Synopsis
Every second a heart-beat
A G.I. en route to Europe falls in love during a whirlwind two-day leave in New York City.
The Clock
1945 Directed by Vincente Minnelli
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Alternative Title
Urlaub für die Liebe
Popular reviews
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What do you get when you cast a romantic drama with two of the most weirdly intense actors of the 1940s, if not of all-time? A weirdly intense romantic drama.
"What if we'd never met?"
"We couldn't not have met."An apocalyptic version of the city symphony romance (Lonesome) with Garland and Walker touring New York in all its beauty (the park, the museum) and ugliness (the drunken fights, the bureaucracy). The crowds separate them, repeatedly. Public transit separates them, repeatedly. Minnelli surrounds them with others (the guy sitting just off-center frame, watching their mournful post-wedding meal, minding his own business but observing all is my favorite). But ultimately they are saved by the people, individuals who give them a lift, offer them a meal, help them manipulate the system. The war explicitly hangs over it all; as soon as they meet, their time is running out.
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"I guess I don't feel very married."
On a two-day leave in wartime Manhattan, bumpkin GI Joe (Robert Walker) takes one look at the imposing skyline and retreats to the cavernous confines of Penn Station, whereupon he inadvertently destroys the footwear of Alice (Judy Garland)—a lonesome secretary who might have wandered in from an Edward Hopper canvas—before improbably winning her heart with a bottomless supply of homespun prattle.
The Clock came about when Garland—thoroughly tired of her exclusive diet of musicals—exhorted producer Arthur Freed to find a straight dramatic role to demonstrate her acting capacity. While the screenplay is certainly nothing special, it somehow represents the meeting of four minds (dialogue by Robert Nathan and Joseph Schrank from a story…
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"Manhattan crowds, with their turbulent musical chorus!" (Whitman) The virginal vision of the city is a loving studio evocation, Vincente Minnelli promptly makes himself at home with the rhythmic bustle of Penn Station. The soldier (Robert Walker) is an Indiana kid in New York, the office secretary (Judy Garland) plays guide, confidante, and, finally, soulmate over the course of the two-day furlough. Their tour of parks and museums pauses long enough to take in the nocturnal hum of the setting—train whistles and sirens in the distance, chorales rising as the lovers move toward their first embrace and kiss, filmed like planets stirred into monumental orbit. "Let's allow our emotions free rein, shall we?" The skyscrapers are daunting, but the metropolis…
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It’s so funny to me that a blood test used to be required to get a marriage license. it just makes the institution of marriage seem even more ritualistic. “we must shed the blood of the heterosexuals before they enter into matrimony to ensure harmonious breeding.”
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If you walk around the city with curiosity, with an open mind and an open heart, and if you let yourself be sensitive to the rhythms of others and the world all around you, beautiful things can happen
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"We both know that that was meant to be" - Alice Mayberry,
Magical!
Judy Garland is a fucking star and now I need to watch every one of her movies because I'm in love with her. The Clock is such an outstanding film, tapping into that feeling of crazy, illogical, wonderful love. It's whimsical then it's tense, it's funny and it's dramatic. It's so sweet and wholesome and the movie flows so well that you barely experience the ninety minute running time.
For me this is a special movie that more people should see.
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What Vincente Minnelli does here with time and the city, and Judy Garland with emotion, is otherworldly.
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There are entire action movies that never match the intensity of when Robert Walker and Judy Garland are separated on the subway.
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"Sometimes when a girl dates a soldier she isn't only thinking of herself. She knows he's alone and far away from home and no one to talk to and... what are you staring at?"
"You've got brown eyes."It's interesting to rewatch Vincente Minnelli's The Clock and Bells Are Ringing practically back to back, seeing the ways they both present almost-fantasy romances in New York City. The former makes impressive use of real locations compared to the latter's sound-stage artificiality, but I would argue that Bells is far more successful since it's a longer movie, is based on a great Broadway musical and the world feels more fully realized since there are so many more characters. Still, The Clock's 48-hour…
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obsessed with how vincente minnelli is the one director who always surprises me!!! i am terrible at predicting which of his films i'll fall in love with, which is why every experience i have with him is so exciting. LOVED this tender little film about being swept up in a new york romance. judy garland is so lovely in this one (when is she not, but oh my god there are moments when she smiled and i couldn't not smile, you know?) and i clearly need to see more robert walker films! cannot wait to watch this again later this year once i've moved to new york :')
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What’s remarkable is that this was clearly a war-time shot in the arm on the MGM ledgers, but Minnelli imbues it with such a steadily escalating intensity. By the final stretches your heart is racing. The line from BRIEF ENCOUNTER applies here and it’s sustained for 90 minutes: “I've fallen in love. I didn't think such violent things could happen to ordinary people.” But Minnelli swaps Lean’s interiority by also foregrounding the ordinary (its vision of urban sprawl is vivid, if a bit idealized). The psychological acuity is still there (“I don’t feel very married” is a perfect character moment) but the singularity of voiceover and closeup are rejected in favor of the delicate democracy of Minnelli’s gliding camera and incomparable m-e-s. The single take subway separation might be my favorite moment in all the Minnelli I’ve seen.