crime in the country will be attributed to Crackerjack."

Superintendent Benting, "Don't forget to let me know if you get on the trail of Crackerjack." Baroness Von Haltz, "Why should I do your work for you?" Benting, "Because, it's a woman's job, not a policeman's."

Jack Drake, "You've hit on the two reasons that are keeping me here. Firstly, the infernal woman you mentioned. And secondly, I dislike having my nice clean charitable robberies messed up by a lot of murdering swine. I'm gonna put those gangsters out of business." Burdge, "How?" Drake, "I haven't the faintest idea."

Hambro Golding, "You're a very clever young woman." Baroness Von Haltz, "You're the second person within the last hour who has told me that this is a woman's job."

Baroness Von Haltz, "The only way you'll meet that man is to catch him on a job."

Hambro Golding, "Many problems, my dear, have been solved by a woman's intuition."

Jack Drake, to Burdge, "You ought to know by now, that where the baroness Is concerned, you matter very little."

The Wonderful Lilli Palmer was very young when she made CRACKERJACK and she was a marvelous actress and a fabulously beautiful and charming actress and this film was just the beginning for her. She was rather unique in British films since most of the so called Gainsborough gals of the time were British such as Margaret Lockwood, Phyllis Calvert, Patricia Roc, Sally Gray, etc and only Miss Palmer, German born, went on to an international career and worked in Hollywood as well as in France and Germany over the years, coming back to British films from time to time. She was unique among the all British group of gals making names for themselves in the late 30s and 40s in British cinema. She married Rex Harrison, had a son with him and happens to be my favorite all time actress.

Tom Walls was a very famous comedy actor in the thirties usually in very, very silly farces playing very, very silly characters. This is not one of those silly farces he was famous for, it's a routine comedy crime caper and it's not his "usual home" and I can see why the comments at the time were like: He should stick to what he's good at.

The problem with this is twofold: it's not that funny and the character he plays, an upper-class gentleman thief without any of the charm of say David Niven or Warren William would have had is not likeable. There were lots of likeable gentleman thieves in 1930s pictures but, without denigrating Mr Walls talents, they were played by proper actors, not comedians. He does his best to warm "Drake" to us - he steals from the rich, gives to the poor, helps sick children, builds hospitals, rights wrongs and is a general all round good guy but Tom Walls, as good a comedy character actor as he was, picked the wrong character to make a whole film out of.

Can you imagine TROUBLE IN PARADISE but with Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis fighting over W C Fields instead of Herbert Marshall? I think the answer's probably no but I suspect that Tom Wall would probably have thought - yes - and I can do that as well.

The third problem I had with this - was the fact that sweet and lovely Lilli Palmer is 24 and she is meant to be head over heels in love with Tom Walls - not the most attractive man in the world when he was younger but now he's in his late fifties. He's old enough to be her father and looks like her grandfather - it just feels wrong! This was directed by Albert de Courville who was in his late fifties as well. He also made the (much better and much funnier) THERE GOES THE BRIDE several years earlier. In that, 24 year old Jessie Matthews (the sexiest and most beautiful woman in English cinema at the time) was herself head over heels with a guy also in his late fifties. I wonder did Mr de Courville have some issues he was trying to get out through his work!

A typically 30s-style charismatic gentleman thief and master of disguise tackles a dangerous criminal gang while posing as a butler at a stately home. Vintage in age rather than in quality, and not as good as the identically-titled British kids' TV programme of three or four decades later.

The film begins with a scene in which a plane is hijacked by a gang of criminals and some precious diamonds are stolen. However it is not the gang that gets away with the loot but rather the master thief and modern day Robin Hood, Jack Drake, who has beaten the gang to it. Meanwhile, the latest craze in London is the memoirs of a thief, who goes by the pseudonym of "Crackerjack." When a string of precious pearls is stolen at a society party, Crackerjack is suspected, owning to a number of idiosyncrasies of the culprit, which are also mentioned in Crackerjack's book. But who is Crackerjack - is he Jack Drake? And will Jack get away with his philanthropic thieving?

This film is good entertainment but nothing special. The sort of story that the film uses involving gangs of criminals, stolen jewels and princesses (or a Baroness in this case) has been used so many times before - even by Tom Walls himself - that it needs something special to make it work. There are a few fairly uninventive twists in the plot - the people you least expect turn out to be criminals and so on. All of it leads to a rather formulaic showdown towards the end of the film. Nevertheless, there are a few good surprises which add interest to what would otherwise be a fairly average film. For me, the most disappointing thing is that we know who Crackerjack is for almost all of the film. I think it would've added a whole extra dimension to the film if the answer had've been denied us until the end - and it would've justified the existence of the "Crackerjack" book, which, as the film stood, was totally peripheral to the plot.

Tom Walls makes a wonderful gentleman criminal; almost as great as James Mason, but in a different, more old-world chivalrous way. His name on the bill was what made me decide to watch this film, and he is definitely its strongest link. The rest of the cast are nothing special and I found Lilli Palmer a tad annoying but an acceptable leading lady. Overall the story is sufficiently engrossing and consistent enough to make this reasonable viewing - but only slightly above average.