Murder by the Clock (1931)

Director:

Edward Sloman

Writers:

Charles Beahan (play)
Rufus King (story)

Release Date:

21 July 1931 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Plot:

An elderly woman installs a horn in her crypt in case she's buried alive. |

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

William 'Stage' Boyd	...	Lt. Valcour
Lilyan Tashman	...	Laura Endicott
Irving Pichel	...	Philip Endicott
Regis Toomey	...	Officer Cassidy
Sally O'Neil	...	Jane, a Maid
Blanche Friderici	...	Julia Endicott
Walter McGrail	...	Herbert Endicott
Lester Vail	...	Thomas Hollander
Martha Mattox	...	Miss Roberts
Frank Sheridan	...	Chief of Police
Guy Oliver	...	Watchman
Frederick Sullivan	...	Medical Examiner
Charles D. Brown	...	Officer O'Brien
Lenita Lane	...	Nurse

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1931)

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

One of over 700 Paramount Productions, filmed between 1929 and 1949, which were sold to MCA/Universal in 1958 for television distribution, and have been owned and controlled by Universal ever since.

Effective Chiller Boosted by Tashman

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

(POSSIBLE SPOILER) If Paramount had produced this film a year or two before 1931, the studio might have made it a straightforward mystery with little emphasis on terror. But in 1931, horror films were in vogue due to the success of Universal's DRACULA. So Paramount pursued this trend with MURDER BY THE CLOCK. It's still a mystery but with the atmosphere of a horror film.

And what horror! There's a crypt with an installed horn that blares to warn people the occupant has been buried alive. There's a drug that revives the dead. There's a brute (Irving Pichel) with the strength and the mind of a beast. And there's a sinister woman (Lilyan Tashman) who seduces men to commit murders for her own gain.

It is Tashman, as the nefarious Laura Endicott, who dominates the film. Adorned in tight satin dresses that showcase her lithe figure, she vamps with sinuous style, as bewitching to the audience as she is to her pawns. She definitely had the potential for stardom but would sadly pass away a few years later.

The other performers are generally fine. Irving Pichel is memorably creepy as the bestial Phillip Endicott. William "Stage" Boyd (not to be confused with William Boyd who played Hopalong Cassidy) makes a dependable hero as the hard boiled, commonsensical detective Lieutenant Valcour.

The scenario is too convoluted to be summarized here, but director William Sloman efficiently if unremarkably moves the film along. The film also benefits from handsome sets, particularly a spooky graveyard setting.

MURDER BY THE CLOCK has a few flaws shared with many early sound films. The film tends to be talky, causing it to drag occasionally (though never when Tashman is speaking). And while background music is unnecessary whenever the aforementioned horn resounds, it could have enhanced the other horror scenes. But on the whole the film is very satisfactory and, thanks to Tashman's performance, unforgettable.