Movie Monday: The Clock

Movie Monday: The Clock

Released on May 25, 1945, The Clock was actress Judy Garland’s first starring role in which she didn’t sing. It was also her last black and white film. Fred Zinneman was the initial director when production began in August 1944, but he was soon replaced by Vincente Minnelli, after both Zinneman and Judy went to producer Arthur Freed and indicated they couldn’t work together. By the end of the film, Minnelli and Judy were in love and would head to the altar on June 15, 1945. The movie had a production cost of just over one million dollars, and more than recouped the investment with initial box office earnings of $2.8 million.

Reportedly, Judy approached the executives at MGM and asked that she be cast in a straight dramatic role. Once source commented that “musical stars of the era were not considered to be on the same par as dramatic stars because most musicals made were light, fluffy entertainment.” Did Judy decide it was time to be taken seriously, or did she want to see if she had what it took to be a dramatic actress? No matter the reason, the studio agreed, and she was given the script for The Clock by Freed who had purchased the rights to the short unpublished story written by Paulione and Paul Gallico.

Robert Walker tried his hand in Hollywood in 1939 and managed to get a contract with MGM, securing

a few bit parts. He finally got his chance at stardom in 1944 when he was given the main role in Since You Went Away, one of the most financially successful films that year. His next movie, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, was also box-office hit, and he was quickly cast in The Clock.

The plot is simplistic (from IMDB): Joe Allen (Robert Walker) is on a two-day leave in New York City and meets secretary, Alice Mayberry (Judy Garland) when she trips over him and breaks the heel on her shoe. They hit it off, and she decides to show him around the city. As they tour the sights, they begin to fall in love. The pair meet a milk deliveryman whom they befriend and help finish his route. The next morning, Joe and Alice decide to marry before he must return to duty.

Interestingly, all the scenes with Judy and Robert were filmed on MGM soundstages and backlots, not on the actual streets of New York. The most famous set in the film is the meticulous recreation of Penn Station including escalators. Despite the relative success of the movie and Judy playing a dramatic role, it would be sixteen years before she would make another non-musical drama with Judgment at Nuremburg (1961).

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A Lesson in Love

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

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