Film Noir Hall of Fame VI

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I don't actually wear pants.
The Big Clock is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel... in fact I just finished watching it this evening and I grade it an "A-" Solid, solid stuff. And also, who doesn't like Ray Milland and Charles Laughton?

In addition to The Big Clock, Criterion Channel has dozens of other film noirs currently featured and streaming for Noirvember:

https://www.criterionchannel.com/columbia-noir-4

https://www.criterionchannel.com/noirvember

https://www.criterionchannel.com/starring-ida-lupino-2
Yeah Citizen Rules helped me find a way to watch it. It's above board so it's all good. Thank you for the help though. Yeah I don't have the desire to subscribe to a paid service, at least at the moment.
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1948 | 1h 35m | Film Noir | Police Procedural | Crime | Drama | Mystery | Psychological Thriller
Director: John Farrow
Writers: Jonathan Latimer, Kenneth Fearing, Harold Goldman
Cast: Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson, Elsa Lanchester, Harry Morgan

Fast paced and gripping, Noir meets Manhunt. With a little humor and lightheartedness thrown in to cut the tension.

What I loved here was the self investigative aspect. The build up of the story and pacing. The use of the clock and the office building. It creates that intense trapped, time 'bomb' ticking away effect. Laughton is superb as always and Milland's character's fear and panic is very palpable which resulted in a never boring and exciting viewing experience. All in all a fun and clever little cat-and-mouse murder Mystery Noir.

For fans of this one, I highly recommend watching the Neo-noir remake No Way Out (1987) starring Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman. Which is also based on the same 1946 book, 'The Big Clock', by Kenneth Fearing.

(By the way do we keep our ratings to ourselves in this new HoF form? I've seen other participants do that in previous HoFs.)



Trouble with a capital "T"
...(By the way do we keep our ratings to ourselves in this new HoF form? I've seen other participants do that in previous HoFs.)
However anyone wants to do it is fine, you can rate them or not. I'll get to The Big Clock hopefully tonight.



Trouble with a capital "T"

I watched The Big Clock last night. That was my second time watching it. This time around I'd say my opinion of The Big Clock went up which indicates to me a well made movie.

I loved the opening sequence that shows skyscrapers in NYC, then the camera focuses on the Janoth Publishing building and begins a slow zoom in, so that we can see the inside of a room through the window...without a cut the camera continues into the room and the action starts. Very impressive how they did that.

I liked the choice of over lapping dialogue that was spoken fast paced as everyone was rushing around doing their jobs. The plot was intelligently written and believable. The situation that lead to Ray Milland's predicament that we see in the second scene, happened organically and quite smoothly. I might have nixed the flash back structure of the film and had the events happen in sequence, but not a deal breaker.

Ray Milland added his charmingly flip and self absorbed presences...that's not a knock, I like Milland. I loved when they were searching unknowingly for him they and described him as, "Smug, self-satisfied."

Charles Laughton is always good and particular so here as the 'time obsessed' owner of Janoth Publications. He actually clocks people by the minute and docks their pay for the smallest infractions, that is if he doesn't fire them first. Elsa Lancaster is loads of fun and adds to the film. She is also in another noir in this HoF, Ladies in Retirement.

Enjoy watching this.



I don't actually wear pants.
I forgot to post this here:

I finally got around to finishing Big Clock. I found it to be a great film from top to bottom. I wouldn't say any part stood out as excellent although I wouldn't say any part was at all bad. I thought it was really well done with a satisfactory, albeit a little short, ending. It's a solid film noir, and I'm glad I took the time to watch it.

There we go.



Trouble with a capital "T"
I forgot to post this here:

I finally got around to finishing Big Clock. I found it to be a great film from top to bottom. I wouldn't say any part stood out as excellent although I wouldn't say any part was at all bad. I thought it was really well done with a satisfactory, albeit a little short, ending. It's a solid film noir, and I'm glad I took the time to watch it.

There we go.
Thanks for posting that You know what I learned from The Big Clock? There was a scene where the big clock in the building gets shut off by Ray Milland and all the other clocks which are connected to it went dead as well. When I seen that, I said to my wife, 'Oh they didn't have technology like that back then.' So my wife tells me that they did have what they called 'slave clocks' on ships back then. I just looked it up and she was right! Wiki Slave Clocks



I don't actually wear pants.
Thanks for posting that You know what I learned from The Big Clock? There was a scene where the big clock in the building gets shut off by Ray Milland and all the other clocks which are connected to it went dead as well. When I seen that, I said to my wife, 'Oh they didn't have technology like that back then.' So my wife tells me that they did have what they called 'slave clocks' on ships back then. I just looked it up and she was right! Wiki Slave Clocks
That's pretty interesting. The time stuff was pretty important and incorporated pretty well.

Yeah I'm still getting used to the site again.



Trouble with a capital "T"
...Yeah I'm still getting used to the site again.
Were you gone from MoFo for awhile? I remember you in the past but I don't remember you being around much except for very recently.



Can we still jump in? I can come up with a nom later tonight
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Can we still jump in? I can come up with a nom later tonight
Sure if you have a big block of cement on your feet...Sure thing, I'd love to have you join Thief, still plenty of time too



I don't actually wear pants.
Were you gone from MoFo for awhile? I remember you in the past but I don't remember you being around much except for very recently.
I've had the account since IMDb got rid of their board and visited here sporadically. I don't know how long I'll post here this stint so we'll see. I don't dislike the site. I just lost interest very easily.



Trouble with a capital "T"
I've had the account since IMDb got rid of their board and visited here sporadically. I don't know how long I'll post here this stint so we'll see. I don't dislike the site. I just lost interest very easily.
I never liked the IMDB boards, too nasty! I enjoy reading your post so I hope you'll stick around.



I don't actually wear pants.
I never liked the IMDB boards, too nasty! I enjoy reading your post so I hope you'll stick around.
They were what I knew. This place seems better. I'll try to stay here. It also helps that I lost my Facebook account to a hacker and can't recover it, so I don't have that eating my time. This seems better than that too.



I don't actually wear pants.
You mean like with watching Big Clock? I meant to watch another noir, Confidential Report, last night, but I played for a bit and then was so tired I just went to sleep.



Trouble with a capital "T"
You mean like with watching Big Clock? I meant to watch another noir, Confidential Report, last night, but I played for a bit and then was so tired I just went to sleep.
Yeah I meant how were the other members doing with The Big Clock.



I forgot the opening line.


The Big Clock - 1948

Directed by John Farrow

Written by Jonathan Latimer
Based on a novel by Kenneth Fearing

Starring Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, George Macready, Rita Johnson
Elsa Lanchester & Harry Morgan

The poster promises "the strangest and most savage manhunt in history", and The Big Clock is indeed a heady mix of off-beat black comedy and rigorous, sweat-drenched noir - a concoction that's sly and constantly shifts from winks and gags to suspense and action. Comedy doesn't seem a natural fit for Kenneth Fearing's story, but once inserted it found a foothold and flourished in off-the-cuff remarks, double-takes, references, punchlines and a grandly grotesque performance from Charles Laughton as the snide, sniveling magazine publisher Earl Janoth. At one stage he even makes reference to his Quasimodo role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame by speaking a certain line in laboured Quasi-speak - anything goes it seems as all must have been having one hell of a time, because nothing seems forced and instead every actor is on their toes and brimming full of energy. It's a vibe you rarely get from an out-and-out film noir thriller - something more akin to The Thin Man films - but it also manages to not lose itself and in the end stays the course as far as the seriousness of it's narrative and murderous intrigue goes.

The Big Clock demands your attention, and the biggest problem I had with it was remembering what each character knows and doesn't know. George Stroud (Ray Milland) works for Earl Janoth at Crimeways magazine, chasing down leads on missing suspects. When Janoth murders a woman, Pauline York (Rita Johnson), who Stroud had spent the night with, his assistant Steve Hagen (George Macready) jumps into the fray, ready to frame the man who was with York before Janoth was. What neither man knows is that this man was Stroud, and when they contact Stroud to ask for his assistance catching the man, he immediately catches on that it's him they're looking for. What Stroud doesn't know is that this is about York's murder, because the two schemers pretend that this is about a scandal, and not a killing. In the meantime, Stroud's wife, Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan), has to contend with her husband not arriving for the train which was set to depart on their belated honeymoon while he's with York, and then his enforced absence when he's tasked with finding Janoth's patsy - himself. Stroud has to keep covering his tracks while putting all of his underlings on the wrong scent, find out this is about a murder and then work out what's really happened and how he can prove it. Quite a busy, complex set of circumstances.

I have to make a confession - I watched this twice, simply because I became confused the first time around. It's not a hard film to understand, but it is one with a whole variety of details and a whole sack full of callbacks to previous moments and events. Chekhov's Gun moments are what they're called - the definition of which states that "any seemingly unimportant element introduced into a story should later have relevance," and there's plenty of that here. There's also an interesting correlation thematically about clocks and the inevitable countdown to our death or own destruction - at least in relation to some of the characters in the film. I'm assuming "The Big Clock" alludes, in one sense or definition, to the 'tick-tock' passage of our lives and the fact we inexorably head towards our dates with destiny. Earl Janoth is obsessed with the subject of time - especially with not wasting it - and I liked the way Hagen and Stroud both change the time on a broken clock at the murder scene to either tamper with or correct the evidence related to when the murder was committed. References to clocks (a sundial is actually the weapon used to murder York) are scattered throughout the whole film, and come up often.

So, other than all of that this was a relatively straightforward film in many ways - one that I enjoyed for it's flat-out, sweat-drenched careening pace that ups the tempo of everything in it's final act. I hear Earl Janoth is based on magazine magnate Henry Luce (author Kenneth Fearing had previously worked at Time magazine), and Charles Laughton imbues the character with pompous, mincing, upper-class toad-like characteristics that makes every moment he's onscreen particularly enjoyable and amusing. I loved that performance. Also featuring is Harry Morgan as Janoth's mute assistant/henchman - mostly recognizable to me from his role in M*A*S*H. I'm starting to really appreciate Ray Milland in everything I see him in as well. There are myriad other small parts that give the lesser actors moments to shine also - especially Elsa Lanchester as artist Louise Patterson, whose loud voracious laughter hit me in the right place comedy-wise. Loved that laugh. She has the opportunity to point the finger at Stroud, and becomes an integral part of his attempts to avoid detection. George Macready, meanwhile, I'll never forget from his great role as villain Ballin Mundson in Gilda. All-in-all, a great cast.

I hold this film in very high regard now that I've fully digested it, and I think it successfully achieves everything it sets out to do. Screenwriter Jonathan Latimer has expertly given all of the dialogue real punch in adapting Fearing's novel. Interesting to note that in the novel Janoth and his 'ready-to-absolve-his-boss' assistant Hagan were gay lovers - obviously not something they were going to faithfully portray onscreen in 1948, although there was a sense that there might be something going on with Janoth and masseuse/heavy Bill Womack (the Harry Morgan role.) Also interesting to note is the fact that director John Farrow and actress Maureen O’Sullivan had a daughter together a couple of years before making this, and she was Mia Farrow - someone with a big future in front of her. Laughton's performance is my favourite thing in this movie - which would be remade a few times in the future as Police Python 357 (1976) and No Way Out (1987) - I've heard both films are quite good, but I've seen neither of them. I think it's excellent, and straddles the line between suspense and comedy extremely well, wisely giving the suspense angle the most emphasis. I'd never heard of it before.

Rating :
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Enjoy your reading your review Phoenix and I do believe you've increased my appreciation of The Big Clock to a higher level. Like you I also enjoy seeing Ray Milland in his movies. I wonder if he made more noir?



I forgot the opening line.
Enjoy your reading your review Phoenix and I do believe you've increased my appreciation of The Big Clock to a higher level. Like you I also enjoy seeing Ray Milland in his movies. I wonder if he made more noir?
I originally knew him when he was much older, in a horror movie I used to watch quite a bit as a kid (I only had access to so many - the very early days of video) called The Uncanny (1977) - one of those portmanteau movies, except in this all the stories were based on cats doing the murdering and Peter Cushing running around trying to prove the cats had done it and everyone thinking he's crazy. It wasn't a great movie, but I liked it back then (haven't seen it for such a long time.) Anyway, Ray Milland was in that.

I think playing Don Birnam The Lost Weekend (1945) was his biggest film noir signature role. I've already seen him in The Uninvited ('44) and Dial M For Murder ('54) Hall of Fame-wise.