Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

HotToastyRag Before I rented The Big Clock, I read a review in which someone praised the film as Charles Laughton's greatest performance. Since I really like Charles Laughton, I was pretty excited. And since I really like Charles Laughton, I can tell it like it is: whoever wrote that was an idiot. He doesn't do a bad job by any means, but he's no Quasimodo or King Henry VIII. Ray Milland, or as I've lovingly dubbed him Ray Mi-bland, is the star of this supposed thriller, and if you don't think to yourself after every line that comes out of his mouth, "Why wasn't this James Stewart?" then you need to watch some more old movies. Ray isn't likable, and he rattles off his lines like he's in a speed contest. Jimmy would have been likable, and I'm sure he would have found some way to make his character's stupidity believable.Ray is the employee of big-shot Charles Laughton, and he very stupidly spends time with Charles's mistress, Rita Johnson, when he's supposed to be going on vacation with his wife and son. He goes barhopping with Rita and then passes out in her apartment, all the while getting angry at his wife, Maureen O'Sullivan, for leaving for the vacation without him. This is not a guy to root for. We're supposed to root for him, though, because after Charles kills Rita in the heat of an argument, Ray gets framed for it. I just kept thinking that Rita was really mean for saying such terrible things to her sweetie pie, and Ray was a jerk for lying to his wife about the whole situation. So, since that was my mindset, it's understandable why I didn't really like this movie. There was one really cute part to the movie, though. Elsa Lanchester has a small part as a quirky artist, and when someone admires one of her paintings, she makes a joke about it not being a Rembrandt. She and her hubby Charles Laughton were in the 1936 biopic Rembrandt!

JohnHowardReid A Paramount production, released 9 April 1948, directed by John Farrow from a screenplay by Jonathan Latimer, based on the 1946 novel by Kenneth Fearing. Photographed by Daniel L. Fapp and John F. Seitz. Produced by Richard Maibaum and John Farrow. 95 minutes. (Available on a 10/10 Universal DVD). Plot: A dictatorial magazine publisher, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), orders his chief reporter, George Stroud (Ray Milland), to institute a hunt for a missing murder witness. Stroud himself is that witness.The author: Kenneth Fearing was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1902. He died in 1961. After working as a newspaper reporter in Chicago, he moved to New York where, whilst continuing to write articles for newspapers and magazines, he gained a considerable reputation as a poet. In fact, he published at least five collections of poems. Although his later books were not as warmly received as his earlier Angel Arms (1929) or Poems (1935), he continued to contribute to The New Yorker and Poetry right up to his death. Of his novels, "The Big Clock" proved far and away the most successful, both with critics and public, and it was the only one to be turned into a movie. The book: A comparatively short novel of around 50,000 words, "The Big Clock" is a book which even a slow reader could manage in three or four hours. Using a narrative structure borrowed from Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone (1868), it provides "George Stroud" with the opportunity to contribute eleven chapters, Earl Janoth himself three, while Steve Hagen (Janoth's evil henchman, menacingly brought to life in the movie by George Macready), Edward Orlin (called Edwin Orlin in the movie), Georgette Stroud (played by director John Farrow's real-life wife, Maureen O'Sullivan, in the movie), Emory Mafferson (a minor character—a reporter—omitted in the film) and even the dotty artist, Louise Patterson (played in the film by Laughton's real-life wife, Elsa Lanchester), provide one chapter each. Oddly enough, "The Big Clock" itself does not have a visual counterpart in the book. It simply refers to Time. The movie: The plot and characters in the book are more or less the same as in the movie, except that in the film version—surprise! surprise!—both are more fully developed. In the novel, the climax fizzles out when Janoth suddenly loses control and exits, off-camera as it were. The climax in the film is certainly far more exciting and, what I regard as more important, it is developed logically and convincingly.Only one character in the book seems more interesting than his movie counterpart. Oddly enough, this is George Stroud. Our hero has been ironed out for the film, partly because of censorship problems and partly because it was thought necessary to present a clear-cut, clean-cut hero with whom audiences could readily identify. On the other hand, the Janoth of the book is a mere shadow of the terrifyingly obese, self-preserving tycoon of the movie.Other characters that screenwriter Jonathan Latimer has made far more fascinating include Janoth's henchman, Billy (in the book, he is not dumb, merely noted for keeping silent), the glib McKinley (the novel gives his real name as Clyde Norbert Polhemus, but he never actually appears on-stage), and even Steve Hagen (in the book, Janoth makes no attempt to persuade Hagen to take his place).Director John Farrow has handled the movie with such a sure hand, making such instinctively artful use of his players, his camera and his sets, that many (including me) regard it as his best film. He himself, however, told me that he actually preferred another film in which he worked with screenwriter Latimer and actor Milland, namely "Alias Nick Beal".

PWNYCNY Besides being a who-done-it, this movie is also a brilliant comedy. Ray Milland and Charles Laughton give stellar performances as men who are at odds with each other, with lethal results. The rest of the cast is also excellent, especially Elsa Lancaster who plays an artist with a quick wit. The plot is clever, the acting wonderful, the cinematography catches the story's mood, and the movie, with all its twists and turns, is in general engaging and entertaining, The movie contains so many wonderful performances. And even though the movie was made in the late 1040s, it's still watchable today. That is, the movie has aged well and deals with issues that would resonate with today's audience. One thing about Ray Milland: he was a great actor with great screen presence, and proves that it this movie.

Alex da Silva George (Ray Milland) is never allowed time off work to spend with his family. Janoth (Charles Laughton) is his heartless boss who has a mistress Pauline (Rita Johnson) whom he accidentally murders. He then tries to cover his tracks and pin the murder on another man who Rita was seen with the night that she dies. The problem is that the man in question is George - and he is put in charge of the investigation.It's an OK lightweight thriller that is peppered with humour. The cast are all good but it is not fast-moving enough. In fact, it is extremely slow to get going. There isn't enough of a story for the first 45 minutes or so. There are daft moments - eg, George initially meets with Rita as she has information to give him regarding Janoth. We never hear what the important news is that she has for him and are expected to believe that they go on a drinking binge together without mentioning the original point of the meeting - on the evening that George has arranged to go away with his wife and son. What a load of cobblers!Charles Laughton gives a good performance as an eccentric, arrogant boss and Ray Milland is always likable, although slightly irritating in drunk scenes. Elsa Lanchester is funny as "Patterson" a slightly dotty artist. She provides a good moment in the film when her portrait of the killer is revealed........