Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

The Clock Blu-ray Movie Review

Lead us not into Penn Station.

June 2022 marks the 100th anniversary of Judy Garland's birth... and to celebrate, all three Warner Archive Blu-rays this month -- Ziegfeld Girl, The Clock, and For Me and My Gal -- feature the late, great star. I'll also be covering two other 1940s Garland films from deeper in the Warner Archive vault, The Pirate and The Harvey Girls.

The undisputed high point of this month's Judy Garland releases, Vincente Minnelli's The Clock is a superb romantic drama that marked the star's first non-singing adult role in a major motion picture. Deftly directed by her soon-to-be husband (and collaborator on the previous year's hugely popular Meet Me in St. Louis), Garland lights up the screen as Alice Mayberry, a young professional in New York City who randomly meets Joe Allen (Robert Walker), a soldier on 48-hour leave, in the middle of crowded Pennsylvania Station. It's not love at first sight... but since Alice has been a resident for three years and he's a tourist with no destination, she's at least willing to show him around.

What begins as an innocent enough meet-cute soon becomes an eventful weekend for the pair: a visit to the Central Park Zoo, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and, eventually, a planned reunion later that evening at a large clock near the Astor Hotel that involves dinner, pleasant conversation, and... uh, an impromptu ride from a friendly milk man on the early-morning shift. When they're later separated in the subway and spend a few stressful hours trying to find each other in a city of millions, both quickly realize that his impending leave will be tougher to deal with than they originally thought. It's the kind of narrative path you'd expect from a young couple with few connections outside of each other, which leads Alice and Joe to even consider a quick engagement before he's sent back to base.

Beautifully acted and deceptively easy to get lost in, The Clock was an unconventional drama for its time and hugely influential in its own right, as seeds from Paul and Pauline Gallico's original story can be seen in more than a few films released years and even decades later. Perhaps its biggest beneficiary would be 1949's Holiday Affair, which not only shares a bit of DNA but even borrows a few exact locations (the seal exhibit in Central Park) and plot developments, such as the crowded mob that separates them for a short time. Key moments and narrative signposts can be seen all over Woody Allen's filmography, as can the stammering, neurotic delivery of Robert Walker's original "GI Joe". And of course there's Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise and its two sequels, which likewise trade in romantic drama clichés for long, languorous stretches of enjoyable dialogue from characters that we can't help but care about.

It all adds up to a visually dense but surprisingly breezy 90-minute affair, and one that has aged incredibly well over the last 75+ years. The Clock is simply a well-crafted romantic drama and remains a career highlight for all involved; it's further cemented in film history as a valuable time capsule for both its New York City landmarks and its two leads, both of which died far too young but remain preserved in unforgettable films like this one. Warner Archive's Blu-ray offers their usual amount of support, pairing yet another rock-solid A/V restoration with a small collection of DVD-era bonus features that, if nothing else, set the proper backdrop for an evening of vintage entertainment.

The Clock Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

While exact details of The Clock's source material were not provided on Warner Archive's recent press release, the end result of their recent restoration rivals the overall level of clarity and fine detail you'd get from a fresh 4K scan of the original camera negative. Whether or not that scenario is actually true, it's fairly easy to tell from these screenshots that The Clock has absolutely never looked better on home video, as the overall quality of this 1080p transfer meets or possibly exceeds original theatrical showings: contrast levels, shadow detail, deep blacks, and gleaming whites are perfectly captured here, with a noticeable level of fine detail bolstered by careful grain levels that really do replicate an authentic film-like appearance. It's every bit as good as Warner Archive's other perfect and near-perfect releases from decades' worth of catalog titles in their ever-growing Blu-ray library, all of which have made them the boutique label to beat for pure visual consistency. As usual, it's encoded perfectly on a dual-layered disc, runs at an extremely high bit rate, and exhibits little to no perceptible black crush, posterization, or other compression artifacts.

The Clock Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Clock's DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio mix can't quite reach the dizzying heights of its visual restoration -- partially due to instances of age-related wear and tear, which arrive in the form of sporadic hissing and a brief, distorted popping noise soon after the four-minute mark -- but it's still a fine presentation indeed, and one that's at least perfectly faithful to the film's one-channel roots. Aside from those occasional distractions and some obvious thinness in the high end (which also occasionally effects the terrific original score by prolific composer George Bassman, whose body of work even includes select pieces of background music for The Wizard of Oz), it's a largely solid listening experience with crisp dialogue and even mild depth during the film's most crowded sequences. Under the circumstances, it's probably a best-case scenario and one that likewise outpaces earlier home video editions and even some original showings.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are included during the main feature only, but not the extras. This is pretty annoying since the DVD collection that most of them were sourced from did in fact have optional subtitles available. It's perhaps my only ongoing hang-up regarding Warner Archive releases, and one that I hope is addressed at some point.

The Clock Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover art and no inserts. All extras are ported over from Warner Bros.' 2007 DVD (one of two releases on that format), although a few upgrades have been made.

• Pete Smith Specialty Short: Hollywood Scout (7:42) - This 1945 short from the long-running series was written by Joe Ansen with narration and direction by Smith, and features one of Smith's assistant auditioning a variety of animal acts. It's fine enough if you're a fan, but probably won't win over many outsiders.

• Classic Tex Avery Cartoon: The Screwy Truant (7:02) - Sourced from Warner Archive's essential classic animation release Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1, this Screwy Squirrel short features the titular rodent tormenting a dog during his fishing trip. Keep an eye out for Red Hot Riding Hood and The Wolf, of course.

• Lux Radio Theater Adaptation (47:21) - Originally broadcast on January 28, 1946, this condensed radio version of the film features Judy Garland reprising her role and John Hodiak filling in for Robert Walker.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:11) - This vintage promotional piece can also be seen here

The Clock Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Vincente Minnelli's The Clock is a memorable and moving romantic drama, one that remains a career highlight for its cast and crew including both unforgettable leads: Judy Garland in a rare non-musical turn, and Robert Walker as part of a career tragically cut even shorter. Accessible, well-crafted, and even highly influential, it's inarguably the best film in this month's slate of Warner Archive releases that also includes two more Garland films linked above. While this Blu-ray comes up a little short in the extras department, it's been lovingly restored and allows viewers to fully drink in the sights of post-war New York City in style. Highly Recommended to fans and first-timers alike.