Janoth tries to escape in an elevator, but the elevator car is stuck floors below (jammed there by Stroud earlier while evading the security men) Janoth falls down the elevator shaft to his death. Janoth shoots Hagen (apparently killing him) and flees. Enraged, Hagen reveals that Janoth killed York and he helped cover it up. (Hagen was Janoth's go-between with York.) Hagen implores Janoth to clear him, but Janoth tells him only that he will provide him the best possible legal defense. He presents evidence which appears to point to Hagen as the killer. In the climax of the film, Stround confronts Janoth and Hagen. Stroud evades the dragnet by various maneuvers, finally hiding in the clock (ending the flashback segment of the film). Building security men sweep the building to flush out the wanted man. All exits from the building are sealed, and everyone must leave by the main door, with the witnesses watching for the mystery man. Stroud slips away before the witness points him out to the investigators but now the investigators know that the mystery man is in the building, though not who he is. Stroud tries to avoid the witneesses, but one of them sees and recognizes him as the mystery man. Asked to paint a portrait of the mystery man, she produces a modernist abstract of blobs and swirls. One is eccentric artist Louise Patterson (Elsa Lanchester), who did the painting that was purchased by Stroud. These witnesses are brought to the Janoth Building. Meanwhile, he must also secretly carry out his own investigation to find the real murderer.Įventually York is identified and witnesses are found that saw her out on the town wiht the mystery man. He reluctantly agrees to return to his job and lead the manhunt, to Georgette's disappointment.ĭuring the manhunt, Stroud has to appear to lead the investigation diligently, and at the same time, prevent the investigation identifying him as its target. Janoth calls to re-hire him, to lead the effort to find the mystery man (leaving out any mention of York), He mentions enough details for Stroud to know that the mystery man is himself. Stroud has since caught up with his wife and son in West Virginia and tells her that he has been fired (but leaves out his adventures with York). Janoth decides to use the resources of Crimeways to find the man instead of calling the police. But Hagen talks him out of it and convinces him that they can frame the man Janoth saw leaving York's apartment for the crime. Janoth goes to his assistant, Hagen (George Macready) and tells him what happened, intending on going to the police and confessing. Although Stroud's evening with York had ended platonically, Janoth assumes otherwise, leading to a quarrel which ends with him striking York with the sundial and killing her. Janoth sees him leaving but does not recognize Stroud in the dark. Stroud and York go to York's apartment, but she sees Janoth arriving, and Stroud leaves. Stroud begins drinking and spends the evening out on the town with York at various locations, buying a painting and a sundial. When Stroud misses their scheduled train, Georgette angrily leaves without him. Instead of meeting Georgette at the train station as planned, however, Stroud is distracted by the attentions of Janoth's glamorous mistress, Pauline York (Rita Johnson), who proposes a blackmail plan against Janoth. ![]() His tyrannical boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) wants him to stay, and follow up on a missing persons story Stroud has just cracked, but Stroud refuses and Janoth fires him. The flashback then starts a day earlier: Stroud is eager to go on a long-postponed vacation in West Virginia with his wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) and son. ![]() The opening shows George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor-in-chief of Crimeways magazine, shown hiding from building security inside the "big clock" ― the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built, which dominates the lobby of the Janoth Publications building in New York City, where he works.
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