Anatomy of a Movie #1: The Big Clock (1948)

Remember the 1987 thriller "No Way Out" starring Kevin Costner, Sean Young and Gene Hackman? It was terrifically entertaining. You may not know, however, that it was a remake of the taut 1948 film noir classic "The Big Clock," which itself was drawn from the Kenneth Fearing book of the same name.

In "The Big Clock," the crime-magazine editor character played by Ray Milland is ordered by his tycoon-publisher boss played by Charles Laughton to lead the investigation of a woman's murder. The catch is, of course, that all roads lead right back to Milland who was seen with the woman the night she was murdered. As the noose tightens around the innocent Milland, he discovers that the woman was actually murdered by his boss, the malicious Charles Laughton. It seems that Milland was leading an investigation and running it as a ruse to protect himself, but that his boss had ordered the investigation in the first place as a ruse to protect himself. The Costner-Young-Hackman triangle in "No Way Out" is a faithful, suspenseful replication of these dynamics.

It's interesting to note that the poet Kenneth Fearing, who was also founding editor of The Partisan Review, worked at Time Magazine for Henry Luce. He despised Luce and he hated his job, so he modeled the dreadful Earl Janoth character played by Laughton after Luce. Of course, the Janoth Secretary of Defense counterpart in "No Way Out" played by Gene Hackman was also despicable, but not to the depths of Fearing's parody of Luce.

John Farrow directed the film, a man who never found Hollywood's top rung as a director. "The Big Clock" was perhaps his best effort and, to be fair, it is nicely done. Farrow was married to the movie's female lead, the great Maureen O'Sullivan. Despite this connection, O'Sullivan was nonetheless required by producer Richard Maibaum to audition since she had not acted in six years. One of their children was Mia Farrow, by the way. 

1948 was a  productive year for "The Big Clock," since Milland and O'Sullivan reprised their roles on a "Lux Radio Theater" version of it that same year."

 
Photo courtesy of moviepostershop.com