No Hands on the Clock (1941)

Undescribable Perfection

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Chester Morris stars as an investigator who finds lost persons. In his latest case, he found a woman (Jean Parker) and married her and is planning on a nice honeymoon in Reno of all places (nothing says romance than this city famed for its divorces!). Soon, however, Chester's pesky boss locates them and convinces him to take one more 'easy case'. Well, naturally the case is anything but easy and involves lots of peril. Can the couple manage to finish the case and survive at least long enough to consummate their marriage?There isn't anything especially deep or memorable about this film--it's a low- budgeted B-mystery and Hollywood made a bazillion of these back in the 30s and 40s. It's a bit better than many simply because Morris is so good in such roles and Parker is cute as his rather clueless bride--though I must admit that the plot is a bit more complicated and confusing than the norm.

Humphrey Campbell is a private detective working for a small agency specializing in missing persons cases. In his latest case, he tracks down a missing heiress and then calls his boss, Oscar Flack, and tells him that he won't be bringing the heiress, Louise, home because he and Louise just got married and they're going on a honeymoon. Oscar tells Humphrey that an important case has come up - a rancher in Nevada's adult son has gone missing. Oscar convinces Humphrey to investigate and on their way to Reno, Humphrey and Louise stop at a bank and end up in the middle of a bank holdup led by one Red Harris. Then in Reno, Oscar convinces Humphrey to take the case even though Humphrey is disinclined to do so because the FBI are involved but Oscar sweetens the deal by promising Louise a fur coat. The whole plot becomes increasingly complicated with a slew of suspects. Chester Morris plays Humphrey as a wise cracking, fast talking character just like his more famous Boston Blackie character. And what an entertaining character it is. My favorite scene is when the milk drinking Humphrey orders a glass of milk from bartender Jack Norton. Norton's reaction to this request is a hoot especially since Norton is most famous for his bit roles playing a drunk although in real life Norton was a teetotaler. The whole movie is fun throughout. Jean Parker does a very nice job as the feisty Louise and she and Morris have a great chemistry together. It was also fun spotting some favorite character actors such as Dick Purcell, George J. Lewis, and Milburn Stone. Available at Internet Archives and YouTube, this movie is well worth seeking out.

The players here are wonderful, Chester Morris as his usually cocky confident self as PI Humphrey Campbell, Jean Parker doing a great poverty row version of Nora Charles minus the family fortune as new bride Louise Campbell, Rose Hobart looking like she's up to no good but you just can't catch her in the act, George Watts as Humphrey's flaky boss who is overly interested in hand puppets, Dick Purcell at his menacing best given his brief screen time, and I could just go on forever.So, you might say what was needed here were "more hands on the script". The title comes from the fact that the Darwin mortuary, conveniently located across from where the Campbells are honeymooning, installs a clock with no hands because, as the macabre little man running the mortuary states "death is timeless". The film starts out straightforward enough - Humphrey is on his honeymoon with his wife in, of all places, Reno??? That was the divorce capital of the U.S. back at the time this film was made, so things start out goofy and just get goofier. Turns out Humphrey only drinks milk, and loves to play the accordion, which he does as he and his bride settle into the honeymoon suite. Then Humphrey's boss Flack comes knocking at the door. Turns out he came all the way from LA to get Humphrey to interrupt his honeymoon and go looking for the missing son of a rich man, one that the FBI is looking for too, although they won't say why. Flack promises the pay off will be big and will only take a couple of hours, so Humphrey decides to take the case, although with Flack being a bit of flake you have to wonder why Humphrey would believe him. Well, it turns out things are more complex than that and eventually involve three murders, one of which looks like it's going to be pinned on Humphrey for awhile.The main problem with this goofy little mystery is that in several places one of the characters will spout off a slew off facts in rapid fire. Humphrey will seize on just one thing said and that will comprise the motivation of the next ten minutes of action without any further explanation. So you have to rewind and look for what was said that would be causing Humphrey to take a particular action. This confusing state of affairs goes on all through the film, and if it were not for the delightful and often comic delivery of the players it might ruin the entire experience.There is one great big plot hole involving Dick Purcell's character that is not explained in this movie as far as I can tell, and I watched it twice. It has to do with Red Harris' relationship to Humphrey and why Harris is useful to Humphrey in the first place. It looks like maybe they forgot to shoot at least one entire scene that would have sewed up all the loose ends.I'd still recommend this one, just be prepared to rewind a lot and maybe even watch it in its entirety a second time. If this thing had been put out by a major studio with the same story and exactly the same players and had the benefit of the direction, screenplay finesse, and editing talents they had at their disposal, I would have given this one an 8/10 and put it right up there with The Thin Man.

In this movie produced by the "Two Dollar" Bills - William Pine and William Thomas, the always reliable Chester Morris played Detective Humphrey Campbell. Campbell was a creation of crime novelist Geoffrey Holmes who was to have his biggest writing success with "Build My Gallows High", which was turned into the film noir classic "Out of the Past".The title comes from a saying "death is timeless" and is depicted by a handless clock that is a feature of the Reno Mortuary. Stopping off to cash a cheque on his honeymoon (he has just married the heiress he had been assigned to find), Humphrey Campbell from a Missing Person's agency and his bride Louise (Jean Parker) find themselves in the middle of a hold up conducted by a thuggish red headed gangster (Dick Purcell). Once at the honeymoon destination - Reno!!! Humphrey's boss wants to send him on another case - a rancher wants him to find his missing son, Hal, who was last seen with a certain red head!!! The red head doesn't have much information to impart, an account of her being murdered.This is a terrific if complicated little mystery which should have been the start of a series. Chester Morris and Jean Parker had great chemistry, there were elements of the Thin Man. Who knows why a series didn't eventuate - probably because the same year saw the start of Morris's Boston Blackie for which he became best remembered and Jean Parker soon had her own (very short) series as Detective Kitty O'Day with definite emphasis on the slapstick.The Red Harris gang suddenly come back into the picture, they are very much interested in Humphrey, worried that he has identified them to the police as the bank robbers. They also seem to be connected to the kidnapping and Humphrey is beginning to wonder if Hal has been kidnapped at all!! By the end of the movie there have been several murders and also like the Thin Man the suspects gather nervously in a room waiting, or daring, Humphrey to unravel the complex mystery and offer his deductions. As usual with these tight little "who done its" there are a wealth of character performances. Grant Withers looking every bit of his 35 years, unfortunately, as one of the victims, he only has a small scene. Astrid Alwyn had developed from chilly other woman roles of the 30s to a decorative character actress in the 40s. Here she was admittedly a gangsters moll but she still exuded a "good gal" aura. Rose Hobart did have a few films of note in the early 30s but returned to the stage only returning to Hollywood in the 40s in usually stern faced women roles. Keye Luke had already finished his most famous movie association - as Charlie Chan's No. 1 son. After 1942 he had another continuing role in the Dr. Kildare series.