Film Review: The Clock

The Clock

MGM, 1945 (BW, 90 minutes, Production No. 1331)

A soldier on a two-day pass in New York meets a girl under the clock at Penn Station, and while it ticks away 48 hours he becomes well acquainted with her and the city. Touring the city together they fall in love and both want to get married, but are hesitant with the realization that they scarcely know each other and will face a long damaging separation when he goes overseas. A chance meeting with a friendly milkman and his family helps them come to a decision.

Crew

Produced by: Arthur Freed
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli
Assistant Director: Al Shenberg
Screenplay by: Robert Nathan and Joseph Schrank
Based on a story by Paul Gallico and Pauline Gallico
Score by: George Bassman
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons, William Ferrari
Set Decoration: Edwin B. Willis
Costume Design by: Irene
Makeup: Dorothy Ponedel
Sound: Douglas Shearer
Photography: George Folsey
Special Effects: A. Arnold Gillespie
Editor: George White

Filmed: August 1944 - November 1944 (Judy was 22 years old)
Released: May 1945

Cast

Judy Garland ... Alice Mayberry
Robert Walker ... Corporal Joe Allen
James Gleason ... Al Henry
Keenan Wynn ... The Drunk
Marshall Thompson ... Bill
Lucille Gleason ... Mrs. Al Henry
Ruth Brady ... Helen
Moyna MacGill ... Woman in Restaurant

Musical Program

This is one of those rare films in which Judy did not sing at all. In fact, there is a scene in the movie in which Director Minnelli teases the viewer with that fact: When Joe and Alice are riding with the milkman, he begins to sing a favorite song, and cues Judy by asking her if she knows the song. The viewer is sure she is going to burst into song! But she just smiles and remains quiet.

Notes

The U.K. title is Under the Clock.

The Clock was Judy's first straight dramatic role (and her only one at MGM). She told an interviewer at the time, "You take your life in your hands, but it's fun to see what you can do. I like taking a crack at something different."

The original director was Jack Conway, but he fell ill while filming backgrounds in New York and was replaced by Fred Zinnemann. During the third week of August, with nearly a third of the film completed, Judy felt the original script "hadn't played very well: it was all talk and no action." So, she asked that Zinnemann be replaced by Vincente Minnelli.

Hume Cronyn and Connie Gilchrist were originally cast as the milkman and his wife, and Audrey Totter played Alice's roommate. They were replaced by James and Lucille Gleason and Ruth Brady.

Moyna MacGill, the woman in the diner, was Angela Lansbury's real-life mother. And this wasn't just a cameo - she appeared in many movies as a character actress.

Minnelli reworked the script to make New York City "the third character" in the story. He also humanized the characters and added humor to the supporting actors, recasting the older couple and Judy's roommate with James Gleason, his wife Lucille, and Ruth Brady. He continued to marvel at Judy later saying, "I would tell her a hundred things while she was being made up, and felt I wasn't getting through to her. Yet, when she got before the cameras, everything was there, all the subtleties and the pathos - she was magnificent".

See Judy Garland Movies on Video for information about the latest releases of home video and sountrack.

Critical Response

"[Vincente Minnelli] has brought the budding dramatic talents of ... Judy Garland into unmistakable bloom."

"A tender and refreshingly simple romantic drama ... the atmosphere of the big town has seldom been conveyed more realistically upon the screen ... Robert Walker and Judy Garland (who by the way doesn't sing a note) are the principals. The Clock is the kind of picture that leaves one with a warm feeling toward his fellow man, especially towards the young folks who today are trying to crowd a lifetime of happiness into a few fleeting hours."

"A sincere and touching examination of the war-time marriage problem. Miss Garland, who doesn't sing a note in The Clock, works considerable sympathy into her role. She...maintains the impression of variety in the continual boy-girl relationship...She reacts to the ugliness and red tape of a municipal wedding and then keeps the relationship from becoming too sugary when the disappointment is amended."

"3 1/2 stars ... The Clock ... is the sweetest, most tender comedy-drama yet produced about a soldier and a girl. Judy Garland and Robert Walker are perfectly cast as the modest, sincere girl and the shy, sincere boy. To Vincente Minnelli goes the credit for the film's many appealing qualities. He has directed the love scenes with great tenderness. And the humor he has worked into the plot is so carefully and cleverly done that many scenes without words stand out like animated paintings and cartoons..."

Memorable Lines

Alice: Hey mister! Soldier! Soldier! Look behind you! My heel! My heel!
Joe: Who, me?

Alice: It's the sun. It always does this to me. I always sneeze exactly twice and then I'm all through.

Joe: "Where will I meet you?"
Alice: "Under the clock at the Astor at seven."

Alice: Children usually like him! They follow him around...like the Pied Piper!"

Alice: "Helen was right. She told me what would happen. I should have listened to her. But I suppose I haven't got any sense - if I had any sense I would've listened to her. It's different when you meet a service man through friends and you know who he is - then you know who he is. Only sometimes when a girl dates with a soldier she isn't thinking only of herself. She knows he's far away from home, alone, no one to talk to and... What're you staring at??"
Joe: "You've got brown eyes."

Drunk: "Hey, wait a minute...wait a minute...wait a minute! Who made a crack about a dog?"

Emily: "I spend more than half my life cookin'."
Al: "Cookin? Ha ha ha! She could mix you up the finest glass of ice water you ever drank, and that's her limit!"

Speaker: "There are five boroughs in New York with a total population of seven million four hundred fifty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-five. Bronx: one million three hundred ninety-four thousand seven hundred eleven. Brooklyn: two million six hundred seventy-eight thousand two hundred eighty-five. Manhattan: one million eight hundred eighty-nine thousand nine hundred twenty-four. Queens: one million two hundred ninety-seven thousand six hundred thirty-four. Richmond: one hundred seventy-four thousand four hundred forty-one, making a grand total of seven million four hundred fifty-four thousand nine hundred ninety-five."

Joe: "I uh...I guess you're not very glad you married me, are you, Alice?"
Alice: "Oh, I'm sorry, Joe. I guess I don't feel very married."
Joe: "Oh, I know. I...I don't blame you."
Alice: (crying) "It wasn't your fault. It's just...oh, it was...it was so...ugly! It was...it didn't...

Joe: "Alice, will you try not to think about anything..."
Alice: "Joe, darling, you're coming back! Do you want me to tell you how I know? Two days ago you came to this city and you didn't know anyone. You didn't know me, I didn't know you. And now we're married, and we both know that that was meant to be. So don't you see? Whoever makes the arrangements for people is doing pretty well for us. That's all we need to know."

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