Based on poet Kenneth Fearing's suspense novel, THE BIG CLOCK (TBC) is not only a riveting hunted-man story with a fresh twist, but also a cautionary tale about what can happen if you let your job dictate your life: you'll miss your honeymoon and every family vacation; your marriage will suffer as your loving, understanding wife starts to lose faith in you and your endless excuses; your family life will be all but nonexistent; and worst of all, when your controlling, obsessive Boss From Hell kills someone in a fit of rage, you just might find yourself suspected of the crime! TBC is a family affair, with director John Farrow working with wife Maureen O'Sullivan, and real-life husband and wife Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester again sharing the silver screen. It's even a reunion of sorts for Ray Milland and composer Victor Young, the star and scorer of the 1944 chiller THE UNINVITED. Veteran mystery writer Jonathan Latimer ably adapts Fearing's novel for the big screen, its blend of suspense, urban cynicism, and smart, snappy dialogue intact. Some names and plot elements were changed, and the lovers' quarrel ending in murder, in which each accuses the other of being a closeted gay, now involves plain old straight infidelity. Nevertheless, the film's as gripping as the book, sometimes more so. In Fearing's novel, our hero George Stroud talks about the "big clock" which inevitably runs our lives no matter what: "Sometimes the hands of the clock actually raced, and at other times they hardly moved at all. But that made no difference to the big clock...all other watches have to be set by the big one, which is even more powerful than the calendar, and to which one automatically adjusts his entire life..." Film being a visual medium, the "big clock" metaphor becomes literal, with a huge clock/globe that tells you the time anywhere in the world, and lots of little clocks sprinkled all over the headquarters of Janoth Publications, a Henry Luce/Time-Warner-style magazine empire whose periodicals include ace editor George's magazine CRIMEWAYS, as well as AIRWAYS, NEWSWAYS, SPORTWAYS, STYLEWAYS, etc.
Set in 1948 NYC, TBC introduces us to George (Milland) via our anxious hero's innermost thoughts as he hides in the giant clock in the Janoth Publications lobby at night (DP John Seitz's "docu-noir" style works beautifully). In flashbacks, we see that despite being married for seven years, George and wife Georgette (O'Sullivan) have never had a honeymoon. Seems that Janoth (Laughton) hired George for CRIMEWAYS after he cracked a major murder case on his old newspaper in Wheeling, WV, and the control freak hasn't given George a day off since, always snatching the Stroud family's vacations from under them at the very last minute. (George and Georgette have a little boy, George Jr. -- how cutesy can you get? :-)). With the prestige and great salary CRIMEWAYS affords him, George has always been reluctant to say "No" to Janoth, especially since the publisher doesn't take kindly to being turned down, but our hero is getting fed up. So is Georgette, who sadly notes, "Sometimes I think you married that magazine instead of me...We're like two strangers sharing an apartment..." Janoth's mistress, Pauline York (played with soigné insouciance by Rita Johnson), overhears George bellyaching to Janoth's right-hand man, Steve Hagen (George Macready) about his treatment at Janoth's hands. At the Van Barth bar, Pauline tries to involve George in a blackmail scheme targeting Janoth, but George isn't interested until he finally stands up to Janoth, gets himself fired and blackballed, and drowns his sorrows at the bar with Pauline, only to realize too late that he missed his train and his disappointed family left for West Virginia without him. It's LOST WEEKEND time as the tipsy George and Pauline go on a bar crawl, including Burt's Place, where they pick up a metal sundial from the barkeep's collection of bric-a-brac, and an antique shop where they outbid an eccentric woman (the scene-stealing Lanchester) for a painting.
Unlike their affair in the book, in the film George and Pauline's relationship ends abruptly, with him waking up fully-clothed on her couch. Seeing Janoth's car on the street, Pauline hustles the dazed George out the door. Alas, Janoth is outside waiting for his turn with her. Though he doesn't see George's face as he slips out of sight, Janoth still suspects the worst. He lets Pauline have it, bludgeoning her with the heavy sundial, killing her instantly. The tight close-ups on the quarreling lovers' angry faces, especially Janoth's (nobody's jowls quiver like Charles Laughton's!), add enough intensity to make up for the bowdlerized argument. The desperate Janoth gets a brainwave: he'll have Steve rig the clues to misdirect suspicion, and he'll recruit the crack staff of CRIMEWAYS to track down the culprit, catching a killer and boosting magazine sales at the same time, led by none other than George Stroud! George can't turn Janoth down now; by leading the investigation, he can do a little misdirecting himself, buying time to find the real killer as the tension mounts and the bar crawl comes back to haunt him he's doing double duty as both cat and mouse! Milland's performance balances suavity, sympathy, and desperation. He and O'Sullivan ring true as a loving couple whose relationship is being sorely tested. Laughton is marvelously odious and sadistic with a pathetic undercurrent. Macready makes a stylishly devious right-hand man. The supporting cast includes a silent, sinister young Harry Morgan as a masseur-cum-henchman, Douglas Spencer of THE THING... fame as CRIMEWAYS reporter Bert Finch (not to be confused with Burt from Burt's Place, played by Frank Orth :-), and the ever-jolly Lloyd Corrigan as a radio actor who can play just about any character, including the bogus suspect known only as "Jefferson Randolph." TBC has been reworked twice, as 1987's NO WAY OUT and 2003's OUT OF TIME. They're both entertaining, but TBC is still my favorite version of the story.
Set in 1948 NYC, TBC introduces us to George (Milland) via our anxious hero's innermost thoughts as he hides in the giant clock in the Janoth Publications lobby at night (DP John Seitz's "docu-noir" style works beautifully). In flashbacks, we see that despite being married for seven years, George and wife Georgette (O'Sullivan) have never had a honeymoon. Seems that Janoth (Laughton) hired George for CRIMEWAYS after he cracked a major murder case on his old newspaper in Wheeling, WV, and the control freak hasn't given George a day off since, always snatching the Stroud family's vacations from under them at the very last minute. (George and Georgette have a little boy, George Jr. -- how cutesy can you get? :-)). With the prestige and great salary CRIMEWAYS affords him, George has always been reluctant to say "No" to Janoth, especially since the publisher doesn't take kindly to being turned down, but our hero is getting fed up. So is Georgette, who sadly notes, "Sometimes I think you married that magazine instead of me...We're like two strangers sharing an apartment..." Janoth's mistress, Pauline York (played with soigné insouciance by Rita Johnson), overhears George bellyaching to Janoth's right-hand man, Steve Hagen (George Macready) about his treatment at Janoth's hands. At the Van Barth bar, Pauline tries to involve George in a blackmail scheme targeting Janoth, but George isn't interested until he finally stands up to Janoth, gets himself fired and blackballed, and drowns his sorrows at the bar with Pauline, only to realize too late that he missed his train and his disappointed family left for West Virginia without him. It's LOST WEEKEND time as the tipsy George and Pauline go on a bar crawl, including Burt's Place, where they pick up a metal sundial from the barkeep's collection of bric-a-brac, and an antique shop where they outbid an eccentric woman (the scene-stealing Lanchester) for a painting.
Unlike their affair in the book, in the film George and Pauline's relationship ends abruptly, with him waking up fully-clothed on her couch. Seeing Janoth's car on the street, Pauline hustles the dazed George out the door. Alas, Janoth is outside waiting for his turn with her. Though he doesn't see George's face as he slips out of sight, Janoth still suspects the worst. He lets Pauline have it, bludgeoning her with the heavy sundial, killing her instantly. The tight close-ups on the quarreling lovers' angry faces, especially Janoth's (nobody's jowls quiver like Charles Laughton's!), add enough intensity to make up for the bowdlerized argument. The desperate Janoth gets a brainwave: he'll have Steve rig the clues to misdirect suspicion, and he'll recruit the crack staff of CRIMEWAYS to track down the culprit, catching a killer and boosting magazine sales at the same time, led by none other than George Stroud! George can't turn Janoth down now; by leading the investigation, he can do a little misdirecting himself, buying time to find the real killer as the tension mounts and the bar crawl comes back to haunt him he's doing double duty as both cat and mouse! Milland's performance balances suavity, sympathy, and desperation. He and O'Sullivan ring true as a loving couple whose relationship is being sorely tested. Laughton is marvelously odious and sadistic with a pathetic undercurrent. Macready makes a stylishly devious right-hand man. The supporting cast includes a silent, sinister young Harry Morgan as a masseur-cum-henchman, Douglas Spencer of THE THING... fame as CRIMEWAYS reporter Bert Finch (not to be confused with Burt from Burt's Place, played by Frank Orth :-), and the ever-jolly Lloyd Corrigan as a radio actor who can play just about any character, including the bogus suspect known only as "Jefferson Randolph." TBC has been reworked twice, as 1987's NO WAY OUT and 2003's OUT OF TIME. They're both entertaining, but TBC is still my favorite version of the story.