The Big Clock (1948)

Load of rubbish!!

Did you people see the same film I saw?

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

High Class and Glossy, this Lively Production is Filled to the Top with Big Stars, Big Sets, and a Big Story All Wrapped Up in a Slick Package for Post War Audiences that Wanted Quality Pictures for Their Meager Ticket Prices.Headlined by Ray Milland and Charles Laughton and Surrounded by Familiar Character Actors that Resonate, All Decked Out in Modern Fancy Big City Attire, the Film is a Treat to Look At with John Farrow's Artsy Direction and Fancy Blocking Using the Moving Camera in the Wide Open Indoor Spaces of Big Buildings that were a World Within a World.The Story is Complicated Enough and Interesting Enough for Mystery Fans and Crime Aficionados. Elsa Lanchester Devours the Scenery Playfully Adding the Comedy Relief and Wrings Every Second of Her Short Screen Time. This is Borderline Film-Noir and is Usually Included On Lists but Hardly Pure and Definite. The Strong Off Center Characters, Some Lighting Effects, and an Innocent Man on the Lam are its Strongest Noir Elements but Other Non-Norish Ingredients are too Prevalent to Make this Quintassential. The Corporate Takeover of the American Soul is a Subtext to All This and is Done with Symbolism and Clever Innuendos and is a Film-Noir Consideration.Overall, Not Without Some Weak Ingredients, Like the Back Story of the Workaholic with the Neglected Family, and the Opening Binge that Goes On too Long. This is a Solid, Highly Polished Picture that is Almost Magazine Like in its Pretty Pictures of the Post-War, Urban Landscape of Upper Middle Class Life When $30,000 a Year was a Hefty Paycheck and worth mentioning a number of times in the Film and was Laid Out for the Budding Capitalist in the Audience to Ponder.

Deciding to watch some film noirs recently this film stuck in my mind – for some reason I knew the title and was sure I must have watched it before but it didn't ring any bells. Watching it two things hit me; the first being that despite the listing here and the comments made on the boards etc, this is not a film noir by the traditional definition – it is actually a thriller with a man accused of murder trying to get out from under before everything closes in on him. This was the second thing because I realized I had heard the name of the film in connection to the Kevin Costner film "No Way Out". In that film as in this one, the main character is charged with hunting down a killer, all the time knowing that the clues will incorrectly lead to him and as a result he must find the real killer before he is caught himself.This sounds good but the film doesn't really make the most of it. The first 30 minutes are too slow and frankly unconvincing. Stroud is presented as a good family man, nicely cleancut but yet gets messed up drunk with a pretty blonde the very second he should be heading off on his honeymoon. This setup is labored and takes too long in the context of quite a short film. When the murder occurs the pace does pick up and the drama is engaging but it is delivered with a bit too much of a light touch and not enough urgency in the situation. The light comedy may appeal to some but for me it only undermined the tension and took me out of the moment – if it had done this aspect better regarding the main character then it may have worked but it was far too gentle for me. The conclusion also comes too quickly and unconvincingly even if the buildup to the specific conclusion is pretty good.The cast are solid and it is not their fault that the film doesn't really make the most of them. Milland is a decent lead but doesn't convince me about the pressure on him – I also didn't care for his character in the first 30 minutes as he seemed to be just a good haircut and cheerful outlook, nothing else. Laughton is a good presence and I would have liked to have seen more of him – the film uses him well but it could have been better again. Support is decent and includes a very young Harry Morgan.The Big Clock is a nice idea that is slow to start and, when it does get going, it just lacks a bit of oomph to really make the most of the scenario. I was looking for the film to really close in on the main character and for things to be tense and stylish but in reality it was a bit too gentle for my tastes.

Besides being a who-done-it, this movie is also a brilliant comedy. Ray Milland and Charles Laughton give stellar performances as men who are at odds with each other, with lethal results. The rest of the cast is also excellent, especially Elsa Lancaster who plays an artist with a quick wit. The plot is clever, the acting wonderful, the cinematography catches the story's mood, and the movie, with all its twists and turns, is in general engaging and entertaining, The movie contains so many wonderful performances. And even though the movie was made in the late 1040s, it's still watchable today. That is, the movie has aged well and deals with issues that would resonate with today's audience. One thing about Ray Milland: he was a great actor with great screen presence, and proves that it this movie.

This is a movie I've been aware of for most of my life but which had always eluded me, I didn't, in fact, know it even existed as a DVD until it appeared on my local library shelves on Saturday. By one of those uncanny coincidences a French cinema that screens what it chooses to call French Classics at 2 pm each Sunday showed yesterday Police Python 357, Alain Corneau's take on the Big Clock which appeared in 1976. As it happens I own 357 on DVD but having watched Clock on Saturday and decided Python was far superior I checked it out on the big screen and it really IS superior. Kenneth Fearing, who wrote the original novel, came up with a great idea around the same time that Orson Welles did; Welles called his idea Mr. Arkadin, Fearing, The Big Clock. Both share the same premise; a powerful man kills someone in a fit of rage, realizes that a third party has witnessed the crime so assigns someone to track down the witness, unaware - as is the tracker -that he IS the witness. There was a complete lack of chemistry between Ray Milland and Maureen O'Sullivan playing his wife, perhaps because the film was directed by her husband, John Farrow. It's almost painful to watch Charles Laughton's posturings as the tycoon-killer and in the last reel when he makes a dash for freedom his stooped, crouching run is a risible cross between Groucho Marx and Quasimodo (which Laughton had, of course, played ten years earlier. When you're watching the climax of a thriller you don't want to be thinking things like that. There was a remake in the 80's, No Way Out, but all you need to know is that nobody does it better .... than Welles and Corneau.