Poet and pulp-fiction writer Kenneth Fearing got a lot of mileage out of THE BIG CLOCK, his sole story picked up for feature adaptation. A twisty murder story with the usual innocent man having to prove his innocence before an eye-witness works up his portrait. With Ray Milland & Charles Laughton, the 1948 original was set in a publishing house before this French policier made it an all cop inside job followed by relocation to the Pentagon as a military suspenser for Kevin Costner in NO WAY OUT/’87. (And more! - there’s also an unofficial ripoff with Denzel Washington as OUT OF TIME/’03, again in a police setting.) Not a lot of surprise left in the story, generally look to your boss to find the guilty party. What does surprise is that this French version, from regular Yves Montand/Simone Signoret collaborator Alain Corneau is the stinker of the bunch. Mostly because the victim, Stefania Sandrelli’s sloe-eyed vamp, is such an insufferable tease (stalker?) on the pair of middle-aged men (Montand and François Périer) she’s targeted. One slaps her; the other brains her with an ashtray; audience cued to applaud. Ugh. Only Simone Signoret, invalid wife to Périer, has a bit of fun plotting from her bed. Are all Corneau films this dull?
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: John Farrow’s original shot at THE BIG CLOCK/’48 is an over-rated film noir, but it sure beats the other tries.
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