Robert Walker

The Clock

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Joe stares into Alice's eyes

Stirringly democratic and winningly romantic, The Clock is one of Judy Garland’s best films. She sings not a note, you may be surprised to learn, but brings a tear to the eye with her portrayal of a sweet young miss having a whirlwind romance in surely the most New York New York ever committed to film. Almost all of it was shot in the studio, you may also be surprised to learn. Anyhow, Alice (Garland), a button-bright go-getter meets-cute with Robert Walker’s Joe Allen, a corporal on 48 hours leave, after he causes her to break a heel on an escalator in busy Pennsylvania Station. Though properly contrite, he is taking barely any … Read more

Strangers on a Train

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930 strangers on a train blu

Remakes are always being mooted – one far-fetched internet rumour had Ricky Gervais starring in one of them – but whatever eventually pops out, it’s unlikely to eclipse this warped 1951 original, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by Patricia Highsmith, surely one of cinema’s most misanthropic couplings. Hitchcock, as book after book delights in telling us, loved torturing blondes. The lesbian Highsmith, on the other hand, loved to torture homosexuals – see The Talented Mr Ripley, for example. And it’s Highsmith who comes out on top in this thriller about two men agreeing to swap murders. Robert Walker plays Bruno Anthony, the psychotic ball of mother-love who wants his horrible father dead. … Read more