Clock
Cats: New York|It’s during the war, World War Two that is, and young soldier Joe Allen (Robert Walker) is on a two-day leave in New York. There he meets Alice (Judy Garland). She agrees to show him the sights and they spend the day together. In this short time they find themselves falling in love with each other, and they decide to get married before Joe has to return to the war. The picture was made during the war and it (the war) has such a presence in the story. I am not going to say anything else about the plot as I feel I will spoil it as I have done in the past.
What I will say is this very simple, beautiful picture has some great performances. In one of only three non musical roles Judy garland ever had and she proves herself a great actress as well as a great singer. She comes out from behind that shimmering curtain of a musical to give us a young, lonely woman who does find happiness in Pennsylvania Station. Robert Walker, a recent emigre from New York gives us a “regular” Joe (Allen) that is steeped in innocence about to be lost, marriage and the war are going to take care of that. We believe these two are falling in love and we root for them all through the picture.
I am including this in the New York Category even though it was shot entirely at MGM, save for a few establishing shots. Originally going to be a project for director Fred Zinnemann (who went to New York and filmed those establishing shots) Vincent Minnelli took over when Mr. Zinnemann fell ill, recast and rewrote (some) and then married Judy Garland later that year. The previous year he directed Ms. Garland in Meet Me In Saint Louis. He promised her he would make her look beautiful, she no longer wanted to be seen as girl but as a woman. He kept his promise.
Friday January 30th at 4:00 AM on Turner Classic Movies
