Murder by the Clock (1931)

"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.

In this wonderfully atmospheric, creepy, classic 'dark old house mystery', complete with everything from secret passages to Edgar Allan Poe's fear of being buried alive, we definitely learn that, although in real life they've probably been around ever since Eve, the femmes fatales were also present in movies long before the term became popular as a characterization for fatally beautiful and sensuous women who lead men astray - usually in order to get into a large fortune...And that's exactly what Lilyan Tashman alias Laura Endicott does here: blonde and provocative, she turns one man's head after the other, turning them all against each other to kill one another, to inherit the large estate of her husband's aunt. She stops at nothing, and she thinks no one can stop her, and no one can resist her - but HERE she finally makes her big mistake: there IS someone who (even though with some difficulty, as the way he looks at her just before he takes her to the police station clearly shows...) CAN resist her; unbending, incorruptible Lieutenant Valcour (William Boyd)...A wonderfully enjoyable, suspenseful, entertaining mixture of daring pre-Code sensuality and good old-fashioned murder mystery, one of the best of its kind, with a great cast, stylish settings - and quite a clear 'message': Beware of dangerous blonds...!

Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde...and Murder By The Clock??? There's a reason this semi-horror thriller hasn't joined the ranks of those famous movies from 1931, and it's that this film is nowhere near the same level. It has some good things, but can't decide if it's a mystery (a shadowy figure commits a murder, and about five minutes later lets the audience know he did it!) horror (some mild Edgar Allan Poe Premature Burial stuff) or Vamp movie - the female kind, not the undead! The plot basically concerns Laura Endicott's (Lilyan Tashman) manipulation of the pathetic males she's lumbered with into each committing a murder in order to get her hands on the family fortune. It's fun to see Irving Pichel - after all he directed An American Tragedy and The Most Dangerous Game! - as the retarded brother constantly going on about killing people with knives and strangling them! And the film raises a few atmospheric moments. One or two of the cast moved on to Paramount's other horror show that year - Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Murder By The Clock failed to set the box office bell ringing, probably because it lacks the new supernatural element of the previously mentioned horror flicks. The direction is nothing special and the pace is slightly leaden. But it ain't bad as these things go, and is worth a look.

Creaky murder mystery about the unnatural death of the matriarch of a family and the attempt of the heirs to stay out of jail. A rather complex tale the film demands attention because so much is going on. Full of over ripe performances this is the sort of movie that they don't do any more. Its perfect late night viewing especially with the great sets of the manor house , grave yard, secret passages and other strange things, this is a film that takes you to a dark and creaky place. That said I don't think the film is anything other than good. As I said the over ripeness of it kind of diminishes the quality, but at the same time its got mood to burn. Worth a look for a dark and stormy late night.