The Big Clock (1948)

★ 7.3 1h 35m IMDb

Thriller Crime

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

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Cast

Ray Milland as George Stroud Died 1986 · Neath, Glamorgan, Wales, UK Ray Milland (born Reginald Alfred John Truscott-Jones or Alfred Reginald Jones; 3 January 1907 – 10 March 1986) was a Welsh actor and director. He is best remembered for his Academy Award–winning port...

Charles Laughton as Earl Janoth Died 1962 · Scarborough, North Riding of Yorkshire, England, UK Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English-American stage and film actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art...

Maureen O'Sullivan as Georgette Stroud Died 1998 · Boyle, County Roscommon, Ireland Maureen Paula O'Sullivan was born in County Roscommon, Ireland, on May 17, 1911. The future mother of Mia Farrow was a schooldays classmate of Vivien Leigh at the Convent of the Sacred Heart at Roeham...

George Macready as Steve Hagen Died 1973 · Providence, Rhode Island, USA George Peabody Macready, Jr. (August 29, 1899 – July 2, 1973) was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains. Description above from the Wikipedia article...

Rita Johnson as Pauline York Died 1965 · Worcester, Massachusetts, USA Rita Ann Johnson (August 13, 1913 – October 31, 1965) was an American actress. Early in her career, Johnson was busy in radio. Johnson began acting on Broadway in 1935 and started her film career tw...

Elsa Lanchester as Louise Patterson Died 1986 · Lewisham, London, England, UK Elsa Sullivan Lanchester (October 28, 1902 – December 26, 1986) was a British actress with a long career in theatre, film and television and former dancer. Lanchester studied dance as a child and af...

Director John Farrow

Cast Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Elsa Lanchester, Harold Vermilyea, Dan Tobin, Harry Morgan, Richard Webb

John Chard 9/10 Jan 05, 2019

How did I get into this rat race?

Egomaniac publisher Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) murders his mistress in a fit of temper. He then uses all his power and connections to pin the crime on another man seen close to the crime. George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor of Janoth's own Crimeways magazine, is put in charge of tracing the mystery man. Which is fine until he finds that as he digs deeper, all the evidence points to he himself being the fall guy!

Ostensibly film noir it may be, but The Big Clock still has something to offer even the most casual of cinema goer. Directed by the still criminally undervalued John Farrow, The Big Clock has a touch of the Alfred Hitchcock "wrong man" theme about it. Based on a novel written by Kenneth Fearing, Farrow and his writer, Jonathan Latimer, have managed to craft a piece that is both twisty and unique in its execution. With both things working towards a quite clever and suspenseful ending.

As with the best of film noir, The Big Clock has an intricate plot that's awash with dubious characters and sexual ambiguity. Headed by Laughton's tyrannical philandering Janoth (apparently based on real life publisher Henry Luce), the piece boasts what maybe a gay scar-faced right hand man? (George Macready) and a butch masseur henchman (Harry Morgan playing against type). Only in the wonderful world of film noir can such characters not only exist, but also be so riveting within the film's structure. The piece is also very funny, particularly when Elsa Lanchester's batty artist Louise Patterson is on the screen. I almost fell off my chair laughing during one scene as she hands in a sketch of the wanted man, Picasso would have been proud!

But ultimately it's the story and Ray Milland's ability to see it through that wins the day. Even with the odd little problem, such as the underusing of Maureen O' Sullivan as Stroud's wife, Georgette, thus the domestic strife feels like filler. The Big Clock still finishes as an excellently constructed picture containing interesting thematics on time (this will be down to the individual viewer) that's cunningly set in amongst a media empire environment. Remade with some success in 1987 as a political thriller (No Way Out), The Big Clock still remains the essential film to see. Crime, mystery, drama, comedy and a thriller, it has a little for everyone, even if it is basically a film noir treat. 9/10