Last week I did a post on how the remake Against All Odds paled next to its original inspiration, Out of the Past. I enjoyed writing it and reading the comments and discussion that followed, as always, and decided to keep doing it. Now, making the argument that Against All Odds is a faint shadow of Out of the Past is, admittedly, easy pickings. I mean, yes, there were some good things in Against All Odds, not least of which being James Woods fantastic supporting performance, but the fact is that Out of the Past is one of the best, maybe the best film noir ever made. Tonight, on the other hand, there’s a solid thriller running and almost forty years later, there was a remake of it and the remake isn’t half bad, really. I like the original better but the remake has much to recommend itself. The original is The Big Clock, with Ray Milland and Charles Laughton, and the remake is No Way Out, with Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman. Both have plenty to offer.
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(WARNING: FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS POST, PLOTS WILL BE DISCUSSED OPENLY, SO SPOILERS WILL ABOUND THROUGHOUT)
Like my previous experience with Against All Odds and Out of the Past, with The Big Clock and No Way Out, I saw the remake first. I saw it at the theater in Washington, DC when it came out and rather enjoyed it. The story of No Way Out, for those who haven’t seen it and don’t mind hearing the whole thing, including the twist ending (hey, I said there’d be spoilers), US Navy Lieutenant Commander Tom Farrell (Costner) gets assigned to the Pentagon and before his assignment begins, he has an affair with Susan Atwell (Sean Young) who also happens to be the mistress of the Secretary of Defense, David Bryce (Gene Hackman). Bryce finds out she’s having an affair, accidentally kills her and then with the help of his top aide, Scott Pritchard (Will Patton), claims that the real murderer was the other man who was having an affair with her. That other man is, of course, Farrell, so it’s a bit inconvenient for Farrell when Bryce selects him to lead the investigation to find the other man. To make matters worse, they’ve padded their story by claiming the other man is a Soviet mole code named Yuri. Now Farrell knows that if his relationship with Atwell is revealed, he’ll also be considered a Soviet spy by his country. So, he does the only thing he can do: Try to steer the investigation towards Bryce instead since he knows that’s who the real killer is. He’s semi-successful in doing this except for one thing: There was a Polaroid taken of him by Susan and the pull strip from it was recovered. Thanks to a computer scanner, a new layer of the image is produced with each passing day. In a few days, the Pentagon technicians will have a picture of Farrell from inside Susan’s own apartment. He’s got to pin it on Bryce before that Polaroid develops. He does and then Bryce pins it on Pritchard, leaving Farrell off the hook. That’s when we find out (AND HERE’S THE BIG TWIST) that Farrell actually was a Soviet mole all along, having the affair with Susan to get information about Bryce!
It kind of works. Kind of.
In the original, Ray Milland works for a Crimeways magazine and is an expert on discovering the truth behind real crimes by using a unique profiling system in which he develops characteristics of the killer of whatever unsolved crime the magazine is covering and using that, builds a profile of the killer making it easier to pinpoint him or her. Keep in mind, this is years before the FBI developed profiling for serial killers in the 1970′s. Anyway, he doesn’t have an affair with his boss’ mistress but he does take her home and then hit the road. His boss, by the way, is Charles Laughton and when Laughton sees another man leave her apartment (it’s Milland but he can’t see who it is) he, like Gene Hackman in No Way Out, accidentally kills her. He then blames it on the other man, puts Milland in charge of finding him through his profiling system and Milland, of course, needs to get the goods on Laughton first. Now, with this one, there is no big twist except that Milland gets off and Laughton goes down but what’s interesting here is how it’s use of a profiling system works as a more elaborate version of the Polaroid. Since I saw No Way Out first, I wondered how that part of the story would translate back to the original and was more impressed with how the original did it. Like the remake, every day the picture gets clearer that it’s Milland they’re looking for, only it’s a metaphorical picture, being developed by Milland himself.
And it works. Completely.
Okay, here’s where they both succeed: Gene Hackman and Charles Laughton. Two enormously gifted actors who, unsurprisingly, don’t miss a beat. Ray Milland and Kevin Costner are both good in the lead but neither exactly lights up the screen. No Way Out has Will Patton, too, and he’s excellent. Better even, I think, than Gene Hackman is in the movie. The Big Clock, on the other hand, has Elsa Lanchester and she’s an absolute delight! Maybe the best thing in the movie. So, then, why do I think The Big Clock works completely while No Way Out only kind of works? The twist ending.
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I’ve always felt that the story would have worked better with all the information given up front. For instance, early on in No Way Out, Bryce and Pritchard tell Farrell that they think Susan’s killer was a Soviet mole named Yuri. Farrell goes to the bathroom and gets sick and you’re lead to believe it’s simply because he knows he might be thought to be that person. I think it would work better if you knew he was a Soviet agent at the get-go, then they tell him that’s who they think is the killer, and then he goes to the bathroom and you know he’s thinking they found him out but you know they’re just making stuff up. Sometimes, letting the audience in on it works better. Hitchcock lets the audience in on Judy’s deception in Vertigo long before Scottie finds out. And sometimes it doesn’t. The very same Hitchcock kept the killer’s identity a secret in Psycho until the very end. So it can go either way. I think knowing he’s the mole makes for more interesting turnabouts. Or…
Just don’t have a twist ending at all. I think that’s the big problem I have with it. The story works perfectly fine with Farrell trying not to be caught while trying to put the real blame on Bryce. The whole Soviet mole twist is, frankly, pointless. It doesn’t need to be there.
Still, I liked it, but I liked The Big Clock better when I finally saw it years later. Both movies work well but The Big Clock has a tighter grip on its story and characters and definitely a more stylish look. When the clock’s ticking and there’s no way out of making a choice, I’ll take the original. This time.