Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

WillSushyMedia This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Richard Chatten Curiously enough, none of the previous reviewers have picked up on this film's title, which has negligible bearing upon anything that actually happens; of which there is plenty. What 'Murder by the Clock' sorely lacks is decent direction, editing and a music score; what it has is a jaunty plot, a magnificent (though underused) churchyard and crypt set, atmospheric photography by Karl Struss, an entertaining cast of wierdos and weaklings. And the breathtaking Lilyan Tashman.Blanche Friderici is Julia Endicott, matriarch of the Endicott clan, plainly nearing the end of its thinning bloodline; her only heirs being Philip (Irving Pichel), a hulking simpleton capable of breaking a man's neck with his bare hands but little else, and Herbert (Walter McGrail) a drunken weakling completely under the thumb of his gold digging wife Laura, who Julia sums up as "a malicious designing creature, ought to be hung for a witch." The late Lilyan Tashman is an absolute blast as this platinum blonde Lady Macbeth smirking evilly one minute, shedding crocodile tears the next while flirting like mad with every man in sight with a pulse ("I could be awfully fond of you"), her curvaceous, Amazonian chassis seductively on display in a clinging satin number that would probably have caused censorship problems a few years later.The unfunny comic relief provided by Irish cop Regis Toomey and maid Sally O'Neil is rendered wholly superfluous by Tashman's rollicking performance, which gets plenty of appreciative laughs. She meets her match, however, in Lt. Valcour (William 'Stage' Boyd), who engages her in a final battle of wills, "one artist to another".

edalweber This is an excellent movie from the pre Production Code era that very well combines the detective gender with the horror one.Combining the graveyard setting with the old dark house, it has an atmosphere as creepy as any straight horror movie. The performances of all of the players are uniformly good.Lilyian Tashman is wonderful as the totally amoral con-woman, who manages to manipulate each one of the men she pretends to love into doing her killings for her while protesting that she didn't really MEAN for them to do that! William(stage) Boyd is superb as the tough, incorruptible police lieutenant who refuses to stop trying to learn the truth despite pressure and temptation by Tashman.Very much like Bogart's Sam Spade.Boyd reminds you in voice and somewhat in appearance of Randolph Scott.It is a pity that his problems with drugs and alcohol ruined his career and let to an early death.He was a great actor and might otherwise have rivaled Bogert and the rest as a tough, no nonsense leading man

mark.waltz There's definitely plenty of chills to be found in this often told story of murder and mayhem in a spooky mansion where an imperious matriarch (Blanche Friderici) manipulates her family as they scheme against her estate. She's afraid of being entombed alive, so she arranges a way of escape, and when her family begins to arrive, it's only a matter of time before the grim reaper comes a-callin'. The whiskey voiced Lilyan Tashman is a daughter-in-law leading several of the men on, and more bodies begin to pile up.Dozens of programmers of the 1930's and 40's repeated this plot (which goes back to the early silent era and to many barn-storming melodramatic plays), and this one is one of the most thrilling to watch with its silent film type photography, grand guignol style acting, and some wonderful twists and turns. Technically brilliant, it utilizes some shocking close-ups and brilliant shadowing, and includes an ending you probably won't see coming. Irving Pichel, a forgotten master of the creepy performance, gives another memorable one that ranks up there with his roles in "The Cheat" (1931) and "Dracula's Daughter" (1936).

Prichards12345 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.