George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.
Direction
Farrow squeezes dread from every ticking clock
Production
That massive clock set — Art Deco anxiety monument
Acting
Laughton's volcanic ego vs Milland's sweating desperation
Director
John Farrow
Ray Milland
George Stroud
Charles Laughton
Earl Janoth
Maureen O'Sullivan
Georgette Stroud
George Macready
Steve Hagen
Rita Johnson
Pauline York
Elsa Lanchester
Louise Patterson
Harold Vermilyea
Don Klausmeyer
Dan Tobin
Roy Cordette
Harry Morgan
Bill Womack
Richard Webb
Nat Sperling
Elaine Riley
Lily Gold
Luis van Rooten
Edwin Orlin
Lloyd Corrigan
McKinley
Frank Orth
Burt
Margaret Field
Second Secretary
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The massive clock set cost $40,000 — roughly half a million today — and was later reused in other films.
Orson Welles allegedly saw this and wanted to remake it; the 1987 film 'No Way Out' is essentially the same plot with Cold War paranoia.
US
