Movies that feel likeThe Big Clock (1948)

Name: The Big Clock
Director: John Farrow
Genre: crime, thriller
Released: 1948

George Stroud, a crime magazine's crusading editor, has to postpone a vacation with his wife - again - when a glamorous blonde is murdered and he is assigned by his publishing boss to find the killer. As the investigation proceeds to its conclusion, Stroud must try to disrupt his ordinarily brilliant investigative team as they increasingly build evidence that he is the killer.

If you loved The Big Clock, the closest films we have are Criss Cross (1949), The Narrow Margin (1952) and Blast of Silence (1961). All three share The Big Clock's gritty and tense feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Odds Against Tomorrow (1959).

🍅 100% Rotten Tomatoes★ 7.6 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. John Farrowgritty tense atmospheric

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See it on the Mood Map

If The Big Clock hit the spot, these will too

Criss Cross

1949 · dir. Robert Siodmak

🍅 86%★ 7.4crime · thriller

Common ground: film noir

An armored-car guard must join a robbery after being caught with his ex-wife by her gangster husband.

The Narrow Margin

1952 · dir. Richard Fleischer

🍅 100%★ 7.6thriller · crime

One thread runs through both: murder

A tough cop meets his match when he has to guard a gangster's widow on a train journey from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Blast of Silence

1961 · dir. Allen Baron

🍅 83%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

Both rooted in New York City

The difference: Leans harder into drama than The Big Clock does

A hired killer from Cleveland has a job to do on a second-string mob boss in New York. But a special girl from his past and a fat gun dealer with pet rats get in his way.

The Stranger

1946 · dir. Orson Welles

🍅 97%★ 7.3thriller · crimePrime VideoStarz

Both are built on the same subject: clock

An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi, who may be hiding out in a small town in the guise of a distinguished professor engaged to the Supreme Court Justice’s daughter.

Odd Man Out

1947 · dir. Carol Reed

🍅 100%★ 7.6crime · drama · thrillerMax

The same preoccupation in both: film noir

Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.

Key Largo

1948 · dir. John Huston

🍅 97%★ 7.7crime · thriller

Gritty and tense in the same breath

A hurricane swells outside, but it's nothing compared to the storm within the hotel at Key Largo. There, sadistic mobster Johnny Rocco holes up - and holds at gunpoint hotel owner James Temple, his widowed daughter-in-law Nora, and ex-GI Frank McCloud.

Out of the Past

1947 · dir. Jacques Tourneur

🍅 87%★ 7.9crime · thriller

Crime built on atmosphere, twice over

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

The Naked City

1948 · dir. Jules Dassin

🍅 85%★ 7.5crime · mystery · thrillerMax

Both keep coming back to the same thing: murder

After a former model is drowned in her bathtub, Detective James Halloran and Lieutenant Dan Muldoon attempt to piece together her murder.

Killer's Kiss

1955 · dir. Stanley Kubrick

🍅 83%★ 6.5thriller · crime · dramaPrime Video

Thriller with a pulse of grit, in both cases

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

Odds Against Tomorrow

1959 · dir. Robert Wise

🍅 88%★ 7.4crime · drama · thriller

Both lean on tension more than on crime

An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare.

Force of Evil

1950 · dir. Abraham Polonsky

🍅 100%★ 7.2crime · drama

Atmospheric thriller in both cases

The difference: Takes it somewhere less tense than The Big Clock does

Lawyer Joe Morse wants to consolidate all the small-time numbers racket operators into one big powerful operation. But his elder brother Leo is one of these small-time operators who wants to stay that way, preferring not to deal with the gangsters who dominate the big-time.