Titreenp SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

JohnHowardReid To judge by "Murder by the Clock" (1931), never was a director more aptly named than Edward Sloman. Slow man? Under Sloman's snail-speed direction, time and clock seem to be not just standing still, but actually running backwards. Of course, the stagey, dialogue-riddled, but proudly "B"-grade and super-suspenseless script doesn't help. Nor do the cheesy production values, plus the self-consciously hammy acting from all concerned, with but two exceptions, namely Martha Mattox and rather unexpectedly, William "Stage" Boyd. "Who's the very worst offender among the players?" you ask. Irving Pichel, I'm sorry to say! Although Lilyan Tashman runs Pichlel mighty close, she does model some really attractive clothes.

kevin olzak 1931's "Murder by the Clock" has remained a forgotten horror from the early 30s, but not by such eminent film historians like William K. Everson, who dutifully included it in his 1974 book CLASSICS OF THE HORROR FILM. Had it been made at Universal, no doubt it would be as well remembered as "Dracula" (which preceded it) or "Frankenstein" (which followed it), but Paramount did their share of terror classics too ("Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "Island of Lost Souls," "Murders in the Zoo"). The sultry and seductive Lilyan Tashman (Mrs. Edmund Lowe) epitomizes what the word 'vampire' meant to audiences prior to Lugosi, a huge star going back nearly ten years, whose life would sadly end from cancer just three years after she made this. Irving Pichel, as the halfwit son with the strength of a bull, preferred working behind the camera rather than in front of it; nevertheless, as an actor, only his memorable work opposite Gloria Holden in "Dracula's Daughter" can compare with his macabre characterization here. Comic relief is supplied by Sally O'Neil's maid and Regis Toomey's Oirish cop (she co-starred with young Lon Chaney in 1933's "Sixteen Fathoms Deep," while Toomey's next film would see him co-starring with Boris Karloff in Universal's "Graft"). No, Paramount rarely dabbled in horror during the 30s, yet there wasn't a single dud among them.

dbborroughs 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.

Raymond Valinoti, Jr. (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.