Film Noir #9

 Noir: The Big Clock and The Big Knife

THE BIG CLOCK (1948) --- Some stories merit telling twice, Nightmare Alley as recent evidence. So too was The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, a noir novel of the forties, adapted in 1948 and again in 1987 (No Way Out). The Big Clock is infused with humor, lightly played by Ray Milland and sinisterly by Charles Laughton, a felicitous combination. Simon Callow in a Blu-Ray extra described Milland as “a butch Welshman” who despised Laughton, info I’d like to see a source for, though I understand Ray could be prickly w/ co-stars he found less than congenial, Marlene Dietrich (Golden Earrings), Hedy Lamarr (Copper Canyon) two such. Fearing’s novel was an attack on big business, indeed on capitalism itself, but Paramount would not go there. “Janoth Publications” impresses, an art-directed marvel, its sole liability a murderer as C.E.O. Laughton is dapper and better turned-out than in most 40’s circumstance (compare especially with soon-after The Bribe). We like him for once being in control and not the hapless victim of others’ machinations. Laughton characters had been dreadfully put upon during his thirties peak, many inviting pity or revulsion … not here.

The Big Clock gives Laughton leeway to dominate, his Janoth described as “an insufferable egomaniac,” a delight to see him play, no more the whipping post. Let him for once make victim of others. The Big Clock must have impressed as something chic for its time, a reveal of what made slick magazines of national prominence tick, this as they touched peaks of popularity. There had been Cover Girl to celebrate fashion in print, Otto Kruger as benign head. Stories set in publishing reflected lifestyles as lush, so could be expensive to mount. The Big Clock’s design dazzles, the Janoth empire as empiric as any apart from Metropolis. Director John Farrow manages a single-take elevator ride with doors opening on one rear-projected-floor after another, the effect seamless as 40’s film could manage, passenger enter/exit at each level, our P.O.V. from inside the lift. Once I met Noel Neill, asked her about playing the operator … she said the job was for one day, Farrow getting the whole in a single take, the actress done and out the same afternoon.

If you’re going to make a light thriller, do please let the initial murder play straight so the rest can generate suspense in concert with levity. The Big Clock knew this recipe and triumphs with it. Dialogue is crisp as a year’s worth of the New Yorker and what passed then as urban sophistication. Was this how moderns spoke, drank, interacted, in 1948? There is rapport among Milland’s “Crimeways” staff; we feel a part of his high-powered honeycomb. Janoth may be a tyrant, but his people seem happy enough with their jobs, exception the mistress he discards via sundial he clonks her fatally with, impetus for Acts Two and Three during which momentum does not flag. The Big Clock gets us close to being there as anything contemporary-set from post-war. Movement builds to a hair-split finish, The Big Clock a far-fetch for story but seeming authentic re white collar climb circa late 40's and daily struggle to keep a plush job afloat. Informative is "George Stroud" (Milland) comparing salary received from his old job vs. generous stipend he draws from Janoth, a primer to what was regarded best pay by then-measure, proof again that old movies don't just entertain, they teach. Many judge The Big Clock for smart comedy as much as noir, good reason it should please at least ones who find noir glum. If there are such things as feel-good from this category, The Big Clock fits snug there. Arrow Academy has the best Blu-Ray.

THE BIG KNIFE (1955) --- Clifford Odets wrote the play (1949) from which this was adapted. Fuss over any star signing a “seven-year contract” had dated by 1955, Hollywood a dismally different place, as if ’49 didn’t already reflect a wonderland in collapse. “Selling out” seems misplaced concern where Jack Palance argues it. I never got why his Charlie Castle was so miserable being a popular and high-paid movie star, apart from big boss Rod Steiger shouting tile off his patio. Odets liked movies and writing them but was made to feel guilty about it by pressuring peers who wanted to him to stay East, be poor but proud. Odets admitted later that Hollywood money was plenty OK and that some of his films turned out good (and they were … even The Story on Page One). The Big Knife is Playhouse 90 yelling from a bigger canvas, was suggested by strife and career of John Garfield, who played the Palance part on stage in ’49.

Did studio bosses hold felonies over the heads of contract stars, blackmail a basis for firm loyalty? The Big Knife says yes, and Odets was insider enough by the late 40’s to know. I wish Garfield had lived to play this on screen, as Palance needs adjusting to. Steiger is fun given proper mood. Work like this made his name shorthand for over-top emoting. Tab Hunter told a funny story where Natalie Wood laid on thick a scene for The Girl He Left Behind and Tab said, “Thank you, Mr. Steiger,” her response a day-long pout. Did Rod ever get around to parodying himself? If so, I’d enjoy seeing it. More subdued Wendell Corey benefits for the contrast if not customary skill he applies. A downer end does not appeal, but I guess they did sort of paint Palance’s character into a corner. How could he or anyone survive this steam bath? Director Robert Aldrich gets much energy from pretty much a single set. He knew hell that Hollywood could be. Wish he had left a memoir, though there is career study, with many interviews, by Edwin T. Arnold and Eugene L. Miller, Jr. The Big Knife is available on a nifty Blu-Ray from Arrow.

Other noirs starting with "B" elsewhere at Greenbriar: Beat the Devil, Berlin Express, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, The Big Boodle, The Big Combo, The Big Heat, The Big Sleep, and The Big Steal.