Murder apart, this is a witty black comedy, with a scene-stealing turn from Laughton’s wife Elsa Lanchester as a ditzy painter instructed to draw an artist’s impression of the killer. There’s a Hitchcockian moment as Stroud reads a report of the killer’s appearance and realises it matches his own, prompting him to bury his hat in a waste-paper basket. Which leads to frenzied multi-tasking on Stroud’s part, as he attempts to lead the manhunt on behalf of the magazine and incriminate Janoth whilst keeping himself in the clear, a task made harder as witnesses who saw him out on the tiles with the murder victim come forward. Janoth’s insistence that he cancel sets in train a series of events leading to the death of Janoth's mistress (Rita Johnson). Stroud, the editor of Janoth’s Crimeways magazine, is desperate to have a month off so that he can finally enjoy a delayed honeymoon with wife Maureen O’Sullivan. An innocent man trying to preserve his own life, Stroud is investigating himself for a murder he’s not responsible for, the killing really committed by his boss, oleaginous media magnate Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton). It’s a flashback, and there’s a first-person narration, though neither noir-ish device is used again. Visually it’s spectacular, the first establishing shot moving from a dark New York skyline to the interior of the art deco Janoth Building in (almost) one single take, showing us Ray Milland’s George Stroud taking refuge inside the titular timepiece. And it has an even more surprising ending.Farrow’s source material was a novel by poet and pulp fiction writer Kenneth Fearing, here adapted by crime author and screenwriter Jonathan Latimer. This movie is very good but having seen "No Way Out," I enjoyed it more. Since we know who the murderer was, the movie is suspenseful only to see how the plot will unravel to disclose Earl Jannoth. The movie also stars Maureen O'Sullivan as Georgette Stroud, George's wife, who was stood up on her honeymoon. She becomes a red herring in sketching the identity of the man who was with Paula during the evening. And when Stroud learns that Paula has been murdered, he doesn't know who the killer was although he saw Jannoth enter the apartment.Įlsa Lanchester as Patterson the artist provides comic relief and a serious side in the movie. As the movie goes on, all fingers seem to point to Stroud, but no one has put all the pieces together until the end. And he tries to insist th at that man caused her to go missing. ![]() He doesn't know that Stroud was with Paula that night, but he knows that someone was. ![]() ![]() The rest of the movie details Jannoth's coverup of the murder. Later, after Stroud leaves Paula, Jannoth appears at her apartment, they argue, and Jannoth murders her with a clock. So Stroud cavorts with Jannoth's mistress, Paula York (Rita Johnson) for the evening. When he tells Jannoth that he must leave, Jannoth fires him. He is in a hurry to leave on his honeymoon, but his boss Earl Jannoth (a young Charles Laughton) causes him to work late and miss his train. George Stroud (Ray Milland) works for Crimeways magazine, a subsidiary of Jannoth Enterprises. This 1948 movie was the predecessor to "No Way Out" starring Kevin Costner in the 1980s.
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