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No Hands on the Clock

  • 1941
  • Approved
  • 1h 16m
IMDb RATING
6.0/10
272
YOUR RATING
Rose Hobart, Chester Morris, and Jean Parker in No Hands on the Clock (1941)
WhodunnitCrimeDramaMystery

A wise-cracking private eye is sent to celebrate his honeymoon in the divorce capital of the world, Reno, Nevada, to find a missing man. Along the way, he encounters suspicious characters an... Read allA wise-cracking private eye is sent to celebrate his honeymoon in the divorce capital of the world, Reno, Nevada, to find a missing man. Along the way, he encounters suspicious characters and a trail of dead bodies.A wise-cracking private eye is sent to celebrate his honeymoon in the divorce capital of the world, Reno, Nevada, to find a missing man. Along the way, he encounters suspicious characters and a trail of dead bodies.

  • Director
    • Frank McDonald
  • Writers
    • Daniel Mainwaring
    • Maxwell Shane
  • Stars
    • Chester Morris
    • Jean Parker
    • Rose Hobart
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    6.0/10
    272
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Frank McDonald
    • Writers
      • Daniel Mainwaring
      • Maxwell Shane
    • Stars
      • Chester Morris
      • Jean Parker
      • Rose Hobart
    • 14User reviews
    • 7Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos6

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    Top cast23

    Edit
    Chester Morris
    Chester Morris
    • Humphrey Campbell
    Jean Parker
    Jean Parker
    • Louise Campbell
    Rose Hobart
    Rose Hobart
    • Marion West
    Dick Purcell
    Dick Purcell
    • Red Harris
    Astrid Allwyn
    Astrid Allwyn
    • Gypsy Toland
    Rod Cameron
    Rod Cameron
    • Tom Reed
    George Watts
    • Oscar Flack
    James Kirkwood
    James Kirkwood
    • Warren Benedict
    Billie Seward
    Billie Seward
    • Rose Madden
    Robert Middlemass
    Robert Middlemass
    • Police Chief Bates
    Grant Withers
    Grant Withers
    • Harry Belding
    Lorin Raker
    • Clyde Copley
    George J. Lewis
    George J. Lewis
    • Dave Paulson
    • (as George Lewis)
    Ralph Sanford
    Ralph Sanford
    • Officer Gimble
    Ralph Dunn
    Ralph Dunn
    • Policeman
    • (uncredited)
    Edward Earle
    Edward Earle
    • Passerby Below Clock
    • (uncredited)
    John Gallaudet
    John Gallaudet
    • Alex
    • (uncredited)
    Gertrude Hoffman
    Gertrude Hoffman
    • Passerby Below Clock
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Frank McDonald
    • Writers
      • Daniel Mainwaring
      • Maxwell Shane
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews14

    6.0272
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    Featured reviews

    6csteidler

    Good cast in entertaining but complicated comedy

    Private detective Chester Morris phones his boss: he has found the person their detective agency was hired to find, but he is not bringing her back—in fact, he's just married her and they're on their way to Reno for a honeymoon. Alas, the boss follows and mystery awaits Morris and new wife Jean Parker; the couple check into a hotel across the street from a mortuary fronted by a large clock with swinging pendulum but no actual hands, where they proceed to spend a merry 75 minutes chasing crooks and each other around the neighborhood.

    A strong cast of B movie stalwarts includes Dick Purcell as a bank robber named Red, and Astrid Allwyn as a dangerous female at the bar. George Watts is the comical yet crafty boss detective who drags our man Chester into the case by promising to buy Parker a fur coat when the case is finished. (Other familiar faces who appear in bits include Milburn Stone as an FBI man and Keye Luke as a cash-hungry fired house servant.)

    The plot is, frankly, way too involved and packed with too many characters for it all to make a lot of sense. Among other story threads, it seems that both the FBI and the gang of robbers think that Chester is a fellow bank robber whom he apparently resembles greatly (but whom we never meet).

    What are easy to follow, however, are the reasons we watch in the first place—little touches like Morris's fondness for milk contrasted with Parker's inability to drink it at all; the accordion that Morris repeatedly picks up but never gets around to playing for more than a measure or so; and, of course, the handless clock that our heroes can see from their hotel window. (A symbol of something? Perhaps it would have been in a movie that had had the time to develop such an idea.)

    It's fast moving and fun. Having watched with moderate attentiveness, I can honestly say that I don't feel much moved by the actual plot, and I'm not particularly concerned about the meaning of the clock. However—I would like to ask the same question of Chester Morris and his accordion that the room service boy asked him early on in the picture: "Can you jive on that thing?"
    5boblipton

    Chester Morris Gets Jean Parker....and the Story Begins

    It's one of the movies that Chester Morris starred in for Pine-Thomas, producers of good B movies for Paramount. Morris plays a private detective who has just married his occasional co-star Jean Parker, when they get involved in a missing person case in Reno.

    It's a decent effort, although director Frank MacDonald directs it with his budget clearly in mind, and Miss Parker seems to be doing a Paulette Goddard imitation. There are mild screwball overtones, and Morris is good at them, but there are too many suspects left in from Daniel Mainwaring's novel.

    Still, as with most of the Pine-Thomas productions, there's a good deal of pleasure watching actors and actresses either before they became famous (there's Rod Cameron away from the westerns), or past their glory days (Jack Norton, perennial comic drunk, plays a bar tender!), While by no means one of Pine-Thomas' better productions, it gets the job done.
    8JLRMovieReviews

    Chester and Jean Make Good Company

    Chester Morris and Jean Parker star in this mystery that seems to have more comedy than mystery. They are newlyweds and are about to go on their honeymoon, when he is hired to find a missing person, as Chester is a detective. This film has a very relaxing and natural feel to it, as Chester and Jean banter back and forth. The viewer enjoys their company so much, you wish you could hang out with them for all the excitement and fun and games, particularly Chester. One might call it the Dean Martin trait. (They seem like the poor man's Nick and Nora Charles.) I tried to follow the mystery, as someone is indeed murdered. I did follow it, up the last 20 minutes or so. But what this has going for it is good company. If you're lucky enough to find this unknown little mystery, you've got one little gem, that has charm in spades.
    7ilprofessore-1

    Keep it moving!

    This much better than average comedy mystery made in 1941 by the Pine-Thomas B picture unit at Paramount is excellently staged by journeyman director Frank McDonald, but I'm guessing that much credit must go to film ediitor Bill Zeigler who started with comedies at the Roach studios, then did a number of Hitchcock pictures, and ended up editing many of Warner Bros. Greatest A budget musicals like MY FAIR LADY. Zeigler, master editor, keeps all his cuts moving so effortlessly, switching from laughs to drama and back, that the viewer soon doesn't give a damn about who did what to who and why. The crime plot is enormously convoluted, impossible to follow, but that doesn't inhibit us from enjoying the excellent Nick and Norah chemistry and laughs between Chester Morris and his jealous bride Jean Parker. They are surrounded, as to be expected, by first rate cast of familiar faces, including Jack Norton, who for once is not the drunk at the bar but the bartender behind it. All highly entertaining. This is one of those 1940s quickies that feels as if everyone working on it had a good time, having no idea how good the film would turn out,
    7goblinhairedguy

    Neat rapid-fire B pic

    This is a terrific unknown B-picture from the Pine-Thomas outfit at Paramount. Chester Morris plays a fast-talking (and thinking) private dick who drinks milk instead of whiskey. Jean Parker is his sassy, lacto-intolerant new bride. There are plenty of other good character turns, especially by Astrid Allwyn as a hot-to-trot barfly. Although the plot (from Geoffrey Homes of "Out of the Past" fame) is intriguing, it's a bit too complex for such a short programmer. However, the repartee and character "bits of business" are top-notch, and journeyman director McDonald maintains a breakneck pace while slipping in some clever camera angles. The cryptic title refers to a clock that represents eternity, located outside a funeral home facing the hero's hotel. Worth seeking out.

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
    • Quotes

      Gypsy Toland: I didn't kill her!

      Humphrey Campbell: I didn't say you did, but you're on the spot. We're both on the spot--our fingerprints are all over the place.

      Gypsy Toland: I got there just before you did. She was... you saw her.

    • Connections
      Edited into Who Dunit Theater: No Hands on the Clock (2021)
    • Soundtracks
      Dolores
      Music by Louis Alter (uncredited)

      Played by nightclub pianist

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 1, 1941 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Streaming on "Broken Trout" YouTube Channel
      • Streaming on "Classic Hollywood Movies" YouTube Channel
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • El reloj sin manos
    • Filming locations
      • Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production company
      • Pine-Thomas Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 16 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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    Rose Hobart, Chester Morris, and Jean Parker in No Hands on the Clock (1941)
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