![]() His top editor is George Stroud (Ray Milland), who has promoted Crimeways magazine into the most successful monthly in Janoth’s stable. As the dragnet for the killer slowly zeroes in on Milland, we get a thrilling and hilarious puzzle picture - and a taste of future paranoia in the corporate world.įrom a single skyscraper in Manhattan, the ruthless, autocratic and amazingly successful Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) runs a formidable publishing empire encompassing dozens of popular magazines. At the center of the plots and schemes is a deviously brilliant Charles Laughton, and Ray Milland is excellent as the executive who must simultaneously out-wit frame-ups from within and without. The extremely clever script creates an exciting world inside a publishing company so modern it was probably considered futuristic in 1948. The thriller The Big Clock crosses over into light comedy so frequently that it edges away from the mainstream of film noir, despite the acutely noirish maelstrom of crazy coincidence that traps its characters. Written by Jonathan Latimer from a novel by Kenneth Fearing Starring: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Elsa Lanchester, Harry (Henry) Morgan.Ĭinematography: Daniel L. Street Date / Available from Arrow Video / 39.95 Maybe Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale watched this from their cribs, and applied its chaotic symmetry to their pretzel-plotted comedies!ġ948 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 95 min. Ray Milland’s charismatic fall guy finds himself embroiled in a murder plot filled with false identities, and a manhunt that he must supervise… to catch himself. ![]() And it has an even more surprising ending.Clever plotting goes into overdrive for this light-comedy proto-paranoid film noir about a magazine publishing empire so organized that it seems a sci-fi invention from the future. This movie is very good but having seen "No Way Out," I enjoyed it more. Since we know who the murderer was, the movie is suspenseful only to see how the plot will unravel to disclose Earl Jannoth. The movie also stars Maureen O'Sullivan as Georgette Stroud, George's wife, who was stood up on her honeymoon. She becomes a red herring in sketching the identity of the man who was with Paula during the evening. And when Stroud learns that Paula has been murdered, he doesn't know who the killer was although he saw Jannoth enter the apartment.Įlsa Lanchester as Patterson the artist provides comic relief and a serious side in the movie. As the movie goes on, all fingers seem to point to Stroud, but no one has put all the pieces together until the end. And he tries to insist that that man caused her to go missing. He doesn't know that Stroud was with Paula that night, but he knows that someone was. The rest of the movie details Jannoth's coverup of the murder. Later, after Stroud leaves Paula, Jannoth appears at her apartment, they argue, and Jannoth murders her with a clock. So Stroud cavorts with Jannoth's mistress, Paula York (Rita Johnson) for the evening. When he tells Jannoth that he must leave, Jannoth fires him. He is in a hurry to leave on his honeymoon, but his boss Earl Jannoth (a young Charles Laughton) causes him to work late and miss his train. George Stroud (Ray Milland) works for Crimeways magazine, a subsidiary of Jannoth Enterprises. This 1948 movie was the predecessor to "No Way Out" starring Kevin Costner in the 1980s. ![]()
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