THE DVD SHELF: "The Clock," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "Crossing Delancey," and a Paul Robeson Set

By Steven Suskin
25 Feb 2007

THE DVD SHELF: "The Clock," "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," "Crossing Delancey," and a Paul Robeson Set

This month's column discusses three reissues: the Judy Garland-Vincente Minnelli drama "The Clock," Robert Montgomery in "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," and the 1980s comedy "Crossing Delancey," as well as an impressive four-DVD set focusing on the films of Paul Robeson.

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Judy Garland! Vincente Minnelli! M-G-M! The 1945 drama The Clock [Warner] is the antithesis of what you might expect from Garland and Minnelli at M-G-M; a heartfelt, romantic and involving drama of a secretary and a soldier on a 48-hour leave. They meet at Penn Station (the old, vanished Penn Station, that is); meet once again under the clock in the lobby of the Astor (ditto); and find their lives transformed in a two-day whirlwind.

Garland made her non-singing debut in this film (falling between "Meet Me in St. Louis" and "The Harvey Girls"), and it might well be her most affecting performance. Robert Walker, the ingratiating but troubled actor best remembered for Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," plays Joe Allen. The soldier, not the restaurateur. There is also a marvelous supporting performance from the great James Gleason, as a friendly milkman who helps steer the romance. Gleason's wife, Lucile, plays his wife, and Keenan Wynn has a drunk scene that's worth watching. Keen-eyed viewers will find cameos by M-G-M's Arthur Freed (giving Walker some matches in Penn Station) and Roger Edens (as a cocktail-lounge pianist). Location shots of wartime New York add extra layers to the movie's charms. Look, there's the Metropolitan Museum back in the days when Fifth Avenue was a two-way street! "The Clock" is a little-known and almost forgotten film, but quite a treat.

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Speaking of Jimmy Gleason, he is at his best in another recent release, Here Comes Mr. Jordan [Columbia]. This is the 1941 comedy starring the droll Robert Montgomery as boxer Joe Pendleton. The star is mistakenly killed in a plane crash, accidentally snatched up by overeager novice angel Edward Everett Horton. Joe is sent back to earth in a new body, under the guidance of head angel Mr. Jordan (Claude Rains). Gleason, meanwhile, plays the boxer's understandably perplexed trainer; he picked up an Oscar nomination for his efforts, as did Montgomery.

If this all sounds familiar, let's try to get it right: screenwriter Harry Segall wrote an apparently unproduced play called Heaven Can Wait (which was finally staged decades later). Columbia bought the script and had it adapted into the film "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," winning Segall an Oscar for Best Original Story. A different "Heaven Can Wait," another heavenly comedy totally unrelated to "Mr. Jordan," was made in 1943 (starring Don Ameche and Gene Tierney, directed by Ernst Lubitsch). In 1978, Warren Beatty remade "Here Comes Mr. Jordan," calling it: "Heaven Can Wait." Is this all clear? No matter. The film at hand – "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" – is the best of them all, and a real charmer. Continued...