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The Big Clock (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Big Clock | |
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| Directed by | John Farrow |
| Produced by | John Farrow Richard Maibaum |
| Written by | Kenneth Fearing (novel) Jonathan Latimer |
| Starring | Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan |
| Music by | Victor Young |
| Cinematography | Daniel L. Fapp John Seitz |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | April 9, 1948 (U.S. release) |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Big Clock is a 1948 film noir thriller set in New York City based on the novel of the same name by Kenneth Fearing. The black-and-white film was directed by John Farrow and starred Ray Milland. Real-life married couple Elsa Lanchester and Charles Laughton appear in the film, as does Harry Morgan in an early film role as the film's hired thug. The movie is told in flashback. When the movie begins, Stroud (Milland) is shown hiding from the police behind the "Big Clock"― the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built, which is in the lobby of his publishing company.
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Stroud, a workaholic trying to spend more time with his wife, plans a vacation from his job as a magazine crime reporter. Instead of meeting his wife to start their vacation, Stroud starts drinking and spends the evening with a blonde. Later the blonde is found dead and Stroud is tasked by his Hearst-like publishing boss (Laughton) to find the killer. While investigating, Stroud tries to keep the facts of his night with the woman a secret because he knows he has been seen leaving the scene of the crime. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must disrupt his ordinarily brilliant team as they increasingly build evidence (albeit wrong) that he is the killer.
Reviews of the film in 1948 as well as today remain mostly positive. Bruce Eder writing in the All Movie Guide writes 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." [1]
Film writer David M. Meyer calls The Big Clock "More screwball comedy than noir, The Big Clock's big moments derive from snappy dialogue and over-the-top humor."
The movie was one of 400 films on the nominee list for the American Film Institute's "100 Years... 100 Thrills" list of the greatest thrillers in American film history.
The story was remade in 1987 as No Way Out with Kevin Costner. The 1948 version is more similar to the novel.
- Ray Milland as George Stroud
- Charles Laughton as Earl Janath
- Maureen O'Sullivan as Georgette Stroud
- George Macready as Steve Hagen
- Rita Johnson as Pauline York
- Elsa Lanchester as Louise Patterson
- Harry Morgan as Bill Womack (as Henry Morgan)
- All Movie Guide
- ^ David M. Meyer (1998). A Girl and a Gun: The Complete Guide to Film Noir on Video. Avon Books. ISBN 0-380-79067-X.