(That's why we urge your close attention-just to see if there is anything to catch.)As the self-protection clue-collector, Ray Milland does a beautiful job of being a well-tailored smoothie and a desperate hunted man at the same time. But the plot moves so rapidly over them and provides such absorbing by-play that this not-too-gullible observer can't precisely put his finger upon one. No doubt there are holes in the fabric-even a rip or two, perhaps-and the really precision-minded are likely to spot them the first time around. And the other fellow is-the editor.Out of this cozy situation of a guy trying to square himself, even though he is thoroughly innocent and knows perfectly who the murderer is, Scriptwriter Jonathan Latimer and Director John Farrow have fetched a film which is fast-moving, humorous, atmospheric and cumulative of suspense. The clues have been rigged to make it look as though the murderer were another fellow.

In a mad, jealous moment, he kills his sweetie, a not very temperate young thing, and then calls upon the cagey editor of his crime magazine to find the man. And the fellow who does the murder is known by the audience all along.He's a dynamic publishing magnate, ruler of a realm of magazines and a double-dyed rogue who runs his business on the split-tick of a huge electric clock. As a matter of fact, the policemen are not called in until the end. Nary a wise-guy policeman clutters up the death-room or the clues. For this is a dandy clue-chaser of the modern chromium-plated type, but it is also an entertainment which requires close attention from the start.Actually, in the manner of the best detective fiction these days, it isn't a stiff and stark whodunit activated around some stalking cop. Note well, we make the stipulation that you should be a devotee of detective films and that you should have in your mind the mechanisms of precision peculiar to the cult.

When you hear the musical chime at the end of this ticking review of the Paramount's 'The Big Clock,' which opened at that theatre yesterday, it will be exactly the time for all devotees of detective films to make a mental memorandum to see it without possible fail.

Very big clock