GRADE: A-

John Farrow didn’t direct a lot of films of noteworthy, but one of his best is this decidedly adult, paranoid suspenser predicated on most people’s fear of being falsely accused. That fear is simple human nature, made real by the fact that innocent people are sometimes found guilty of crimes they did not commit, and Farrow uses it effectively to suck us into the story.

When a character in a film faces such a circumstance, our own inherent anxiety makes it easier for us to relate to their predicament. Director Alfred Hitchcock made a career of it and other directors have successfully used the pretext as well, including Farrow in “The Big Clock.”

Beneath the murder, which is not a mystery because we know who committed the crime, “The Big Clock” also comments on the state of the media in ways that are insightful and prophetic, poking and prodding news organizations for their propensity to bend the rules and blur the line between hard news and feature stories they masquerade as news in the name of increasing circulation—interesting assertions considering when the film was made and that the complaint is still valid.

Despite this topical component, Farrow resists the urge to make his film preachy, concentrating instead on producing high quality cinematic and narrative thrills, which are present in abundance. It’s also a fine showcase for the talents of its stars (and Farrow), who devour Jonathan Latimer’s sharp-edged script.

That its co-star, Charles Laughton, remains one of cinema’s greater actors is clearly on display, although his and Maureen O’Sullivan’s parts are a tad underwritten. But Ray Milland’s role is extremely well developed and fully three-dimensional as the writer who’s been framed by his editor for the murder of the editor’s mistress. The basic framework of that scenario is nothing new, but the fact that the writer has been assigned to investigate the murder without benefit of knowing the trap being laid is the twist that generates the story’s high level of tension and suspense, especially as the investigation unfolds and the clues mount, all of which appear to point to him as the killer.

That suspense keeps on growing as the plot progresses, drawing viewers (and the investigative reporter) deeper and deeper into a web of intrigue. Taking full advantage, director Farrow heightens the mood by compressing the action into shorter and shorter scenes, making superb use of crosscutting and jump cuts in bursts of cinematic flourish.

The noir-like atmosphere is amplified by John Seitz’s high-contrast, menacing cinematography, proving again his command of the medium and the expressiveness of black & white imagery (it’s difficult to imagine a film like this being made in color).

Remade in 1987 as “No Way Out,” with Kevin Costner, and in 1993 as “Out of Time,” with Denzel Washington, “The Big Clock” is a fast paced urban odyssey more than slightly ahead of its time, able to dish up the goods without the aid or distraction of useless trappings that weigh down and often flatten so many modern attempts to re-create this kind of Hollywood film's style and effect.

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