User Reviews

Exceptional crime/suspense yarn has Milland as a crime reporter who's accidentally made himself the fall guy for a murder committed by his editor! Laughton plays the manipulative newsman with all his smarmy prowess. The direction is good, pacing tight, photography excellent. The supporting cast is also excellent and well directed -- particularly memorable are Elsa Lanchester as a small-time artist whose paintings provide witness to the murderer, and Harry Morgan as (believe it or not) the big boss' muscle. Macready also pitches in as Laughton's right hand man who nonetheless refuses to take the fall for the boss himself. Very nice continuity of theme of time, great atmosphere. One of the best of its kind.

In "The Big Clock," Ray Milland takes on the role of George Stroud, an editor and investigator for a crime magazine. Stroud's boss, mega-publisher Earl Janoth (played by Charles Laughton), steals the show with his charismatic portrayal of an arrogant mover and shaker in the publishing world. Janoth's obsession with time is symbolized by the giant clock that adorns the company's headquarters, controlling all other clocks in the building. While the film takes a bit of time to find its footing in the first thirty minutes, it gradually picks up pace.

The early exposition scenes introduce us to Stroud, Janoth's top employee, known for his skills in solving crimes with the help of his dedicated staff. The use of a bulletin board to organize various clues adds a unique element to their investigations. We also learn that Stroud's desire for a long-overdue honeymoon with his wife pushes him to the brink of quitting his job.

The story takes an intriguing turn when Stroud resigns but misses his train to meet his wife. Instead, he finds himself in the company of Janoth's mistress, Pauline York. Their encounter leads to a series of events that culminate in Janoth accidentally killing Pauline with a sundial purchased by Stroud. In a bid to cover up the crime, Janoth manipulates his staff into investigating a fictional character named Jefferson Randolph, whom Pauline had concocted as her alibi.

Stroud is coerced into returning to work by Janoth, fearing his implication in the murder due to the inscription on the base of the sundial. The plot thickens as Stroud must navigate the investigation to prevent his staff from suspecting his involvement. Along the way, he uncovers crucial information from a cabdriver and an antique dealer, all while evading identification by an artist who could potentially expose him.

The climax of the story unfolds in Hagen's office, involving Stroud, his wife, and a friend from the bar where he acquired the murder weapon. Accusations are made, alibis are questioned, and the tension reaches its peak as the truth is unveiled. Janoth's desperate attempts to escape lead to a fatal encounter in an elevator shaft.

While "The Big Clock" has elements of film noir, some argue that it doesn't fit the genre's conventions entirely. Although Pauline York possesses traits of a femme fatale with her history of affairs, it is George Stroud's actions and decisions that primarily drive the story, rather than falling prey to her seductive influence. Moreover, the film diverges from the typical noir outcome, as the protagonist ultimately prospers rather than meeting a tragic fate.

The prominent image of the big clock, symbolizing Janoth's megalomania, has sparked discussions. However, it is worth noting that its direct impact on the plot is limited. In contrast, films like "The Stranger" utilize clocks in more integral ways, such as with the striking of an appointed hour leading to a decisive turn of events.

After a somewhat slow start, "The Big Clock" successfully holds viewers' interest with its escalating tension. It is worth mentioning that the plot hinges on the police not discovering the victim's body, which may raise questions regarding the plausibility of friends not reporting her absence over an extended period.

An effete, continental businessman (Ray Milland trying to go American but unable to suppress his accent) is drawn into some murderous intrigue by two effete, continental villains (MacReady and Laughton) within the glamorous world of magazine publishing. Like another viewer here, I was excited to finally be putting this disk into my DVD player. My interest stemmed from the noir angle; but this is immature noir, more like Film Moderne. The movie parades slick objects past the camera, instead of making slick imagery out of commonplace settings, as noir does. It's a throwback to '30s Deco/luxe movies (moreso even than 'This Gun for Hire') with swanky drawing rooms, polite society, fey/snide villains, a generic love relationship with a 'good girl' (soooo NOT noir), and a middle-gray palette. A viewer wouldn't be surprised if Margaret Dumont or Fred Astaire showed up. There's no ambiguity, no dark palette, no dramatic lighting, and no strikingly composed frames. This is conventional, retrograde stuff, even for 1948.

It's really ruined in its first minutes. The movie works a dozen clocks into its plot, but the strongest image is right at the beginning: Milland, trapped inside an enormous moderne lobby clock. If it starts that well, it must be pretty good right? Unfortunately the rest of the production is a gloss... It never shows us anything better. Clocks are repeatedly invoked but only as a gimmick, not an idea. 'Clock' could really use the jolt of energy and forward momentum usually supplied by 'the tough guy,' a type noticeably missing here. The box art shows Milland holding a gun, an item which never comes within 10 feet of him in the movie. The big difference between 'The Big Clock' and a good noir, is that a good noir is involving. 'Ray Milland' and 'involving' don't seem to occupy the same universe.

The Coens borrowed this entire milieu for The Hudsucker Proxy.

Ray Milland plays George Stroud, an editor at a crime magazine who has a real talent for finding people who didn't want to be found. Through circumstance, he spends some time with the mistress (Rita Johnson) of his boss Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), a tyrannical publishing magnate. Then Janoth ends up murdering the mistress in a jealous rage. Anxious to pin the crime on somebody else, Janoth tasks Stroud with finding the mystery man whom he glimpsed leaving the mistress' apartment - who, of course, is Stroud himself!

The delicious irony of the ingenious set-up (Jonathan Latimer scripted, based on the novel by Kenneth Fearing) makes for solid, classy entertainment. "The Big Clock" (so named for an important time piece situated in the workplace) is a top mystery-thriller, although not really a film noir as it may be sometimes promoted. Granted, one has to be patient sitting through the first third of the film, as it concentrates on setting up characters and situations. But once the killing takes place, the story proper takes off, and from there it's a great deal of fun. The final act features some brilliant, sweat-inducing tension generated by director John Farrow.

Milland is engaging in the lead, and Laughton is at his best as the pompous antagonist. They receive excellent support from a very large cast that includes such familiar faces as Maureen O'Sullivan (as Strouds' wife), George Macready (as Janoths' incredibly loyal associate), Harold Vermilyea, Richard Webb, Luis Van Rooten, Lloyd Corrigan, Margaret Field, Douglas Spencer, et al. A young Harry Morgan makes quite the impression as an unsmiling goon without one word of dialogue; Laughtons' wife Elsa Lanchester steals the show whenever she's on screen as an eccentric painter. Noel Neill and Ruth Roman have uncredited bit parts.

Everybody involved tells a highly absorbing story, as the viewer waits to see if A) Stroud can possibly extricate himself from this mess, and B) if the slippery Laughton will ever be held accountable. All in all, this is well worth a viewing.

If the story sounds familiar, it's because the novel was filmed again as "No Way Out" in 1987.

Eight out of 10.

An oppressive preoccupation with time hangs heavily over everything that transpires in "The Big Clock". The eponymous timepiece is an enormous structure that dominates the entrance hall to the head office of "Janoth Publications". The clock is the most accurate in the world and is synchronised with all the other clocks in the Janoth organisation. Its size and position are symbolic of the importance that's given to time in everything that the organisation does. The proprietor, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), lectures a group of his managers about the importance of punctuality and the costs involved if people attending meetings are late. In one conversation with his mistress, he complains about being six minutes behind schedule and in another conversation, when he issues an ultimatum to one of his employees, George Stroud (Ray Milland), he gives him just six minutes to make a decision. Similar references to time and clocks continue to be made throughout the story and when a murder is committed, the weapon used is a sun-dial.

George Stroud is the editor of "Crimeways" magazine and is expert at leading investigations in which his team find criminals on the run before the police do. He is trapped in a situation where he cannot fulfil his commitments to his family because of the demands placed upon him by his job. Things are so bad that, although he has a five year old son, he hasn't yet been able to get time off to go on his honeymoon. He promises his wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) that he will definitely go on their next planned vacation and although she is sceptical, he assures her that he will go whatever the circumstances. Predictably, when he is due to leave, he gets pressured by Janoth to cancel his arrangements so that he can see through an important project. Janoth threatens him with being fired and blacklisted so that he won't be able to get similar employment with another magazine. Stroud stands his ground and eventually joins his family on vacation. After only a matter of minutes with them, he gets a telephone call to tell him that he's wanted to manage the hunt for a murder suspect. He has no choice; he has to meet this request because he recognises that he is the suspect. He goes back to work and again finds himself placed in an even worse trap as he attempts to sabotage his team's hunt for the suspect who he knows is innocent and has been made the fall guy. A desperate battle against time follows as he tries to sidetrack his team's efforts whilst, at the same time, attempting to find the evidence he needs to nail the real culprit.

"The Big Clock" is a film noir thriller with a plot which includes murder, manipulation and entrapment and with a group of main characters who are all suffering from various degrees of mental anguish. Light relief is also provided, however, by many moments of wit and comedy. Ray Milland delivers a typically strong performance as the fast talking Stroud, Charles Laughton excels in his role as the ruthless, time obsessed Janoth and Elsa Lanchster's portrayal of the artist Louise Patterson is both humorous and eccentric.

Based on poet Kenneth Fearing's suspense novel, THE BIG CLOCK (TBC) is not only a riveting hunted-man story with a fresh twist, but also a cautionary tale about what can happen if you let your job dictate your life: you'll miss your honeymoon and every family vacation; your marriage will suffer as your loving, understanding wife starts to lose faith in you and your endless excuses; your family life will be all but nonexistent; and worst of all, when your controlling, obsessive Boss From Hell kills someone in a fit of rage, you just might find yourself suspected of the crime! TBC is a family affair, with director John Farrow working with wife Maureen O'Sullivan, and real-life husband and wife Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester again sharing the silver screen. It's even a reunion of sorts for Ray Milland and composer Victor Young, the star and scorer of the 1944 chiller THE UNINVITED. Veteran mystery writer Jonathan Latimer ably adapts Fearing's novel for the big screen, its blend of suspense, urban cynicism, and smart, snappy dialogue intact. Some names and plot elements were changed, and the lovers' quarrel ending in murder, in which each accuses the other of being a closeted gay, now involves plain old straight infidelity. Nevertheless, the film's as gripping as the book, sometimes more so. In Fearing's novel, our hero George Stroud talks about the "big clock" which inevitably runs our lives no matter what: "Sometimes the hands of the clock actually raced, and at other times they hardly moved at all. But that made no difference to the big clock...all other watches have to be set by the big one, which is even more powerful than the calendar, and to which one automatically adjusts his entire life..." Film being a visual medium, the "big clock" metaphor becomes literal, with a huge clock/globe that tells you the time anywhere in the world, and lots of little clocks sprinkled all over the headquarters of Janoth Publications, a Henry Luce/Time-Warner-style magazine empire whose periodicals include ace editor George's magazine CRIMEWAYS, as well as AIRWAYS, NEWSWAYS, SPORTWAYS, STYLEWAYS, etc.

Set in 1948 NYC, TBC introduces us to George (Milland) via our anxious hero's innermost thoughts as he hides in the giant clock in the Janoth Publications lobby at night (DP John Seitz's "docu-noir" style works beautifully). In flashbacks, we see that despite being married for seven years, George and wife Georgette (O'Sullivan) have never had a honeymoon. Seems that Janoth (Laughton) hired George for CRIMEWAYS after he cracked a major murder case on his old newspaper in Wheeling, WV, and the control freak hasn't given George a day off since, always snatching the Stroud family's vacations from under them at the very last minute. (George and Georgette have a little boy, George Jr. -- how cutesy can you get? :-)). With the prestige and great salary CRIMEWAYS affords him, George has always been reluctant to say "No" to Janoth, especially since the publisher doesn't take kindly to being turned down, but our hero is getting fed up. So is Georgette, who sadly notes, "Sometimes I think you married that magazine instead of me...We're like two strangers sharing an apartment..." Janoth's mistress, Pauline York (played with soigné insouciance by Rita Johnson), overhears George bellyaching to Janoth's right-hand man, Steve Hagen (George Macready) about his treatment at Janoth's hands. At the Van Barth bar, Pauline tries to involve George in a blackmail scheme targeting Janoth, but George isn't interested — until he finally stands up to Janoth, gets himself fired and blackballed, and drowns his sorrows at the bar with Pauline, only to realize too late that he missed his train and his disappointed family left for West Virginia without him. It's LOST WEEKEND time as the tipsy George and Pauline go on a bar crawl, including Burt's Place, where they pick up a metal sundial from the barkeep's collection of bric-a-brac, and an antique shop where they outbid an eccentric woman (the scene-stealing Lanchester) for a painting.

Unlike their affair in the book, in the film George and Pauline's relationship ends abruptly, with him waking up fully-clothed on her couch. Seeing Janoth's car on the street, Pauline hustles the dazed George out the door. Alas, Janoth is outside waiting for his turn with her. Though he doesn't see George's face as he slips out of sight, Janoth still suspects the worst. He lets Pauline have it, bludgeoning her with the heavy sundial, killing her instantly. The tight close-ups on the quarreling lovers' angry faces, especially Janoth's (nobody's jowls quiver like Charles Laughton's!), add enough intensity to make up for the bowdlerized argument. The desperate Janoth gets a brainwave: he'll have Steve rig the clues to misdirect suspicion, and he'll recruit the crack staff of CRIMEWAYS to track down the culprit, catching a killer and boosting magazine sales at the same time, led by none other than George Stroud! George can't turn Janoth down now; by leading the investigation, he can do a little misdirecting himself, buying time to find the real killer as the tension mounts and the bar crawl comes back to haunt him — he's doing double duty as both cat and mouse! Milland's performance balances suavity, sympathy, and desperation. He and O'Sullivan ring true as a loving couple whose relationship is being sorely tested. Laughton is marvelously odious and sadistic with a pathetic undercurrent. Macready makes a stylishly devious right-hand man. The supporting cast includes a silent, sinister young Harry Morgan as a masseur-cum-henchman, Douglas Spencer of THE THING... fame as CRIMEWAYS reporter Bert Finch (not to be confused with Burt from Burt's Place, played by Frank Orth :-), and the ever-jolly Lloyd Corrigan as a radio actor who can play just about any character, including the bogus suspect known only as "Jefferson Randolph." TBC has been reworked twice, as 1987's NO WAY OUT and 2003's OUT OF TIME. They're both entertaining, but TBC is still my favorite version of the story.

Once you know about this film, it's a given that the plot is intricate, involving and ultimately satisfying. When you see it for the second time, pay attention to John Farrow's direction - it's wonderful. I love the look of this film: huge sets that seem to dwarf the players, and the use of what looks like natural light in the early scenes, which devolves into stark, frightening black and white contrasts as the story progresses. In effect, the story becomes more noir as it goes along. Farrow also uses many long tracking shots, and photographs his actors from a distance, even indoors, to emphasize how the events of the plot will overwhelm them. This is a beautiful movie.

The excellence of the actors only adds to the overall enjoyment of the film. Charles Laughton gives one of his usual eccentric but entirely true readings as the compulsive-obsessive, dictatorial Earl Janoth. Ray Milland is terrific as the smooth and not completely upright protagonist. All the others are spot-on in their interpretations. For me, the real standouts are the supporting players, especially Harry Morgan, every 1950s TV sitcom's favorite neighbor, in an uncharacteristic role as the boss' hatchet-man. He suggests so much danger with just a sidelong glance, but never utters a word throughout the film. And of course, Elsa Lanchester. Has she ever gotten anything wrong? She is so funny and yet so completely in control of her character. A truly underrated actress.

A film noir sometimes needs more than sufficient dark mood and a swell babe. It needs some ideas, or even a few laughs. The Big Clock does well to become perhaps one of the funniest of the films of the period that have murder, corruption, villains, average Joes and hot dames in the midst of a hot story. I think some of it may be unintentional humor, but I'm not sure; around a small crowd watching the film in a theater found many lines of dialog either laugh-out-loud funny, or worthy of a few good chuckles. This isn't something new to find in film-noir; watching Double Indemnity or The Killing and you may find yourself with more than a few belly laughs by the midway point. But The Big Clock relies on every character being witty, or just smarter than they should be (or sometimes dumber or not-all-there like the painter lady Mrs. Patterson - she gets the last line of the film and it's a doozy).

Sure, the plot itself is dramatic enough, and with a good bit of twist to it. A reporter at a magazine (Ray Miland) is fired by the malevolent boss, Janoth (inimitable Charles Laughton), and he proceeds to have a night of drinking with a blonde girl. But she winds up in the wrong place at the wrong time with Mr. Janoth, and is killed. This isn't a spoiler so much since it happens relatively early in the storyline (at least at the third-way point), and from then on the real story kicks in, which has Stroud having to find anything that can help clear his name from the mounting evidence that Janoth does his best to mount - via his whole paper investigating - the disappearance and murder of the woman in the room. It's a mind-game that depends on finding the right people in time, witnesses, evidence. The cops can't help.

Some of it comes close to unbelievable, but what keeps it engaging and entertaining, and sort of in an escapist way, is how sharply drawn the characters are. I hoped that Stroud would get out of his predictament, even for all of the harm he's caused his poor wife who just wants to see him in a job he likes, and hopes that Janoth would get his just deserts (albeit seeing Laughton and his droll way of approaching things, not to mention his shifty eyes, stole many scenes away from a believable Milland). Other supporting actors fill in well, like Lanchester as the eccentric Patterson, or the guy running the shop (I especially loved the random moment when a guy comes in and asks for bubbles... and he delivers!) There's also some genuine suspense built in by the director, which helps the inevitable of having to tie up the loose ends. It's enjoyable to see such a blatant baddie like the guy Janoth has with his dead eyes and black suit go after Milland towards the end in the clocktower.

And, again, the dialog helps out a great deal. This could be a potentially simple B-movie, and in some ways it is, but it lasts way past its years because of its natural ability at amusement, and even being amused with itself. It's a little like if Woody Allen had to adapt a pulp paperback to a degree, neuroses and quirky characters included.

Kenneth Fear who wrote the novel wrote "No Way Out" and a lot of other suspense works. To simply say the plot here is a boss gets upset with his mistress (secretary) and kills her would really be selling this movie way too short. Besides being one of the better films in Noir, this film is not credited with being an exceptional "dark comedy." I think this has to do with Jonathan Latimer writing the script. Latimer wrote a lot of excellent tv and films including Topper Returns and The Glass Key. Because of this background, he was able to make this noir script a genius with some great touches.

The cast is great too. Ray Milland's George Stroud is amazing and is a great counter-balance to Charles Laughton's Earl Janeth. Maureen O'Sullivan's Georgette Stroud gets kind of overshadowed at times because there is so much going on. There is only so much screen time and the mistress whose killed hogs some of it very well before her death. It's kind of funny that George spends so much time with her, yet Georgette hardly bats an eye lash when she finds out George was with her.

The comic element here is that after Earl murders Pauline the chase he starts to find the man who was in her apartment prior to his killing her is one of the great masterworks of dark comedy ever put into a noir film. It becomes comical all the times George ducks witnesses who saw him the night she was murdered. Even George gets a subtle jab in before she is killed - Pauline York : You know, Earl has a passion for obscurity. He won't even have his biography in 'Who's Who'.

George Stroud : Sure. He doesn't want to let his left hand know whose pocket the right one is picking.

Milland delivers this line so dramatically, the humor is not noticed unless you turn on the captions and look for it. During the chase where George is being chased by everyone thinking he is the killer, there are some really dark comedy classic line that makes this one look pale. Yet the elements are here in what is basically a great film on many levels.

Granted the technology is dated, but the script and the cast so good, and Rita Johnson (Pauline) even has some movies that were the type of comedy that is snuck into this one.

This film does start off with a sequence late in the film and then rewinds to the beginning. Usually I find this annoying, but in this one so much happens that it is not a problem. Do not let the title or the category fool you, this film is a classic dark comedy too.

I give this film a "7", though it was a temptation to give it an "8", but a "7" is my highest rating, unless we are talking one of the great films of all time. And this film is not that, but it is darned good.

It is darned good because it is darned different. I can't think of another film that is at all like it (except perhaps the recent remake). It's a rather unique plot with a unique character (Charles Laughton) and a unique setting.

The story begins via flashback. As it unfolds, Ray Milland's character (editor-in-chief of a crime magazine) inadvertently gets tied into a murder of a woman he met...who just happened to be the girlfriend of the magazine's's owner (Charles Laughton) -- a real sleaze bag...and the real killer! All the cards are stacked against Milland, however, and his desperate task is to clear himself and implicate the real murdered (whom he thinks is Laughton's assistant). What happens in between all this is clever and different, with a host of odd characters.

Milland, whom I've come to respect more lately as I've seen some films of his of which I was not previously aware, is excellent here. So is Charles Laughton, although this is another role of Laughton's where we love despising him. And incidentally, Laughton's mustache here may be one of the worst in any film in cinema history! The other main character is Maureen O'Sullivan as Milland's wife, though this is quite a step down from her as she plains a supporting, rather than a starring role. You'll recognize quite a few other characters, though none is memorable, despite each being key to the plot.

The ending is a total surprise, although it happens just a tad too quickly to savor.

That's all not to say that there aren't some problems here. We all have had jobs we don't like. Why exactly are this husband and wife so thrilled to be without and income? At 58 minutes into the film you can clearly see the shadow of the boom mic. Why are Elsa Lanchester's children from 3 different marriages all approximately the same age?

Nevertheless, this may very well be one for your DVD shelf!