A sincere piece of treacle just before the end of WWII, this 1945 romantic drama features a never-lovelier Judy Garland in her only non-singing role during her golden MGM years. Even though she is a talented enough actress without having to vocalize, she is in a movie that feels like a musical in its cinematic sensibilities - swooning romanticism, quicksilver plot turns and broad stock characters. That shouldn't come as a surprise since her then-fiancé Vincente Minnelli directed and Arthur Freed produced, both much better known for their musicals of the period. Still, they have made a sweet film with worthwhile stylistic touches such as the use of long zoom shots in maneuvering through the swarming crowds in the subway and train stations and the screen panning used in showing the mini-dramas of background characters we never see again.
Garland plays Alice, an office worker who meets Joe, a young soldier on a 48-hour furlough, through a mishap with her heel at Pennsylvania Station. From there, they awkwardly become drawn to each other starting with a Fifth Avenue double-decker bus ride, a walk through Central Park, a dinner date, a late night in another park, a post-midnight drive with an amusing milkman caught in an inadvertent left hook from a mouthy drunkard, breakfast with the milkman and his equally feisty wife and then the sudden decision to marry. Written by Paul and Pauline Gallico, the plot gets more melodramatic in the second half but becomes more emotionally resonant with Garland particularly shining in a crying scene where she realizes her wedding is not what she quite expected.
A callow Robert Walker plays Joe in his familiar golly-gee manner, a far cry from his sinister, penultimate work in Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" but nonetheless a sincerely affecting performance. Together, they manage to make the sudden relationship palpable and convey the urgency of their wartime situation. James Gleason as the milkman and his real wife Lucile Gleason as his wife in the film provide some nice moments, though I could have done without Keenan Wynn's unfunny turn as the drunkard and Ruth Brady as Alice's advice-giving roommate Helen. George J. Folsey's black-and white cinematography is quite striking. This is definitely worth seeking for Garland's poignant work in particular.
Garland plays Alice, an office worker who meets Joe, a young soldier on a 48-hour furlough, through a mishap with her heel at Pennsylvania Station. From there, they awkwardly become drawn to each other starting with a Fifth Avenue double-decker bus ride, a walk through Central Park, a dinner date, a late night in another park, a post-midnight drive with an amusing milkman caught in an inadvertent left hook from a mouthy drunkard, breakfast with the milkman and his equally feisty wife and then the sudden decision to marry. Written by Paul and Pauline Gallico, the plot gets more melodramatic in the second half but becomes more emotionally resonant with Garland particularly shining in a crying scene where she realizes her wedding is not what she quite expected.
A callow Robert Walker plays Joe in his familiar golly-gee manner, a far cry from his sinister, penultimate work in Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train" but nonetheless a sincerely affecting performance. Together, they manage to make the sudden relationship palpable and convey the urgency of their wartime situation. James Gleason as the milkman and his real wife Lucile Gleason as his wife in the film provide some nice moments, though I could have done without Keenan Wynn's unfunny turn as the drunkard and Ruth Brady as Alice's advice-giving roommate Helen. George J. Folsey's black-and white cinematography is quite striking. This is definitely worth seeking for Garland's poignant work in particular.