The Big Clock (1948)

Best Quote: On the fourth floor - in the broom closet - a bulb has been burning for several days. Find the man responsible, dock his pay.

A Film Noir. Ray Milland plays a newspaper executive being framed for murder by his publisher. The big positive is the acting. Milland is solid and Charles Laughton is excellent as the manipulative, egotistical publisher. His real life wife, Elsa Lanchester has a small -but memorable - role as an eccentric painter. Macready and Margaret Sullivan are perfectly cast.

The direction is good and the photography excellent. The script has problems. The main plot is so convoluted and muddled the film quickly loses tension and ends with the standard shootout And the cat-and-mouse game between Milland and Laughton misses the mark. If only Hitchcock had directed! Still, a solid Film Noir. Rating **1/2