Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

seymourblack-1 A couple of bizarre incidents in the early part of this mystery thriller get the action off to a great start because as well as being attention-grabbing, they're also very effective in piquing the audience's curiosity about the real reasons for, what appear to be, two completely illogical occurrences. Why did a seemingly respectable art lecturer suddenly act like a thug and then claim that he'd been in a train crash that didn't happen? Finding the answers to these questions becomes extremely dangerous for the lecturer who has to cope with his own fear, paranoia and confusion as well as various other threats before discovering the connection between what happened to him and the existence of an international art forgery conspiracy.George Steele (Pat O'Brien) is the art forgery expert who, after recently leaving the Army, works for an art museum in Manhattan where his populist lectures regularly ruffle a few feathers. One night, looking wild-eyed and agitated, he smashes through the glass entrance doors of the museum before punching a policeman in the face. The establishment's board members, who'd been in a meeting upstairs, quickly come down to the lobby to see what's going on and are shocked to see their colleague in a very confused state and to hear his claim that he'd been in a train wreck. After realising that he's not drunk, board member Dr Lowell (Ray Collins), who's also a psychiatrist, becomes concerned that he may be having a mental breakdown and asks George to recount what had happened to him before he'd arrived at the museum.After being criticised by Barton (Erskine Sanford) the museum director, who hadn't appreciated the controversial nature of his lecture or his intention to use X-ray equipment to show how art forgeries can be recognised, George and his girlfriend, Terry Cordell (Claire Trevor) had gone for a drink. They'd been interrupted when George received a telephone call in which he was informed that his mother had been taken ill and had been transferred to hospital. After explaining the situation to Terry, he'd taken a train to visit the hospital but en route, there'd been a head-on crash with another train. George couldn't then remember anything else until his return to the museum. A sceptical-looking detective lieutenant Cochrane (Wallace Ford) knows that no train accidents have been reported and that George's mother had not been admitted to any hospital. Burton, Cochrane and fellow board member Stevenson (Damian O'Flynn), all wish to avoid George being arrested to preserve the good reputation of their establishment and after English art expert, Traybin (Herbert Marshall) has a few words with Cochrane, the detective agrees not to press charges but puts a tail on George.George (who the board fire from his job) then begins his own investigation and gradually finds that someone is setting him up, before becoming the prime suspect for Stevenson's murder, uncovering a major art forgery racket and discovering the part that narcosynthesis had played in what had happened to him."Crack-Up", as well as having a great title, has a sufficient number of developments happening in quick succession to keep the interest-level high throughout but there's also some unusual things going on between the characters which raise some suspicions as the story progresses (e.g. why is Terry so friendly with Traybin?, why does Cochrane so readily take Traybin's advice ? etc). Overall, the movie's suspenseful and very atmospheric with Robert De Grasse's stunning cinematography playing a huge part in this connection and the acting is consistently good, with Pat O'Brien's sometimes eccentric performance contributing greatly to the entertainment.

ctomvelu1 I might have cast this film a little differently, but for what it is -- a no-budget, post-war thriller -- it ain't half-bad. Pat O'Brien plays a museum curator who is about to X-ray some paintings when he ends up on a train that is in a wreck. Or was he? Maybe he suffered a mental breakdown and only imagined the train wreck. Hence the title. By the time he sorts things out, the issue appears to be the planned X-raying of certain paintings. To say more would be to give away the ending. At least one person is murdered and OBrien is blamed and on the run through a good part of the picture. Not to say any of this couldn't happen in real life, and a real curator might have been just like O'Brien. But he doesn't strike me as the best fit for this movie. I'm not sure who I would have cast in the role, perhaps someone like Robert Cummings. Claire Trevor is the girlfriend and Herbert Marshall is an official on the trail of certain paintings. Popular writer Frederic Brown wrote the story on which the screenplay was based. To these eyes, the film appears to be a programmer, which is a movie shot for purposes of running on the undercard of a more prestigious flick. Remember, these was no television in those days.

oscarbreath A noir that came from the B unit, a good story passably told. Pat O'Brien plays his part very calmly and with great restraint - or is it that he's not much of an actor? Hard to tell. The women are also hard to figure, either by directorial choice or because they're not up to snuff either.It really starts to drag towards the end, there's a bit with truth serum that adds nothing to the story except padding. There are also a couple of unintentionally funny bits where the luggish O'Brien suddenly springs to action and (his double) does stunts that are totally out of character.A mildly entertaining 90 minutes of noir-ish style, has some very nice lighting effects and the train crash is well executed.

telegonus There is a scarifying nightmare undercurrent to this postwar thriller that makes it a cut or two above the average. Pat O'Brien is an art curator who gets involved with some unsavory highbrow types, and suffers what may be either a mental breakdown, a train wreck, or both. It was directed by the very able Irving Reis, though Eddie Dmytryk or Robert Siodmak might have handled the suspense scenes somewhat better. John Paxton, who often worked with Dmytryk, co-authored the script. There are a couple of Orson Welles-Mercury alumni in the cast (Ray Collins, Erskine Sanford). O'Brien is oddly cast, and very good in his emotional scenes, though I might have liked this better had Dick Powell played the lead. Claire Trevor is solid as the romantic love interest, yet Gloria Grahame would have done just as nicely. Herbert Marshall plays what had become by this time a Walter Slezak part. The movie is in other words good but could have used a little more fine-tuning and slight adjustments in casting. As it stands it's okay. The payoff isn't nearly as good as the build-up, unfortunately, but there are two lengthy scenes involving O'Brien on a late night train that would have done Lang or Hitchcock proud.