Murder by the Clock

"Murder by the Clock" is an early murder mystery and it has a lot going for it. Unfortunately, it seems to have just about as much going against it and I see it as a movie only worth seeing if you have nothing better to do!

When the story begins, you learn that a nasty old lady is trying to figure out which person to leave her fortune to--and one is an obviously psychotic and mentally challenged guy. But leaving the money to a different relative is NOT a good choice either, as the man and his conniving wife, Laura, plan on murdering the old lady. Once this occurs, it's like a bag of potato chips...and Laura manipulates the men around her to keep killing to ensure she'll be rich AND avoid jail.

The problems with the film mostly boil down to subtlety....or the lack of it. Laura (Lilyan Tashman) is so obviously manipulative and evil that she's practically a cartoon character (like Snidely Whiplash, perhaps). And, because she's so obvious and transparent, seeing men throwing their lives away for this not super attractive and nasty lady just didn't make any sense. The other problem was that the film went on too long...and relied too much on filler. Cutting a bit of it AND making Laura more believably evil would have improved this one significantly.

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.

I was captured from the opening scene which takes place in a murky old Gothic style graveyard...then we move on to inside the tombs! Yeah, this is a good one. It's borderline horror with a large cast of weird characters, an excellent evil, evil woman, and all kinds of cool vintage strangeness. In one scene a corpse in disinterred to make certain she is really dead(yeah). Then an old woman sits holding said corpse which was dead and had been for awhile. A detective looks at the body and says..."yeah, she's cold as ice," WHOA! The actor who plays the super strong Quasimodo type dude was terrific as were most of the cast. This is one you don't want to miss. Find it, along with MURDER AT DAWN, if you are a fan of vintage horror or suspense. Its not really a mystery because you find out who did it right away. Tons of fun with this one! They don't make them like this anymore...and probably never will. Great lighting too.

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.

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.