I still don't know the significance of The Big Clock - really, you could have had the entire film without it, as it just features in one scene. Maybe it was more important in the original book, and admittedly there's a speech given by the main character about how Time oppresses people, but, eh.
Anyway, this is a pretty straightforward tale, neither mystery (you see everything happen) nor noir (the good end happily, the bad are neatly disposed of without the need for intervention by law enforcement), with a fair amount of meandering around and drinking in bars. It looked like it was going to be a noir because it began with one of those hero-in-a-tight-spot-with-"I bet you're wondering how I ended up here, right?"-voiceovers. And this features the titular clock, which is a huge art-deco-ish one in the middle of the Janoth building, named after the very eccentric head of a publishing empire (who is obsessed with schedules, so that's why he wanted one central clock that all the other clocks in the building run off - yes, I know what you're thinking, but really he could have had some other eccentricity without it really affecting the movie). In this bookend scene, it is late at night and our hero George Stroud (Ray Milland, who really should always play villains, as in Dial M for Murder because he has the most villainous eyes) is sneaking around the lobby avoiding a security guard. We then cut back to "36 hours earlier," and it is morning, and Stroud is arriving to work in the same lobby.
There's then a rather long, humorous scene of him ascending in a crowded elevator, where each floor is one of the Jaroth publications, which all end in -ways. So, most people get off on the floor before George, which is Newsways, but he keeps ascending to Crimeways, of which he is the editor. He is already late for a big meeting of the heads of each publication, but a call comes in to reveal that a criminal ("Fleming") they have been trying to find has been located. The reason George is in charge of Crimeways (and was plucked from obscurity in West Virginia, of all places) is because he's an expert at finding people before the cops do (and now that can be put to good use for circulation, because Crimeways gets exclusive interviews). He explains his method (foreshadowing!) which involves a big chalkboard whereon everything they know about the suspect is written,
and they focus on clues that don't look like clues. So, the current quarry has been flushed out because he's an obsessive collector of shells, and somehow they found out he was only missing one, and it could only be found in a museum in Salt Lake City, so George put a man to watch it, suspecting that their guy couldn't resist coming to steal it. Bingo! Well, George arrives late at the meeting, and we meet the odious Earl Janoth, played by Charles Laughton.
There's a quote from Heath Ledger where he supposedly muttered when he was beaten out for an Oscar by Philip Seymour Hoffman for his showy portrayal of Truman Capote - "I thought it was for the best acting, not the most acting" - and Laughton's performance prompted Jami to dust that one off. He seems to collect a set of mannerisms for each of his characters (and in this case, some truly unfortunate facial hair), and in this case they include a usually expressionless face (which twitches and contorts in moments of extreme stress), an odd, monotone, sneering delivery and a rigidly upright walk. It's a lot, but it does effectively make you hate him. Anyway, as I said, the main body of the film is pretty straightforward. 1. Stroud has been trying to go on "honeymoon" for seven years, because he was on it when Jorath hired him to run Crimeways because of what he'd done as a lowly scribe in West Virginia. And every time he tries to go away (it's been a lot, as we see because his 6-year-old son refuses to pack for the trip they're supposedly about to go on because he's so used to them not happening) Jorath drags him back for some emergency. Well not this time! Jorath seems to regard it as a weird flex to be able to prevent his employees going on holiday, but Stroud is prepared to quit if he does. 2. Jorath has a mistress, who shows up in his office and overhears Stroud complaining about all this over the intercom. She later hits on George in a bar/restaurant where he's waiting for his wife to celebrate the about-to-happen trip (to West Virginia!) He doesn't respond, and his wife (played by Maureen "Jane from Tarzan" O'Sullivan, whom I got confused with Maureen "the mother from the Parent Trap" O'Hara) shows up, suspicious, and the mistress (Pauline York, played by Rita Johnson, and supposed to be a great beauty, but seems just ordinary (by actress standards) to me) scurries off, but not before letting slip what she'd heard and that they might have a common enemy. Well, later Jorath puts his foot down and George quits (and Jorath says he'll blacklist him from every newspaper job in the country) and, instead of going home to his wife to get on the train/plane to West Virginia, agrees to meet Pauline at the same bar to get schnozzled. This turns into a massive gripe-fest against Jorath, to the extent that he misses the train to get home and his wife jets off to WV without him. And then, instead of trying to catch her up, he embarks on an epic bar crawl with Pauline, that involves buying a painting and picking up a weird spiky trophy-like statuette from his favorite bar, Burt's. It ends with him passed out at Pauline's and then her shaking him awake because Jorath is about to arrive.
He hurries out and is in the shade at the end of the hallway, about to take the stairs, when Jorath arrives by elevator. Each stare at each other, but Jorath can't see George clearly in the shadow and doesn't know it's him. He enters, gets into a fight with Pauline (he rants about her past lovers, she tells him everybody hates him) and, cue twitchy face, and, 3. suddenly that pointy statuette comes in handy. Then, hilariously, he heads over to his second-in-command at the publishing empire, Steve Hagen, and announces flatly, "Steve, I just killed someone" as he asks for a cigarette.
Steve says he'll sort everything out, and goes over to Pauline's place, finds a hankie of George's (not identified), presumably thinks it's Jorath's, messes with the clock that fell on the floor (CLOCKS AGAIN) and heads off.
By this time George has arrived at the cabin in WV (with the painting) and is patching everything up with his (frankly whiny) wife when Hagen and Jorath call. He is willing to stay fired until it becomes clear that they're searching for somebody called Jefferson Randolph, which is the name Pauline gave for George before being clubbed to death. Now, this name occurred to Pauline because it's a real person who hangs out at Burt's, and George thinks that Jorath wants him found because he's jealous. So, to protect himself and Jefferson, George has to go back, causing more snit fits from the wife. And now he has to run his usual clue-board hunt for... himself.
This is very tricky, as you can imagine. Meanwhile he keeps ringing Pauline to check in, but of course the phone just rings. (It's only 2/3 of the way through that he finds out she's dead and clocks (see what I did there?) what's really going on.
Anyway, takes a bit to get going, but the last 45 minutes-ish are pretty packed. And there are odd comedic moments. A comical bartender, and best of all, Elsa "Bride of Frankenstein but really bride of Laughton" Lanchester shows up playing an eccentric (she seems to be competing with her husband in an eccentric-off) artist
with a habit of ending sentences with a kind of shrieky laugh artist. She met George because he outbid her for the painting, even though, oddly it's one of hers (and he already has others by her). And yet she is bohemian enough to cover up for him, because she clearly has no regard for law or decorum (and has a great need for money, because she has 4 or 5 children by 3 or 4 husbands). There's also a very young Henry-later-Harry "Colonel Potter in Mash" Morgan playing an apparently mute henchman/masseur (!)
for Jorath, whom George has to fight (even though he's about twice Morgan's size) in the one scene inside the Big Clock.
Also George's wife turns out to be surprisingly understanding when she comes to his workplace, sees the Big Clue Board and instantly sees that it's him. She is very quick to forgive his carousing with a then murdered blonde, and actually tries to be useful in proving his innocence.
Anyway, not what I thought it'd be (a noir) but more of a low rent Hitchcock style innocent-man-on-the-run thing with some fine noirish cinematography, great mid century office decor and parade of eccentric character actors strutting their stuff. A nice diversion.
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