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DVD The Big Clock
What if you were asked to investigate a murder in which you were the prime suspect? From this seemingly impossible notion comes a grandly entertaining nail-biter. Charles Laughton plays the punctuality obsessed, slave-driving head of a publishing empire who won't let his crime magazine's star editor (Ray Milland) take a day off to spend with his family. The overworked Milland, having just upset a delayed honeymoon trip for the umpteenth time, goes on a sorrow-drowning, bar-hopping bender with a mysterious woman who, it turns out, is Laughton's mistress. Later that night after Milland has gone home, Laughton murders her, and the next day he assigns Milland to investigate, since a number of clues point to her having spent time with another man that night. Milland, then, must not only find the real murderer but sidetrack the investigation away from himself. That both characters are solving the crime in tandem yet unwittingly working toward pinning the murder on each other is at the heart of The Big Clock's labyrinthine brilliance. Helping bring out the dark humor in this adaptation of Kenneth Fearing's noir novel (included in the Library of America's Crime Novels collection) is Elsa Lanchester as a high-strung painter who can sketch the prime suspect (Milland), a time-bomb plot device that only adds to the already unbearable suspense. This is a taut, lean thriller, superbly handled by director John Farrow, who never fails to remind his audience through repeated use of clocks, timepieces, and watches that all too often in our lives that ticking sound is the enemy. This was remade in 1987 with Kevin Costner as No Way Out. --Robert Abele
The movie opens in a lavish office building decorated with very big and opulent clocks. This skyscraper is owned by a tyrannical publisher named Earl Janath (Charles Laughton). One of Janath's publications is a successful crime magazine. The editor for the magazine is George Stroud (Ray Milland), who has been a workaholic for Janath, so much so, that he's never taken a vacation, not even a honeymoon with his wife of 7 years. When Stroud finally decides to get away for that honeymoon that he's promised his wife, Janath entices him to stay to complete another business project. Stroud makes several poor choices in judgment and misses his rendezvous with his wife at the train station and ends up going on a drinking binge that evening with Janath's mistress Pauline York (Rita Johnson). Later that night Janath finds out that Miss York was with another man and she winds up dead and Janath instructs his crime magazine staff to find her mystery date. This sets up a tough position for Stroud, who realizes he's in a very precarious position unless he can find out who this murderer is.
The movie is very suspenseful and entertaining, but seemed to lack intensity and there were no major surprises or twists in the plot. Viewers of this film will notice a very young Harry Morgan, the actor who starred in TV shows such as "Dragnet" and "MASH". This movie was later remade in 1987 starring Kevin Costnar and Gene Hackman and was renamed "No Way Out", and is an excellent movie since there are a few unexpected surprises near the end of the movie. The Big Clock a very good movie, but not a great one, and but it's certainly worth watching, especially if you are a fan of classic film noir.
The DVD picture transfer appears virtually free of any surface defects. The picture quality in many scenes seemed to have a slightly softer focus and a dispersed lighting effect, and on occasion some graininess was noticed, but overall I was extremely happy with the look of it. The audio was fine too.
Movie: B
DVD Quality: A-
Solid Thriller Uses Confined Space to Create Suspense.
George Stroud (Ray Milland) is the tireless editor of "Crimeways" magazine, part of a publishing empire owned by the tyrannical Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton). George's innovations have made "Crimeways" a great success. His "clue charts" that profile criminals by using small clues that the police don't think relevant are one of the magazine's most popular features. After 5 years of marriage, George has scheduled a long overdue honeymoon, but Mr. Janoth wants him to stay and work. George insists on going anyway, at the risk of losing his job, but sees Janoth's mistress Pauline (Rita Johnson) before he leaves. George leaves her apartment just as Janoth is arriving. Janoth and Pauline quarrel, and Janoth kills her in a fit of rage. Frantic to hide his crime, Janoth asks George to use his skills of detection to find the man he saw leaving Pauline's apartment, whom Janoth believes can place him at the scene of the crime.
Based on Kenneth Fearing's 1946 novel of the same name, "The Big Clock" is a solid thriller that builds suspense well once the action becomes confined to the Janoth Publications building. Sometimes categorized as film noir, "The Big Clock" is really only mildly noir, but it does exploit some conventions of the noir style. In fact, it seems to do so self-consciously. The opening sequence seems borrowed from a darker crime film and tacked onto this one awkwardly. Most of the story is told in flashback -for no real reason. As the film opens, a hunted, panicked George intones, "Thirty-six hours ago I was a decent, respectable, law-abiding citizen with a wife and a kid and a big job..." Then we see those 36 hours. The film is most successful after the Janoth Publications building is locked down with all of the relevant parties inside, and a clever game of intellectual cat and mouse ensues. The scenes of emotional power come from that claustrophobia. The most memorable (and comic) performance comes from Elsa Lanchester as Louise Patterson, an eccentric, colorful painter, who inadvertantly becomes a pivotal witness to the mystery man's identity.
The DVD (Universal Studios 2004): This is a good print of the film. There is a theatrical trailer (2 minutes), which is actually a publicity spot in which director John Farrow and actor Ray Milland promote the film. Captions for the film are available in English for the hearing impaired. Subtitles are available in Spanish and French.
This Clock is Definitely Worth a Watch
Movie: ****1/2 DVD Transfer: **** Extras: ***1/2
Eccentric magazine magnate Charles Laughton has murdered his mistress, and plans to pin the crime on the unidentified man she spent her last evening carousing with in public, all over town. What Laughton doesn't know is that the mysterious man is none other than Ray Milland, who heads up Laughton's true crime magazine ... and whom Laughton has put in charge of the manhunt! It's a race against time as Milland tries to get proof of Laughton's guilt before Laughton figures out that Milland himself is involved. Quite a convoluted little plot, with some major holes along the way, but the film is so distinctively acted, suspensefully directed, and brilliantly photographed that it's easy to ignore the story's over-reliance on coincidence and just enjoy the ride.
The film boasts a great cast, the members of which seem to be having a wonderful time. Laughton is deliciously hammy and flamboyant in his villainous role, providing a perfect counterpoint to Milland's straightforward heroics. The two are reunited with beautiful leading lady Maureen O'Sullivan, with whom they had appeared sixteen years previously in "Payment Deferred"; here she plays Milland's oft-neglected but ever-supportive wife (in real life, O'Sullivan was married to the film's director, John Farrow). George Macready gives a sterling supporting performance as Laughton's right hand man, and Rita Johnson is just right as Laughton's doomed mistress. Other performers of note include Elsa Lanchester acting way over the top as a neurotic artist; Henry ("Harry") Morgan playing memorably against type as a sadistic hitman; veteran character actor Frank Orth turning in a nice bit as a bar owner; and the lovely actress with a golden voice, Teresa Harris, appearing unbilled as O'Sullivan's maid.
The DVD transfer of "The Big Clock" is of more than acceptable quality, marred only by some contrast fluttering in a nighttime scene at the beginning of the movie. This flaw appears to happen again near the film's climax - in a scene which takes place in the clockworks room - but this time, careful viewers will note that the effect is intentional, caused by light reflecting on moving metal bars that serve as part of the set decorations. Although not noted on the DVD package, the disc does indeed include the film's Original Theatrical Trailer, a rather interesting piece of film in and of itself.
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A certified film noir classic, Criss Cross embraces the genre's darkness with an uncompromising tale of doomed lovers and multilayered betrayal. Reuniting with director Robert Siodmak after their success with The Killers, Burt Lancaster plays a love-struck loser who seals his fate when he returns to Los Angeles to find his ex-wife (Yvonne DeCarlo) eager to rekindle their love against all better judgment. She encourages their torrid affair but marries a mobster (Dan Duryea); to deflect suspicion, Lancaster lures Duryea into an armored-truck robbery, creating a vortex of greed and passion from which he cannot escape. Featuring the brief screen debut of Tony Curtis, Criss Cross is a stylish masterpiece of clashing fates and fatal attractions; Franz Planer's... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Burt Lancaster - Yvonne De Carlo Director(s): Robert Siodmak DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The synopsis of this film is that a beautiful singer Mavis Marlowe (Constance Dowling) is separated from her alcoholic husband Martin Blair (Dan Duryea) and refuses to even let him visit her in her swanky high-rise apartment. This depresses Martin so much that he goes on a major bender, but on that same night Mavis is discovered murdered in her apartment by man named Kirk Bennett (John Phillips). While in the apartment, Bennett realizes that someone else is in the apartment, possibly the murderer, but somehow this person slips past Bennett. For some reason Bennett decides not to call the police but instead flees the scene of the crime but is seen by Mavis's maid. The police come to Bennett's home and break the news to his wife... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Dan Duryea - June Vincent - Peter Lorre Director(s): Roy William Neill DVD Release Date: Released the 06 July 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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