“The Ormolu Clock” by August Derleth appeared in Weird Tales for January 1950. It was one of his later ghost stories not connected to the Cthulhu Mythos. Derleth wrote a hundred tales for “The Unique Magazine”, beginning long before he fell under the shadow of H.P. Lovecraft. These stories were always set in England as is this one. (Derleth’s love of all things British would come to a head in his Solar Pons stories, a long running series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches.)
The story was illustrated by Matt Fox. The cover is especially striking with its creepy chase and weird ornamentation. Fox is best known for his later comic book work. The plot of the story is much more sedate than the artwork suggests. Felix Hatcher, a movie critic, is decorating his mantle piece and decides he needs a clock to finish off the setting. He buys an ornate Ormolu clock in a second-hand store. Later, at his club, he tells his friend, Blakeslee, about the weird occurrence that took place in his parlor. At two o’clock three figures appeared. One of them shoots the woman first then a man before disappearing. Blakeslee, a rationalist, dismisses the entire thing as too much pate de fois gras.
Hatcher retreats him from friend’s scorn. That night he waits until two again and sees the terrible action again. This time he goes to a psychiatrist named Millard. This fellow tries to explain the vision scientifically. When we look at stars we are seeing light that is millions of years old. Perhaps the clock works the same way, having captured a scene from the past and playing it out in the future. It is merely dead light.
The next day, Hatcher goes back to the shop to press the proprietor about the clock. The old man lies and says he can’t remember anything. Hatcher pushes him until he admits it was part of an estate sale for Harold Penton. Hatcher goes to his own newspaper office and looks through the morgue until he finds a six month old article on Penton. His wife died by the hand of her lover, who then took his own life. Penton had claimed he was so upset by this, he had all his belongings sold off. He later received a large amount of money from insurance and remarried.
Hatcher knows this is untrue. He watches the ghostly scene again, realizing he can make it appear by simply turning the clock to two. He watches again as Penton arrives, finds his wife in the hands of her lover. He shoots her then the other man. He puts the gun in the dead man’s hand, making it look like suicide. With this knowledge, Hatcher comes up with a plan.
The next day he goes to Princess Court disguised as a clock repairman. He substitutes a similar clock on Penton’s mantle for the Ormolu clock. He leaves and begins to watch the newspapers. Two days later the papers tell that Harold Penton died when he went to throw something out the window of his apartment and fell to his death. The remains of the Ormolu clock were found by his body. Hatcher feels justice has been served and writes a good review for a bad movie because he is in a good mood.
“The Ormolu Clock” is a typical Derleth ghost story, using the M. R. James style plot with few verbal decorations. For those expecting Lovecraftian tentacles to sprout out of the clock and drag Penton to some nether hell, you would be disappointed. For me the most interesting aspect of the tale is the inclusion of Millard the shrink. Back in the 1930s, Augie would not have bothered with the rational explanation. But this is 1950 and Derleth is now writing Science Fiction for Pulps like Orbit and Amazing Stories. This technique of adding a scientific crutch is not new. Frank Belknap Long used it ten years earlier and Lovecraft before him.
The comic books wound up a few timepieces of their own in the 1950s, perhaps taking their inspiration from Weird Tales. All these stories were written by unknown authors.
“Hand of Fate Mystery #1” (Hand of Fate #8, December 1951) begins when a jealous man places a bomb inside a clock. When he discovers his wife is not unfaithful it is too late…
“True Tales of Unexplained Mystery #19” (Web of Mystery #10, June 1952) has a man who is supposed to bury a clock with a dead man but doesn’t. The clock haunts him until he dies too.
“The Devil’s Clock” (Tales of Horror #3, November 1952) has Donald Simmons turning the hands of the clock his gal bought. This takes him to a haunted dimension where evil creatures want him to bring back human sacrifice to religion. Donald and Betty wisely throw the clock in the fire.
“The Horrors of the 13th Stroke” (Beware Terror Tales #5, January 1953) begins with Detective Sam Jeffers finding a man drained of blood near a weird clock. The stroke of 13 takes him and his partner Hiram to a weird nether dimension where the ghosts of the clock’s victims dwell. When Hiram shoots the phantoms the two men are rescued. Hiram’s bullet hit the clock, destroying it.
“The Bewitched Clock” (The House of Mystery #11, February 1953) is the first of two DC House of Mystery tales, both drawn by Ruben Moreira. Amos Stagg buys an old clock that contains a genie. He now has the power to look ahead in time. He becomes fabulously wealthy but is unhappy. He destroys the clock, trapping him in the same day forever, reliving April 26th again and again. (Bill Murray was two and a half when this comic appeared.)
“The Clock of Doom Strikes Loud” (The Hand of Fate #16, February 1953) is about Carl Brandon, a no good bum. He dies and Fate offers him three doors, one marked ‘Money’, one ‘Power’ and the last, ‘Love’. Brandon tries all three and fails at all of them. He decides to change his fate by turning his life clock back to one second before he is born. By doing this, he is not born again but erased from time.
“The Clock Maker” (Mister Mystery #13, September 1953) has an evil clockmaker with an unfaithful wife. She ends up in a clock with her lover forever, stabbing each other over and over.
“Timepiece of Terror” (Web of Evil #13, April 1954) has Horror writer, Ward Blake, buy an evil clock to inspire his fiction. He is hugely successful but the constant visions of terror drive him to his screaming death.
“The Clock Strikes Death” (The House of Mystery #28, July 1954) has Mark dig up the “Death Clock of Andrew Gregg”. By setting the hands to a certain weapon and time, a death occurs as predicted. Mark bumps off his greedy cousin but the cops aren’t fooled. Is the clock real or not? In the best tradition of the coming Silver Age of Comics, probably not.
“Horror in the Clock” (Journey Into Fear #21, September 1954) was from a Canadian company, Superior comics. Unfortunately, none of the creators are known. Dr. Harry Grimes and his wife, Mary, buy an old grandfather clock. They both become convinced they can hear a heartbeat coming from the clock. Mary ends up in the hospital because of it and Harry tries to destroy it. A stranger is looking for the clock, built by his evil great-grandfather. Opening the clock up, we see the madman’s brain and heart still living inside. The strange destroys them with an ax.
“I Fought the Clocks of Doom” (My Greatest Adventure #14, March-April 1957) has Signor Corda of the famous clock-making family come to the town of Ferrula where all the clocks have stopped at 2:35, the same time a terrible earthquake happened a hundred years before. Similar occurences have been taking place all over Italy, predicting disasters. Corda corners the man responsible, Stampo, who has found the plans for an ancient time machine shaped like a clock. Stampo dies when he recreates a flood but drowns because he didn’t realize the town clock ran twenty minutes behind.
Conclusion
Most of these clock stories feature the idea of the 13th stroke at midnight signaling doom. Derleth didn’t use that idea. His clock just struck two. Several of them used the evil dimension with eldritch forces wanting to claim the clock’s owners. We don’t get that from Derleth but maybe a little HPL came through all the same. There are many more clock comics out there. I wonder if Matt Fox ever did one? That would be appropriate since he did the Derleth illos for Weird Tales. I’ll just have to keep looking…
Most of these comics are available free at DCM.
The Ormolu Clock and Other Timepieces would make a great title for a collection or anthology.