Murder by the Clock

An ice blooded femme fatale uses her wiles to eliminate the men who stand between her and a fortune. More a psychological study than a mystery, it may be a bit creaky by today's standards, but still is surprisingly entertaining.

Murder by the Clock from 1931 is so old it creaks. There are precodes and precodes - I find that films done before, say, 1933, are not well paced, the performances are mannered, and everyone talks slowly and takes big pauses in between. And there's an echo.

That out of the way, the cast members proved later on that they were capable of so much more: Lilyan Tashman, William Boyd, Irving Pichel, and Regis Toomey.

The story concerns the will of an old woman (Blanche Friderici) as she decides who is getting her money. That is, if she ever dies - she's so terrified of being buried alive that she has a horn installed in her crypt.

She has two choices as far as to whom she will leave her wealth - her son, the village idiot, or her worthless nephew (Pichel). Pichel's wife (Tashman) is constantly nagging him about getting the old lady's money sooner rather than later.

A domino effect is set up where people start dying - and two miraculously seem to come back to life, though one only briefly.

It's obvious who the mechanic behind the murders is, especially to the lieutenant on the case (Boyd). Will he do the right thing? And can he get the proof?

This is an old dark house mystery with secret passageways, a graveyard, a crypt, and it's dark. Frankly, I found it a little plodding. I thought William Boyd came off the best - he seemed to have found a good rhythm for his dialogue, and his acting was strong. Tashman for me got better as she went along.

I'd say this was a fun film, but you have to be in the mood. The echoes, the slow dialogue, the long pauses, plus the fact that it's hard to see much with the lighting, don't make this a favorite.

Disagreeable Blanche Friderici disinherits her son, Irving Pichel, who is a death-obsessed dullard, in favor of her nephew, Walter McGrail. He may be a drunk, and married to money-hungry Lilyan Tashman who's carrying on an affair with artist Lester Vail, she reasons, but he's not a brute. Miss Tashman tries to convince her husband the old lady should die tonight before she can change her mind, and she, she means they, can enjoy the money. And so the old lady is murdered, and the police come along. The chief of police thinks it's obviously Pichel, but lieutenant William 'Stage' Boyd is not so sure.

Three more murders and a resurrection take place in this Old Dark House mystery. It's certainly a creepy movie, what with the low light levels and creepy performances, but it shows the strength and weakness of director Edward Sloman. Visually it's perfect, but some of the performances are distinctly off; Sloman never really got out of the silent and largely depended on performers who could direct themselves, or a good dialogue director. Perhaps that's why the best performances are offered by Regis Toomey and Sally O'Neal, whose comic courtship amidst death and gloom are most welcome.

That's how detective William 'Stage' Boyd calls it with his analysis of scheming Lilyan Tashman (Laura). Her husband Walter McGrail (Herbert) is a candidate to inherit a fortune from old, grumpy Blanche Friderici (Julia). No wonder she's a sour-puss. Have you seen her son Irving Pichel (Philip)!!?? Well, Tashman is having an affair with Lester Vail (Thomas) and she will stop at nothing to get that inheritance all for herself.

We have a body count in this film so keep watching as they tally up. Tashman steals the show and Friderici is also good. Both these women deliver entertaining no-nonsense dialogue. The film is presented in the style of a creepy, house mystery with some nice sets for extra spook factor, eg, the crypt where there has been a siren installed in one of the tombs to alert people to any movement within a casket. This is quite a good idea. Basically, Friderici doesn't want to be buried alive so has an alarm system installed to prevent this happening to her. She recounts a story of someone who had turned over when their casket was opened. Ha ha. Actually, it's not that funny. I think I might have one.

However, whilst the sound of this horn is occasionally used to good effect, there is one particular scene where they could have just turned it off as it becomes irritating. Also, the lack of a soundtrack sometimes gives the film a feeling that it is dragging. Some tense music may have added to the atmosphere instead of leaving the action stale in patches.

It's nothing brilliant but one of the better efforts for this type of film.

1931's "Murder by the Clock" has remained a forgotten horror from the early 30s, but not by such eminent film historians like William K. Everson, who dutifully included it in his 1974 book CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM. Had it been made at Universal, no doubt it would be as well remembered as "Dracula" (which preceded it) or "Frankenstein" (which followed it), but Paramount did their share of terror classics too ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Island of Lost Souls," "Murders in the Zoo"). The sultry and seductive Lilyan Tashman (Mrs. Edmund Lowe) epitomizes what the word 'vampire' meant to audiences prior to Lugosi, a huge star going back nearly ten years, whose life would sadly end from cancer just three years after she made this. Irving Pichel, as the halfwit son with the strength of a bull, preferred working behind the camera rather than in front of it; nevertheless, as an actor, only his memorable work opposite Gloria Holden in "Dracula's Daughter" can compare with his macabre characterization here. Comic relief is supplied by Sally O'Neil's maid and Regis Toomey's Oirish cop (she co-starred with young Lon Chaney in 1933's "Sixteen Fathoms Deep," while Toomey's next film would see him co-starring with Boris Karloff in Universal's "Graft"). No, Paramount rarely dabbled in horror during the 30s, yet there wasn't a single dud among them.