He mentions enough details for Stroud to know that the mystery man is himself. Janoth calls to re-hire him, to lead the effort to find the mystery man (leaving out any mention of York). Stroud has since caught up with his wife and son in West Virginia and tells her that he has been fired (but leaves out his adventures with York). Janoth decides to use the resources of Crimeways to find the man instead of calling the police. But Hagen talks him out of it and convinces him that they can frame the man Janoth saw leaving York's apartment for the crime. Janoth goes to his assistant, Hagen (George Macready), and tells him what happened, intending on going to the police and confessing. Janoth assumes York is cheating on him, leading to a quarrel which ends with him striking York with the sundial and killing her. Janoth sees someone leaving but does not recognize Stroud in the dark.
Stroud and York go to York's apartment, but she sees Janoth arriving, and Stroud leaves. Stroud spends the evening drinking and going out on the town with York at various locations, buying a painting and a sundial. When Stroud loses track of time and misses their scheduled train, Georgette angrily leaves for Wheeling without him. Stroud goes to a bar to drink and is distracted by the attentions of Janoth's glamorous mistress, Pauline York ( Rita Johnson), who proposes a blackmail plan against Janoth.
His tyrannical boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton) wants him to stay and follow up on a missing persons story Stroud has just cracked, but Stroud refuses and Janoth fires him. Stroud is eager to go on a long-postponed vacation in Wheeling, West Virginia, with his wife Georgette (Maureen O'Sullivan) and son. The film flashes back to thirty-six hours earlier. The clock is the largest and most sophisticated clock ever built it dominates the lobby of the Janoth Publications building in New York City, where he works.
The film opens with George Stroud (Ray Milland), editor-in-chief of Crimeways magazine, hiding from building security inside the "big clock".
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