I Could Go On Singing (1963)

In her final film Judy Garland lights up the screen with a vibrant vital performance (New York Herald Tribune) as a singer torn between her career and motherhood. Co-starring Dirk Bogarde this powerful and touching film boasts excellent direction winning vocal numbers (The Film Daily) and the incandescent magic (The Hollywood Reporter) of one of Hollywood s brightest stars at her sensational best.When celebrated singer Jenny Bowman (Garland) asks her ex-lover David (Bogarde) to let her see their son Matt she is unprepared for the emotional consequences. Though Matt doesn t even know Jenny is his mother their growing bond will force Jenny to make the most difficult choice of her life: between the rewards of motherhood and the glamorous life of the stage.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 027616903976 Manufacturer No: 1006195 Product Description

"I Could Go On Singing"--The Best Judy Garland Film

To choose the best film of Judy Garland's stunning career--from the beginning of her juvenilia in 1936 to "I Could Go On Singing;" shooting finished in 1962, released in 1963; is a stiff assignment--but not for me. "I Could Go On Singing" would be my choice as her best film because of her perfection as an adult actress capable of acting the many difficult emotional settings in this film to reveal the character and to touch the audience with her dilemas. Her character believably faces her past, present, and future along with the various other characters in the film who must face them, too.

"I Could Go On Singing" was filmed after Miss Garland's historic "Carnegie Hall Concert" (1961), whose recording has never gone out of print. "I Could Go On Singing" was finished just before she began to work on the finest variety, or any other type of, television program that was ever broadcast on American television: "The Judy Garland Show" (1963-1964). "I Could Go On Singing" itself provided all the justification ever needed, artistically, for her to continue to make such fine adult, engrossing, dramatic films. However, she was never given another chance.

The innovative subject matter of "I Could Go On Singing," controversial, dealt with a popular singer who had, when younger, given her recently born son to its father, to whom she was not married, a London doctor, so that he could raise the baby because she was not able to manage both motherhood and marriage to the father of the child and, at the same time, to continue to attain her fast-approaching stardom. As the film begins, years later, Miss Garland's character returns to London to meet again the father of her son and to meet her son himself, now an adolescent.

Miss Garland received some of the best movie reviews of her career for "I Could Go On Singing." Later, the film was shown on television in December of 1967. Forty years old when it was filmed, Miss Garland was in some of her finest years, both as a singer and actress. Also, the film is an appropriate testament to her because, very unfortunately, she died barely six years after "I Could Go On Singing" was released.

Miss Garland's role as Jenny Bowman, the singer, allowed her to express the emotional turmoil of her character as a 1) mother who had never known her son until this trip to London which is 2) part of her ongoing and successful career as a star on European tour while 3) she had already realized that she had always loved the father of her child, especially because of two subsequent, and failed, marriages, and that 4) she still wants very much to marry the doctor and to establish herself with him and their son in the family she had not been able to institute when he was born.

Miss Garland's accomplishments in performing all these, and other, facets of her role were due to her relying on her own life to play the character's, like all great actresses, but she never played herself despite some similarities with her own life in the script of the film.

The poignant and highly layered hospital scene with Mr. Dirk Bogarde, who plays her former lover, puts Miss Garland to an emotionally difficult test as an actress and she succeeds. In fact, according to the director, Mr. Ronald Neame, in his autobiography, "From the Horse's Mouth" (2002), this was a "nonphysical love scene" where "Judy became so personally involved that the words took on a special meaning for her far beyond the character as written [by the scriptwriter]." In fact, Miss Garland and Mr. Bogard rewrote the dialogue for that hospital scene on the set because they had never liked the script's characterizations. Although they were both offered screen writing credit for it, neither accepted.

Although somewhat comparable to the Mr. George Cukor directed solo that Miss Garland achieved in "A Star Is Born" (1954), the hospital scene in "I Could Go On Singing" is, impressively, much less bathetic, and because of it, is utterly believable dramatically, as Jenny Bowman reveals her continued love for the doctor. Mr. Dirk Bogarde, with moving delivery and stage economy, reveals his own continued and deep love for her.

At end, I still think that the determined character of Jenny Bowman, as portrayed by Judy Garland, could and would, make her dream of love and family come true which would result in the utter happiness of Jenny Bowman, the doctor, and their son. Jenny would then be the wife and mother; the doctor would then be her husband, and their son would then be in his destined, and now whole, family.

Judy Garland played Miss Bowman as extremely persuasive, charming, seductive, likeable, and, unfailingly, persistent. After all, that is how how Jenny Bowman got to be the star she always wanted to be and deserved to be. Now, with the another chance to have the man she always wanted as her husband and to have her son restored to her in the family she found out subsequently would be her greatest happiness, Jenny Bowman would never give up on her dream without all her effort to make this dream come true and she would achieve it because this is what they all wanted, very evidently, in the film, especially Jenny.

I have given the DVD of "I Could Go On Singing" very often for gifts. I have been told by those who received it, "I never knew Judy Garland made a film like this. You never see such a good film like this today!"

### July 1, 2008

sad, sadder, saddest

What a shame this was the last movie Garland made and the 1st one singing on screen since "A Star Is Born". A paycheck is a paycheck,and so Judy needed the money. The parts are very miscast, the story line embarressing. "BlueBird" and "By Myself, Alone- shine. The title song- a joke. Lorna and Joey Luft appear on screen as over interested extras on a boat. Judy deserved better and the Oscar for "A Star Is Born" April 7, 2008

the lady still has it

"I Could Go on Singing" warrants most of the criticism & praise it's received - over-the-top soap opera with Garland edgy & brimming, her voice spilling over the lines like a none-too-carefully-wielded crayon in a coloring book, but the colors are vivid and the pleasures here are significant - even if they come more from incidentals than the central meat. Garland was just so SMART, innately: her intelligence and wit inform many lovely little asides and inflections - her speaking voice insinuates & encompasses with the musical dark flush of a viola. She's great to watch - even if the film itself is a pretty hoary flapping affair. However varying the quality of the material or its expression, you can't take your eyes off her. December 21, 2007

Judy at her best!

This movie I waited for years to come on DVD , Judy's last picture, and the heart felt energy she put into it came through , it is a must see and a must own for any Judy Garland fan! May 20, 2007

Classic Judy, surprisingly thought-provoking movie

"I Could Go On Singing" stars Judy Garland as famous songstress Jenny Bowman, who, while performing a series of concerts at London's famous Palladium, returns to see old lover David Donne (Dirk Bogarde), and requests access to their son Matt (Gregory Phillips). Initially skeptical, David agrees to introduce Matt to his estranged mother, but simply as a friend, and when he's called away to Rome on business, Jenny takes the opportunity to build a relationship with the son she agreed never to see. Upon David's return, Jenny must make some tough decisions: will she sacrifice her stellar career to become a mother to a relative stranger?

Many stars of Garland's magnitude have less-than-stellar Final Films: poor Joan Crawford made a swill-like mess called "Trog", Lana Turner went out on a low note in "Bittersweet Love", Greta Garbo disappeared after the weak "Two Faced Woman", and Norma Shearer hit the road after the candy-light, deadly dull "We were dancing". It's odd, and yet somehow fitting, that Judy Garland, a notably less-reliable actress than any of the above listed, should finish her film career with such an excellent performance in a nicely understated, touching and thought-provoking piece like this one. She brings a level of maturity to the role that's palpable - in particular, her opening scenes with Bogarde (on fine form himself as the overprotective David) and her scene in the hospital are excellent examples of the plausible, magnetic character Garland created here. Okay, so there are obvious parallels with Jenny Bowman's life and Garland's own - but leaving them to one side, it's still an excellent performance.

Bogarde as David and Gregory Phillips as Matt provide ample, multidimensional support for the central role of Jenny, and thanks to their obvious talent as actors, don't fade into the background as mere extras in a Judy Garland Picture. They share one big scene together after David's return from Rome and it's a beauty - a really insightful bit of writing and an excellent illustration of the nature of their relationship.

Direction, scoring and script are all top-drawer - but, contrary to most of Garland's other movies, the musical numbers are toned-down and pared back: a wise move, considering Garland in concert mode is one of those iconographic things you can't associate with anything else. And yes, Jenny Bowman's performances are pure Garland - but they don't run the show in "I Could Go On Singing", and director Ronald Neame is to be thanked for that.

All in all, this is an excellent movie: moving and clever, and one that's well-worth owning. Highly recommended. July 6, 2006

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