The Clock
1945
Starring Judy Garland and Robert Walker
The wartime romance The Clock is a story about a whirlwind romance between Corporal Joe Allen (Walker) and a lovely woman named Alice Mayberry (Garland). The two meet by chance on a busy day in New York City. Joe is a soldier in the United States Army, and he finds himself on a 48-hour leave in a city where he has never been before, and he doesn't know a soul. He is in Penn Station when Alice trips over his duffel bag and breaks the high heel on one of her shoes. Feeling as though he must make amends for his carelessness, Joe offers to fix her shoe for her, which he does. While her shoe is being worked on, Alice talks with Joe and learns that he is on leave in the city and he doesn't know where to go. She still has to catch the bus back to her apartment, so she says he can come along and she'll point out some of the city's different landmarks and other places he might be interested in. It soon turns into a small adventure, when they make stops to walk through Central Park, and to spend time at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They have a wonderful time together, and Joe realizes he would like to spend more time with Alice. He asks her out for the evening, which she refuses at first, but then she finally gives in and says that she will meet him under the clock at the Astor Hotel at 7 pm.
Everyone thinks Alice is crazy for agreeing to go on a date with a strange soldier that she barely knows, and she contemplates not going. She just can't stand him up, though, so she gets ready and goes to meet him. Joe buys her flowers for her hair, and takes her out to dinner. They miss their bus afterwards, but end up accepting a ride from a kind, old milkman, in exchange for helping him deliver the last of his early morning milk. The milk truck gets a flat tire halfway through the route, so they pull up to a late-night diner to use a pay phone and call for assistance. While they're there, the milkman gets hit on the head by a drunk. Alice and Joe help him back out to the truck where they tell him to rest and take it easy for a bit. He ends up falling asleep, so Joe and Alice take it upon themselves to deliver the last of the milk. When he wakes up, in return for their kindness, he asks them to come home with him and have breakfast with him and his wife. While eating breakfast, the milkman and his wife talk about how they fell in love so quickly and have been happily married ever since. Joe and Alice think about everything they say, and about how they feel towards one another, and then they realize that they want to get married--but they only have 24 hours to do it before Joe's leave is up.
They go on a mad dash all over New York City to fulfil all the requirements of the law in order to be legally married. For a time they are afraid that it won't be able to happen until Joe comes back, but with help from friends and managing to pull a few strings here and there, they finally get married. Joe returns to war the next day. Alice accompanies him to the train station and they say goodbye. The movie ends with Alice walking back through the station, going home to happily wait for her husband.
When it was first released, The Clock was not that warmly received for a few reasons. One reason was because, at the time, WWII had just ended and American audiences did not want to see another wartime romance--there had been so many, and they were craving something different. Probably it's biggest fault, though, was that it starred America's singing sweetheart, Judy Garland, but she didn't sing a single tune in this particular feature film. This was intentionally done. Garland was coming out of her years as a child actress, and she really wanted to do a film that would make her look like the adult she was. Her future husband Vincente Minnelli directed the film and, in my opinion, she never looked more lovely on the big screen.
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