Ray Charles Video:

		List Price: $14.98		Label: Universal Studios Salesrank: 32482 Released: July 6, 2004
		Our Price: $6.63
		Used Price: $6.34
		MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated) Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
A CRIME-MAGAZINE PUBLISHER KILLS HIS MISTRESS, THEN ORDER HIS EDITOR TO LEAD A MANHUNT.

Description of The Big Clock (Universal Noir Collection):
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 Big Clock (Universal Noir Collection) Reviews:
Beat The Clock!
2009-11-09 - THE BIG CLOCK(1948)---Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O'Sullivan, Elsa Lanchester, George Macready
A very good noir starring Ray Milland as a magazine editor for a publishing empire run by Charles Laughton. Through a typical series of "noir circumstances", Milland finds himself the prime suspect in the murder of Laughton's mistress. Of course, Laughton is the real culprit and George Macready plays an obsequious "toadie" who agrees to help Laughton cover-up his crime(at least until Laughton turns on him). As usual, Laughton "chews the scenery" as the megalomaniacal publisher. As always, Elsa Lanchester is wonderful as an eccentric painter and is a joy to watch---IMO, she is one of the most underrated actresses ever---she seems never to have gotten out from under the "cloud" of being, THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN. I would recommend this film to those who like noir or who just like a good "suspense" movie.

tommyt
2009-06-03 - i found this movie to be very exciting and thrilling. watching ray milland go after the killer is a lot of fun. even though you know at the
beginning that charles laughton killed her, you get to play along to see
how they will catch him. it is still thrilling to the end because ray
milland almost gets caught and he works hard to find the real killer.
old movies like this one make you appreciate how films should be made.
suspenseful with a litte humor thrown in helps make this a very good movie
to watch and enjoy.

Sleek thriller - not noir.
2009-02-16 - The Big Clock is slick and stylish with beautiful moderne sets and beautiful people but this is not noir. The elements of fatalism and entrapment in the twisty plot are undermined by the arch comedy. The characters are too suave and sophisticated - this plays like a knowing parody of noir that was way ahead of its time. Noir films took themselves seriously. The Big Clock would be more than a fine entertainment if it played straight up.

Patience Will Be Rewarded With This
2009-01-30 - This movie starts so slowly you want to give up on it after 30 minutes, but you get rewarded if stay with it.

Once the murder takes place, the film's pace livens considerably and makes the movie interesting. Ray Milland entertains as the innocent man on the run. Charles Laughton and George MacCreasy were good villains and so was henchman Henry Morgan (who never uttered a line!). Elsa Lanchester provides some humor relief in her minor role.

Also in this deep cast are Maureen O'Sullivan, Daen Tobin, Rita Johnson and Harold Vermilyea. This is a film noir that's a bit different from most of the genre. It decent, but nothing spectacular. I've seen it twice, though, (once on VHS) and it does draw me back every 8-9 years or so. To be honest to my fellow reviewers here, it's worth a rental but not a blind buy.

Build My Gallows High
2009-01-11 - Director John Farrow helmed this adaptation of Kenneth Fearing's novel, The Big Clock, pacing it nicely and allowing the viewer to become more and more involved in a game of one-upsmanship between reporter Ray Milland and boss Charles Laughton, with the prize being a murder charge! The glossy production benefits from Victor Young's score and a nice supporting cast, including Laughton's wife, Elsa Lanchester, who steals every scene she's in as the ditzy artist helping Milland out of a jam. Jonathan Latimer's screenplay and some nice cinematic touches from photographer John Seitz make this a fun film to watch.

George Stroud (Ray Milland) hasn't been able to give wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) the honeymoon she deserves because his priggish boss, Janoth (Charles Laughton), won't let him take one. Running Crimeways, one arm of a vast newspaper empire built by Janoth, he's had little time for his wife and son, because every time he tries to get away with his loving wife, Janoth reels him back in for a big story. But West Virgina calls and George almost makes it this time, and in fact does, but must leave an exasperated and bewildered wife when Pauline (Rita Johnson), Janoth's mistress, is murdered. George must head the paper's efforts to find the man she was with shortly before her demise, because it was George himself. It was quite innocent, of course, but a noose still awaits, not to mention a heartbroken wife.

The cat and mouse game between Milland and Laughton is fun to watch. George knows Janoth was her benefactor, but Janoth is unaware the man he's trying to pin the murder on is George himself. As the clues on the Crimeways blackboard all point to George, he desperately tries to find a cab driver who can absolve him of the crime. Once Georgette discovers the problem she attempts to help a trapped George by finding that cab driver, but finds something much more, giving George the leverage he needs to trick a killer, with a slight assist from old bar pal McKinley (Lloyd Corrigan). An exciting last half hour and terrific conclusion puts this one over the top, making it one of the best of its kind ever filmed. Though sort of remade as No Way Out with Kevin Costner and delicious Sean Young, it still doesn't hold a candle to the original.

The title comes from Janoth's obsession with clocks, which are everywhere, including a towering one in the paper's lobby which plays an integral part during the chase. George Macready does a nice job as Janoth's henchman, Steve Hagen, but it is Elsa Lanchester as artist Louise Patterson who brightens the film in every frame she's in. If Milland wasn't so dashing in the British way she would steal the film right out from under everyone. O'Sullivan still looks great post Tarzan, and Rita Johnson, from another fine film in this genre, They Won't Believe Me, gives a stellar performance. All in all, an exciting and entertaining film which is a must see for fans of this genre. As a fabulous bonus for radio fans, the included original advertisement for the film plays out as a preview of radio's outstanding theatre of thrills, Suspense. A real gem.