A most enjoyable romance sprinkled with comedy and pathos. It brought back memories to me as a former soldier: the crowded train stations, the USOs, the partings, and servicemen everywhere. It was so easy to sympathize with the plight of Judy Garland and Robert Walker in one adventure after another. You were kept on edge wondering how the lovers would ever get together the several times they were separated.Jimmy Gleason was always enjoyable,and usually Keenan Wynn, however I thought his drunk was too abrasive. However, I got a big kick out of the humorous way the woman at the counter was eating her dinner while he was hovering over her. I had to smile when I Robert Walker appeared in a bathrobe and pajamas in the hotel. I never heard of servicemen wearing that kind of bedtime attire! He surely didn't have them stuffed in his overnight bag.A wonderful film which I rated highly on all counts and certainly a must see if anyone has missed it.

Except for the sticky 5-minute church part, this is an utterly charming production. That's thanks mainly to the two stars who are so winsome you may want to hug them. Farm boy Walker's got two days on army leave, alone and in big, strange New York City. That is, until he meets cute office girl Garland. Needless to say, romance in the big city follows. Still, it's one of those precarious wartime romances where everything's on a hurry-up schedule. Then too, can these sorts of rushed attractions endure over a longer time. After all, he's going overseas so she'll be left alone. I guess that's the reason for the movie's heavy church part. Still the scene could have been done in a less heavy-handed way that would have harmonized with the movie as a whole.Anyway, MGM manages to create a convincing big city whirl on their studio lot. Crowds are everywhere, especially with servicemen. But true to wartime form, the movie makes clear that even strangers are generally supportive of one another. That's especially true here of milkman Gleason who befriends the youngsters in open-handed fashion, which they return in charming style when he gets hurt. I'm guessing that Keenan Wynn's obnoxious drunk is meant to show that the city also has a downside.Anyway, it's hard to say enough about the pairing of Garland and Walker. They are the ideal next-door youngsters of that era. More importantly, their romance manages to avoid being too sappy to believe. And even though I guess their respective personal problems were pretty severe (IMDB), you'd never know it from what's on screen. Too bad their lives ended so tragically. Nonetheless, the record they leave here is brimful of charm and beguiling innocence, as is the movie.

Soldier (Robert Walker) on leave in New York City meets working girl (Judy Garland) and the two have a whirlwind romance. Old-fashioned, beautiful love story with two captivating leads. James Gleason offers some memorable support as a kindly milkman and Keenan Wynn has an amusing bit as a drunk. If this isn't Vincente Minnelli's best film, it's at least his second best. Those checking it out hoping to hear Judy sing might be initially disappointed, as audiences were at the time apparently. But give it a shot and I think you'll fall in love with it. Modern cynical viewers will probably find more faults with it than romantics.

Clock, The (1945) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Incredibly charming war-time romance about a soldier (Robert Walker) who gets a two day leave in NYC before being shipped overseas to the war. There he meets a young woman (Judy Garland) who shows him around the city and soon he asks to see her again. Even though she knows he's about to leave, the two strike up a relationship and over the next day fall in love. This romantic-drama features Garland in her first film where she isn't singing and I must say that's a great thing. God knows she had a beautiful voice and had some amazing songs while at MGM but it's nice seeing her be able to give 100% of her attention to the actual script and in the end she and Walker deliver something very special. The movies runs a very quick 90-minutes but director Minelli (who replaced Fred Zimmermann) packs enough drama, romance and comedy into it that you can't help but come away full entertained. What impressed me the most were the two leads. Of course, being a romance film you need both of them to be at the top of their game and they're certainly at that. As I said, it's terrific getting to see Garland go all out here and she comes off incredibly charming and I'd probably say she's never looked better. She certainly comes across as that girl-next-door type and the screenplay offers her character the chance to grow in several ways. There's a lot her character goes through in these two days but Garland handles all of it extremely well. Walker has no trouble with his character, a light-hearted but wise man who knows the dangers of falling in love when he could be killed very soon in war. The two actors are so charming and believable in their roles that you'll never question them falling in love so fast because you, the viewer, actually falls in love with them and want to see everything work out. The romance is very easy but what shocked me was how well the drama and comedy works. The drama comes from the two losing each other due to a crowded subway and a frantic search follows. The drama this sequence builds is very high because of how much we care for the two. A lot of the comedy comes from the two stars flirting and clowning around but one of the best sequences in the film is when they help a milk man (James Gleason) who offered to give them a ride and then ended up getting punched by a drunk. The entire sequence from the delivering of the milk to a morning breakfast contains one major laugh after another. Gleason and his real-life wife Lucile do a terrific job together and add so much to the film. Ruth Brady, formally known as Baby Ruth, appears in one scene as Garland's friend and does a nice job as well. THE CLOCK really is one of those Golden Age movies that mixes up genres and succeeds at all of them. This is a must-see for fans of Garland who gets to prove that she didn't need to just sing to be entertaining.