Engaging in what he assumed to be an inconsequential affair with his boss's beautiful mistress, George Stroud dropped Pauline Delos off a block from her apartment after a secret long weekend together. As he watched her walk towards her building, she is met by a long black limousine, from which Earl Janoth, Stroud's boss and owner of Janoth Enterprises, emerges. The two then disappear into her building. Having seeing Pauline with another man, although unable to recognize him from the shadows and the distance, a jealous Janoth becomes filled with rage, striking Pauline with a brandy decanter and killing her instantly.
Janoth knows that the one witness who saw him enter Pauline's apartment was the mysterious man in the shadows. Needing to quickly track him down and silence him before the cops find out, Janoth turns to his employees at Crimeways magazine, entrusting the job to none other than the publication's editor, George Stroud. Knowing his life would be destroyed if he went to the authorities or if Janoth found out the truth, Stroud creates a whirlwind whodunit to buy himself more time--staging scenarios and concocting clues to throw the other sleuths off track as the big clock ticks on.
"The Big Clock" is a virtuoso performance and one of the masterpieces of American noir.