Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies: Episode 4 – “The Clock”
- Today’s Movie: The Clock
- Year of Release: 1945
- Stars: Robert Walker, Judy Garland
- Director: Vincente Minnelli
This movie is on my list of essential films.
The Story:
The Clock is your classic “Whirlwind Romance” set during the Second World War. Robert Walker plays a soldier arriving by train in New York from where he is most likely being shipped off to the war in Europe. In the meantime, he meets the quintessential secretary in Judy Garland under the giant clock in Penn Station, hence the title. It’s standard fare for this sort of movie, but it is historically significant for film buffs as it is director Vincente Minnelli’s first non-musical, it’s one of few movies in which Judy Garland does not sing, and the meeting of Minnelli and Garland led to their marriage shortly thereafter; a union which produced Liza Minnelli.
The Hidden Sports Analogy:
This might be the oddest film so far in which I’ve discovered a sports analogy, but there’s a very good one contained in “The Milkman” sequence. Walker and Garland are having a romantic moment in the park as their relationship is blossoming. They lose track of time and midnight passes, which just so happens to be the witching hour when the buses stop running in Manhattan. Having no transportation, Walker flags down what he thinks is a cab, but turns out to be a milkman at the beginning of his nightly delivery route. Seeing that Walker is a serviceman, he offers the couple a ride. Without any spoilers, the three end up in an all-night diner where the milkman gets inadvertently decked by a raving drunk (played by Keenan Wynn). Realizing the milkman is now in no condition to finish his route, Walker and Garland team up and finish his route, after which the milkman invites the couple to dinner at his home.
The America where that could happen has been gone for a long time…but could it be coming back?
The Moral of the Story:
Nobody under 50 remembers when America was a team; when people would actually pick each other up like sports teams do rather than being a country of whiny-ass “me-first” types. Tonight, as Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States, let’s hope he can put reality behind the line from his inaugural speech…”Together, we will make America great again.”
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