I Could Go on Singing

source: The Lonely Stage

The reviewer Judith Crist wrote of this film: "Either you are or you aren't - a Judy Garland fan ... And if you aren't, forget about her new movie, 'I Could Go On Singing', and leave the discussion to us devotees. You'll see her in close-up...in beautiful, glowing Technicolor and striking staging in a vibrant, vital performance that gets to the essence of her mystique as a superb entertainer. Miss Garland is - as always - real, the voice throbbing, the eyes aglow, the delicate features yielding to the demands of the years - the legs still long and lovely. Certainly the role of a top-rank singer beset by the loneliness and emotional hungers of her personal life is not an alien one to her..." In some ways I agree with Ms. Crist. In other ways, I do not. I'm not a Judy Garland fan...at least not a fan of the grown up Judy Garland, but I did enjoy this film and I thought it was a good performance. Although, her fragility -- it seemed to me -- showed through in the more emotional scenes of the film. And, there were a number of scenes where I thought she looked rather beaten down. Yes, the Technicolor photography was excellent, and the settings chosen superb! Nevertheless, Judy Garland's performance here was excellent, although I thought her character was not a very admirable person who had no sense of what motherhood is and whose primary motivations were selfish. I continue to be impressed with an actor whom I've only recently come to appreciate -- Dirk Bogarde. He's excellent here as the father. Jack Klugman...oh, so so as the agent. I was most impressed with the young actor playing the son -- Gregory Phillips. A superb performance. And it was a treat to see the superb character actress of years earlier -- Aline MacMahon -- in her next to last film performance, here as Garland's assistant. In terms of plot, Bogarde and Garland were once lovers, and she had a son. She gave him up...totally...to pursue her career. Now, about 15 years later, she wants him back. The film does an excellent job of showing what parents can put their children through. A good film. Very worth watching.

Judy Garland turned in still another phenomenal performance in 1963's "I Could Go On Singing." As a singer touring England, Garland lets out the secret that she is the mother of Dirk Bogarde's son. Bogarde had passed the boy off as his adopted son so as not to humiliate his wife. The problem is that the latter is now dead and Garland is ready to fulfill her motherly role. Or, is she? Garland emits the same emotion that she did as Vickie Lester in 1954's "A Star is Born." While Bogarde is good as her former boy friend, could you imagine what James Mason could have done for this part? Imagine re-teaming Mason and Garland in a motion picture. There is a surprising nice small supporting performance by Jack Klugman as Garland's manager. He warns her that she might have to go to court against Bogarde to prove that she is the mother of his child. What would that do to her career? While all this is going on, Garland fabulously belts out "I'll Go My Way By Myself," as well as the title song. It is amazing to me that in a very weak best actress category of 1963, that Garland was not nominated for best actress here.

Judy Garland and Dirk Bogarde provide proof in I COULD GO ON SINGING that they could match each other for sheer power and intensity as far as their performing skills go. Although the film is obviously meant to capitalize on Garland's legend as a temperamental actress/singer with a devoted following, it is Dirk Bogarde's finest hour too. He never once fails to come to grips with what is sometimes an unsympathetic portrayal of a man caught up in a desperate love/hate relationship with a woman who bore his illegitimate teen-age son--and now has designs on getting him back. That's the plot, in a nutshell, and if it weren't for the power of the Bogarde/Garland performances--and some genuinely nice supporting work from Jack Klugman, Aline MacMahon and the boy (Gregory Phillips)--it all might have added up to a hill of beans. Credit goes to a sincere, straightforward screenplay with some tart dialogue for Judy that sounds as if it came from her own true life experiences. Indeed, there are backstage stories that Judy and Dirk worked on the screenplay to tighten the emotional force of the drama and punch up the lines a bit--and if so, they have succeeded brilliantly. Not only entertaining as a dramatic showcase for Miss Garland, it is also highly recommended for the musical interludes during which she performs at the London Palladium in great arrangements of material like "Hello, Bluebird!", "By Myself" and "I Could Go On Singing", among other melodies, all in full control of her "vibrato in search of a voice" equipment. As a swansong for the actress, it is incredibly moving and a tribute to both Garland and Bogarde. Bogarde is especially intense in his emotional scenes--reminding me somewhat of the brooding character he played so well in LIBEL (a courtroom drama with Olivia de Havilland). He had become a mature actor by that time and here he is even more impressive.

This afternoon, TCM showed Judy Garland's last and sadly underrated film--restoring its wide-screened brilliance (letterboxed), shimmering color photography, and Ms. Garland's award-worthy portrayal of an internationally famed concert singer's stopover in London to perform at the Palladium and seek a reunion with her illegitimate teenaged son raised by his father (Dirk Bogarde). An astoundingly moving adult drama (not a bit of sentiment or bathos here) also offers the rare treat of seeing and hearing Ms. Garland perform four songs before a live audience at the Palladium: the title song, "By Myself," the haunting "It Never Was You," and, best of all, her incredibly rousing rendition of "Hello, Bluebird!" An excellent supporting cast (Bogarde proves her dramatic equal in one of his finest performances), gorgeous location photography in London, and fine, restrained direction by the woefully underrated Ronald Neame. Forget the parallels between the character played by Ms. Garland and her own tumultuous real life. This is a Grade-A production. You don't even have to be a Garland fan to be deeply moved by its emotional resonance. But Ms. Garland's aching "It Never Was You" and show-stopping "Hello, Bluebird!" are a definitive display of her timeless, unsurpassed musical artistry; and her touchingly underplayed performance remains her final (though sadly neglected) cinematic triumph.

Judy Garland as Jenny Bowman, international singing star who tours England and meets up with "the man who got away" (prissy-lipped Dirk Bogarde) and the child they share, whom she left behind years ago for fame and the floodlights. Director Ronald Neame thankfully steers clear of sticky melodrama and gets right down to business, and Garland, who is occasionally quite raw and real, delivers one of her better third-act performances. Clichéd and heavy-handed though it may, "I Could Go On Singing" is nevertheless an intriguing soaper, though the tangled emotions at the finale are not quite resolved. Neame seems to think Garland's singing alone can put the finishing touches on any scenario! **1/2 from ****

I loved this film. I saw it on cable last night and I had never seen it before. My father was a big Judy Garland fan. I went to see her at Forest Hills concert when I was 14 with my parents. Of course at that age, I was in to Rock and roll but she was terrific anyway. My question is as follows: The end of this picture has Dirk Bogarde telling her he really loves her and she tells him. Do you really mean it? I mean if you don't mean it, I'll die" And then he says, Yes, I really mean it! He goes on to explain that they fell in love at the wrong time, etc. etc. What the hell is he saying to her. Are they going to wind up together. Is he marrying her? Will she be able to raise her child with him? They left you hanging. Maybe I missed something but all she did was go on stage and sing the last song and then it said "The End" Please tell me how this movie really ended. E-mail me at ELIZ7212@aol.com. Thanks, Melody

As a Garland Collector and major fan, it is unfair to say that this film has no comparison. Every time I see it, something new, or different sticks out. I have seen all of her films, each at least fifty times, and I can say with out regret, that this is the film that is closest to my heart. Once you see this, her performance will linger on in your mind. My favorite scene, is not the most dramatic or witty, but heartfelt. It is near the end, and several lines seem to make me think, and feel more than any other. She basically says that if he(David) says that he loves her and doesn't mean it, she will die. and the other, no secret, written or formulated by Judy herself. "Do you think you can make me sing? You can get me there but can you make me sing?... I sing for my own pleasure... I sing when I want to, how ever I want to." This film, strangely seems to reflect pieces of Her own life, as did A star Is born. You see her cry on the screen, and those are real tears, she doesn't blink, she doesn't miss a beat. Being an actor myself, I have great respect for the written word, and with this I feel an even greater respect or the portrayal of those words.

Though she didn't and couldn't have known it, I Could Go On Singing became Judy Garland's farewell to the big screen. In this role she's perfectly cast in a role that bears a lot of resemblance to the real Judy Garland, a famous singer with problems of custody who wants the son she gave up for adoption years ago. Some twenty years before young medical student Dirk Bogarde, studying in America fell in love with singer Judy Garland just starting her career. That career is something she wanted more than him. But one thing couldn't be changed and that was the boy child Bogarde left with her. Bogarde marries a girl from Great Britain and later on Judy who can't manage a baby and a career gives him up to Bogarde who adopts his own son with his wife and raises him. Now his wife is dead and Judy's back to lay a claim on her son played by Gregory Phillips. Of course Bogarde has never told his son about his origin and therein lies the story. It's the kind of tale we've seen in hundreds of films and radio and television soap operas. But of course what makes I Could Go On Singing special is the singing of Judy Garland. Giving this film which title could serve as her epitaph is Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg who wrote the title song and who wrote her famous Over The Rainbow. Judy also sings By Myself which was sung and danced to by Fred Astaire in The Bandwagon. But a song I'm really glad she did was the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson song It Never Was You. That song comes from the score of Knickerbocker Holiday and it didn't make the screen version. I'm glad that Judy Garland used it in this film, giving it the classiest interpretation possible. A passable enough drama, but great singing and the best epitaph possible for a career which was one of the brightest.

Although the plot seems old and somewhat predictable, the performance that Judy Garland gives is nothing short of amazing. According to books and articles written about her, portions of the story of Jenny Bowman seem to be an almost autobiographical account of Judy's own conflicted personal and professional life at that time. It's the best opportunity for audiences to see the "live" performance documented on film of a true legend. I Could Go On Singing includes incredible songs, some prerecorded and some performed and captured live on film. All of them leave audiences wondering how she could have gone on singing! ("By Myself" is enjoyably exhausting to watch!!!) As far as I am concerned, anyone whoever questions Judy's acting ability must not have seen this movie or understood it's ironic treasures. The emergency room scene in I Could Go on Singing is the setting for one of Judy's most magical moments on film. Whether this was entirely scripted, ad-libbed or a hybrid of both.... Judy Garland and Dirk Bogarde give performances (in ONE TAKE yet) that any actor would kill to be able to perform. Although often thought of as sappy, melodramatic fare, I've come to appreciate "I Could Go On Singing" as the punctuation mark of a truly remarkable movie career.