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.
Review of Murder by the Clock
