The Big Clock is a 1948 film noir directed by John Farrow and adapted by renowned novelist-screenwriter Jonathan Latimer from the novel of the same name by Kenneth Fearing.
The black-and-white film is set in New York City and stars Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, and Maureen O'Sullivan. Elsa Lanchester and Harry Morgan, in an early film role, also appear. Noel Neill has an uncredited part as an elevator operator very early in the film.
Video The Big Clock (film)
Plot
The film opens with George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor-in-chief of Crimeways magazine, hiding from building security inside the "big clock". The clock is the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built; it dominates the lobby of the Janoth Publications building in New York City, where he works.
The film flashes back to thirty-six hours earlier. Stroud is eager to go on a long-postponed vacation in Wheeling, West Virginia, with his wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) and son. His tyrannical boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) wants him to stay and follow up on a missing persons story Stroud has just cracked, but Stroud refuses and Janoth fires him. Stroud goes to a bar to drink and is distracted by the attentions of Janoth's glamorous mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson), who proposes a blackmail plan against Janoth. When Stroud loses track of time and misses their scheduled train, Georgette angrily leaves for Wheeling without him. Stroud spends the evening drinking and going out on the town with York at various locations, buying a painting and a sundial.
Stroud and York go to York's apartment, but she sees Janoth arriving, and Stroud leaves. Janoth sees someone leaving but does not recognize Stroud in the dark. Janoth assumes York is cheating on him, leading to a quarrel which ends with him striking York with the sundial and killing her. Janoth goes to his assistant, Hagen (George Macready), and tells him what happened, intending on going to the police and confessing. But Hagen talks him out of it and convinces him that they can frame the man Janoth saw leaving York's apartment for the crime. Janoth decides to use the resources of Crimeways to find the man instead of calling the police.
Stroud has since caught up with his wife and son in West Virginia and tells her that he has been fired (but leaves out his adventures with York). Janoth calls to re-hire him, to lead the effort to find the mystery man (leaving out any mention of York). He mentions enough details for Stroud to know that the mystery man is himself. He reluctantly agrees to return to his job and lead the manhunt, to Georgette's disappointment.
During the manhunt, Stroud has to appear to lead the investigation diligently, and at the same time, prevent the investigation from identifying him as its target. Meanwhile, he must also secretly carry out his own investigation to prove Janoth's guilt.
Eventually York is identified by the Crimeways team and witnesses are found that saw her out on the town with the mystery man. These witnesses are brought to the Janoth Building.
One is eccentric artist Louise Patterson (Elsa Lanchester), who did the painting that was purchased by Stroud. Asked to paint a portrait of the mystery man, she produces a modernist abstract of blobs and swirls.
Stroud tries to avoid the witnesses, but one of them sees and recognizes him as the mystery man. Stroud slips away before the witness points him out to the investigators, but now the investigators know that the mystery man is in the building, though not who he is. All exits from the building are sealed, and everyone must leave by the main door, with the witnesses watching for the mystery man. Building security men sweep the building to flush out the wanted man.
Stroud evades the dragnet by various maneuvers, finally hiding in the clock (ending the flashback segment of the film).
In the climax of the film, Stroud confronts Janoth and Hagen. He presents evidence which appears to point to Hagen as the killer. Hagen implores Janoth to clear him, but Janoth tells him only that he will provide him the best possible legal defense. Enraged, Hagen turns on Janoth and reveals that Janoth killed York and he helped cover it up. Janoth shoots Hagen and flees. Janoth tries to escape in an elevator, but the elevator car is stuck floors below (jammed there by Stroud earlier while evading the security men); Janoth falls down the elevator shaft to his death.
Maps The Big Clock (film)
Cast
Morgan's screen name later would become "Henry 'Harry' Morgan" and eventually Harry Morgan, to avoid confusion with the popular humorist of the same name.
Production
Paramount bought the rights to the novel before publication. (Fearing's earlier novel The Hospital had been a best seller.) The purchase price was a reported $45,000.
Jonathan Latimer was assigned to write the script and Ray Milland to star. Leslie Fenton was announced as director but he was held up on Saigon so John Farrow took over. Filming began February 17, 1947. Charles Laughton was cast as the villain.
This was Maureen O'Sullivan's first film in five years, since Tarzan's New York Adventure, after which she had concentrated on raising her family. She did it as a favor for her husband, director John Farrow.
Reception
Film critic Bruce Eder wrote, "The Big Clock is a near-perfect match for the book, telling in generally superb visual style a tale set against the backdrop of upscale 1940s New York and offering an early (but accurate) depiction of the modern media industry."
In 1998 film writer David N. Meyer wrote, "More screwball comedy than noir, The Big Clock's big moments derive from snappy dialogue and over-the-top humor." Dennis Schwartz wrote in 2004 that "John Farrow directs this thrilling psychological film noir with style, though it's barely a work of noir in the full sense of that genre."
In 2001, the American Film Institute nominated this film for AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills.
Remake
The story was remade in 1987 as No Way Out with Kevin Costner. The 1948 film is closer to the novel. The 1987 remake, on the other hand, updated the events to the United States Department of Defense in Washington, D.C. during the Cold War.
References
External links
- The Big Clock at the American Film Institute Catalog
- The Big Clock on IMDb
- The Big Clock at AllMovie
- The Big Clock at the TCM Movie Database
- The Big Clock trailer at YouTube
Streaming audio
- The Big Clock on Screen Directors Playhouse: July 8, 1949
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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