The Clock [Blu-ray]

Clock / (Mod)

Overview

The Clock was designed by MGM as a "small" picture--though characteristically, it was a bigger production than most "A" efforts from any other studio. Paul Gallico's simple story involves a girl (Judy Garland) and a GI (Robert Walker), who meet under the huge clock at New York's Pennsylvania Station. Over the next 48 hours, the girl and the soldier fall in love, make the acquaintance of such lovable gotham types as cabbie James Gleason and inebriate Keenan Wynn, and decide to get married before the GI is shipped out again. The enormous Pennsylvania Station set, combined with some unusually convincing back projection (MGM was hitherto notorious for the worst back projection in the business) has convinced even lifelong New Yorkers that The Clock was actually lensed in Manhattan rather than Hollywood. Director Vincente Minnelli injected further visual dynamism in The Clock by seldom repeating the same camera angle twice.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/07/2022
UPC:	0883929794317
Original Release:	0000
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Sales rank:	17,405

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Walker	Cpl. Joe Allen
Judy Garland	Alice Maybery
Keenan Wynn	The Drunk
James Gleason	Al Henry,Mrs. Al Henry
Marshall Thompson	Bill
Ruth Brady	Helen
Chester Clute	Michael Henry
Dick Elliott	Friendly Man
Paul Burns	Bartender
Wheaton Chambers	Actor
Moyna MacGill	Luncheonette Lady
Arthur Space	Blood Tester
Ray Teal	Cop
Robert Homans	Official
George Bassman	Composer

Technical Credits

Joseph Schrank

Robert Nathan

Joseph Schrank	Screenwriter
Robert Nathan	Screenwriter
Arthur Freed	Producer
A. Arnold Gillespie	Special Effects
Warren Newcombe	Special Effects

Editorial Reviews

The Clock was the first chance that either Judy Garland or Vincente Minnelli were given to show what they could do in a non-musical film, and they come through beautifully. A sweet (but not saccharine), gentle and perceptive film, it's small in scope but made with loving care and an attentive eye for detail. Minnelli succeeds in his stated ambition of making the City itself a third character - and it's a complex character that can both amuse and threaten, can entrance and then turn and break the heart. Using a seemingly endless array of camera angles, Minnelli captures the vastness of the City, as well as the loneliness of its inhabitants. Garland gives a wonderful, carefully calibrated performance. Her vulnerability, always inadequately masked, plays a consistent but losing battle with a tougher façade. And as always, Garland uses her eyes -- those eyes that the camera loves -- to convey a panoply of complicated emotional responses. (Significantly, Robert Walker saves himself from a difficult moment with her when he notices that her eyes are brown.) Walker is also very good, quite believable as a bumbling, good-natured not-quite-hayseed. There's an unusual chemistry between the two, a chemistry that isn't always sure of itself, which matches the insecurity of their characters' relationship. A small gem, The Clock helped prepare Garland for the dramatic challenges of A Star is Born almost a decade later.