Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-07-12

the part of Metro oldwyn-M Mayer.
Equally happy are the selections of
James Gleason and Keenan, Wynn
for a couple of character roles that
are no less than brilliantly written
and played.
The Clocks" chief advantage
over most of the other screen plays
you may have seen this year is that
its people are human beings. Au-
thors Robert Nathan and Joseph
Schrank have quite ably seen to
that.
Chief products of their magma
ton are a young corporal on his
last furlough before going overseas
and a small-town girl who has emf
grated to New York to become a
tiny cog in the gigantic commercial
machine of the metropolis. For
characters in a movie, they do the
strangest things, all of which are
astoundingly lifelike. They ride a
Fifth avenue bus-on top, of course
and they walk in Central Park,
watch the animals being fed, visit
the Metropolitan Museum, and in
dulge in a dozen similar simplicltleS
that make them entirely believable.
The movies have seldom looked so
inspired, sincere and honest. And
rarely have they achieved so heart
ening blend of humor and pathos.
X X
The title of the romantic frolic
at the Capitol derives from the fact
that the affair has its real beginning
at a meeting under the clock at the
Aston. That is not the couples first
meeting, but the one that points
to the natural windup of their
romance. Their first encounter is
in the Pennsylvania Station where
the awed corporal, frightened by the
height of New York'S building, has
retreated to regain his poise.
They are thrown together inno-
Gently when the girl stumbles over
his foot and knocks the heel of her
shoe.
The 48 hours they spend together
after that are about as exciting
period as Hollywood has photo
graphed since it started brooding
upon the emotional life of young
sterS upset by the war. You would
not think it could be, fabricated of
such things as looking at statues, |
riding in a milk wagon all night,
eating hot corn mullins with the |
milkman and his wife. riding in the
subway, ETC., but that is how it turns |
out. One wishes the movies could
always be as innocent and direct.
A strong element of suspense,
along with touches of poignance and
hilarity, is injected into THE Clock.
1t centers,, of course, in whether the
youngsters, once they decide they
are are in love, can adjust New
York's inf1exible marriage laws to
fit the very limited leave the cor
poral has at his disposal. It's most
tense moments are those in which |
the young couple become separated
in subway jam and make the har-
rowing discovery that they do not
authors of The Clock" have con-
trived an effective solution of how
two such innocentS still may find |
each other in a city of 10000
people.
Excellent as they are in their |
portraits of a pair of romantic
youngsters, Miss Garland and
Walker have no walk-away in their
dominance of acting honorS in the
Capitol's screen play.
The best single moment in the
picture is one that belongs to Kee-
nan Wynn. The cinema's most ca
pable impersonator of DRINKS,
Wynn hits new pinnacle in THE
Clock" He is a drunk who has a
terrific sense of the world going to the
dogs and it is his conviction that his
neighbors in an uptown all-night
restaurant should be banded to-
gether to prevent social catastrophe,
1t could be that the scene is the
funniest cinema passage of the sea-
son.
Gleason as a milkman is another
Of the ingratiating humans in the
picture. His interests in life are