Murder by the Clock

"Murder by the Clock," either intentionally or unintentionally, had a wonderful villain. Laura Endicott (Lilyan Tashman) was delightfully wicked. Laura, like many people, was looking out for numero uno, but unlike most people, she was going to do whatever it took to get what she wanted. And what she wanted was money.

She was married to Herbert Endicott (Walter McGrail) and having an affair with Thomas Hollander (Lester Vail). Thomas had money while Herbert was fairly broke, but Herbert stood to inherit a fortune from his aunt Julia Endicott (Blanche Friderici) as soon as she died. Waiting for her to die was going to take too long so Laura, ever so manipulatively, put the idea of killing Julia in Herbert's head.

The entire movie Laura was expertly pulling the strings on various men. The only man she couldn't manipulate was Lt. Valcour (William 'Stage' Boyd). He had a sneaky suspicion that she was behind the various murders and he couldn't be swayed by her feminine wiles.

Like I said at the beginning, I loved Laura. She was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers. Sometimes a movie has a villain that you like and respect, and Laura Endicott was that villain.