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15 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Effective Chiller Boosted by Tashman, 6 August 2001

Author: Raymond Valinoti, Jr. (raymondva@comcast.net) from Murray Hill, NJ

*** 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.

6 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
"You are either a genius or a killer - I find that you are both!!!", 2 December 2008

Author: kidboots from Australia

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

This is a superb horror/thriller that soaked up the atmosphere from the new cycle of eerie and atmospheric horror films that were taking the movie public by storm. The stars were Lilyan Tashman in a sleek "Lady Macbeth" type role and William "Stage" Boyd as Lt. Valcour.

Julia Endicott (Blanche Frederici), Miss Roberts (Martha Mattox) and Julia's imbecile son Phillip (Irving Pichel) come to pay their respects to Phillip's father in a magnificent family crypt. Visually it is very impressive, along with Karl Struss' superb camera work. Julia has a fear of being buried alive, so she has had a horn installed that is heard throughout the movie whenever a murder is about to take place. Irving Pichel is wonderful as the scary and menacing Phillip.

Herbert Endicott (Walter McGrail) is on a visit to his aunt but in the cab he is being grilled by Laura,(Lilyan Tashman) his wife, who wants him to claim his inheritance. Julia decides to leave all her money to Herbert and not Phillip - but Herbert and Laura must live in the house as one of the conditions of the will. Once they are installed in the house Julia is murdered and Phillip, with his obsesssion with knives and death by strangulation is instantly arrested. Lt. Valcour (William "Stage" Boyd) is not convinced - he thinks more attention should be given to Mr. and Mrs. Endicott. At the funeral Valcour sees Laura holding hands with Jimmy, her lover (Lester Vail) and knows he is on the right track.

Herbert, who is the real murderer, is stricken with conscience and wants to go to the police. Laura then pays a visit to Philip - getting him all hot and bothered - and proposes that if she were only free, they, (Laura and Phillip) could live happily in the old house together. Suddenly there is an escaped lunatic at large!!! She has also whispered in the ear of Jimmy as well. When Herbert turns up strangled - who is the killer???? The murderous and gleeful gleam in Tashman's face when her scheme comes together is wonderful to see.

There is a romantic subplot involving Regis Toomey as a young policeman and Sally O'Neal as the maid but it is never allowed to get in the way of the main story. Being a pre-code horror things don't go always to plan - you may be surprised at the end result. The ending was very similar to "The Maltese Falcon", which preceded it into cinemas by a few months.

Highly Recommended.

4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Blonde Lilyan Tashman is a black widow..., 27 November 2010

Author: calvinnme from United States

... in this thriller that combines the atmosphere of the Universal horror films of the 1930's with the feel of the sophisticated precodes of Paramount. This is a rare chance to see Lilyan Tashman in a leading role, and she is spot on as a woman who wants wealth and comfort by any means possible and sees her ability to manipulate men to do her bidding as key to her plan.

Our story opens as does the film Frankenstein from this same year - 1931 - in a foggy graveyard with a group of mourners gathered around a grave. Into the scene strolls old Mrs. Endicott with her maid and son to visit the family crypt. However, honoring the dead is not her purpose, instead she is there to insure that her own crypt is in working order. Mrs. Endicott has a fear of being buried alive and has a creepy sounding horn installed in her own vault so that if she is erroneously interred she can sound the alarm and be rescued. Thus she likes to try it out from time to time to see if it still works.

The Endicotts are apparently a family whose tree has deep and wealthy roots but withering leaves. There are only two possible heirs to the Endicott fortune in that tree - Mrs. Endicott's brutish idiot son Philip and her alcoholic weakling of a nephew, Herbert. Philip has made it clear that his highest goal in life is to kill people with his bare hands, so Mrs. Endicott leaves her fortune to her nephew. Philip has enough IQ points to know he's been supplanted and is upset about the situation, and Herbert is happy because now he hopes his wife Laura (Lilyan Tashman) will stop nagging him about money now that she can know her future is secure.

The night that the new will is drawn up and signed Mrs. Endicott is strangled to death. Soon after the funeral, Herbert and Laura take up residence in the Endicott ancestral home, Herbert is strangled as well. Shortly after that the alarm from Mrs. Endicott's tomb rings out. What's going on here? Watch and find out. There are secret passages, shadowy figures in the fog, and best of all Ms. Tashman, making Jezebel look like Betty Crocker. William Stage Boyd plays police lieutenant Valcour who is trying to get to the bottom of all of this. Will he succumb to Lilyan's poisonous poise, or will he solve the crime? Remember that this is the precode era and unjust outcomes were allowed and did occur in American film during this time.

I highly recommend this one for anybody who likes the old dark house films of the 30's.

5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
super old creepout fest!, 11 June 2010

Author: asinyne from United States

I was captured from the opening scene which takes place in a murky old Gothic style graveyard...then we move on to inside the tombs! Yeah, this is a good one. It's borderline horror with a large cast of weird characters, an excellent evil, evil woman, and all kinds of cool vintage strangeness. In one scene a corpse in disinterred to make certain she is really dead(yeah). Then an old woman sits holding said corpse which was dead and had been for awhile. A detective looks at the body and says..."yeah, she's cold as ice," WHOA! The actor who plays the super strong Quasimodo type dude was terrific as were most of the cast. This is one you don't want to miss. Find it, along with MURDER AT DAWN, if you are a fan of vintage horror or suspense. Its not really a mystery because you find out who did it right away. Tons of fun with this one! They don't make them like this anymore...and probably never will. Great lighting too.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Okay mystery with great atmosphere and mood to burn, 27 June 2009

Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
A sort of early version of Basic Instinct!, 8 February 2010

Author: prichards12345 from United Kingdom

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

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