I Could Go on Singing (1963)

hyped garbage

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I love "I Could Go On Singing," a film easy to be critical of but between the concert scenes (not enough) and the story (not enough depth) we get to view a side of the real "Judy Garland" mixed in with a character and it is a sad tragedy that reminds you of her enormous talents!For those with "Comcast" for many months could pay $2.99 to view regular screenings of this film under "films/music" or pay $3.99 to see a brand new clean widescreen copy with the most beautiful images and color as shown in HD. A couple of months ago COMCAST pulled that version.It's a crime. At the end of that version it was strange for it reads "it can be bought on blu ray by Sony."I only wish.I also wish the story between the three characters would have been expanded...if there were at least deleted scenes to be found for a blu ray transfer.

"I must keep on singing...with my heart on the wings of a song..." She sings these words at the end of the movie after life lets her down and 'the show must go on' anyway. This IS Judy Garland, with the ups and downs of life in and out of this movie. Although age begins to show on her face, her voice is still right on key with depth and tone, her expressions effortless and natural, and we feel her mood with empathy. Just watch and see. This is the life of a singer who has an affair with a man in London. She chooses not to marry the man, nor keep the young baby boy, so the man raises him in England. Judy's character goes on with her singing career, then later travels to London for a performance. She finds both her former lover and young teen son. Both Judy and the boy develop a natural motherly/son affection and the movie takes us on a bumpy ride thereafter since the father has much difficulty accepting this. Judy cannot and does not disappoint! I miss her.

Judy Garland is magnificent playing herself; sorry, playing Jenny Bowman, an American singer of a certain age, in London for a series of concerts at the Palladium. The movie is a mostly mediocre tale of mother love but as a showcase for Garland, both as actress and as a performer, (her scenes at the Palladium were probably as close as the movies ever came to capturing her on-stage persona), is it exhilarating and indelibly moving. By the time she gets around to her drunken 'I can't be spread so thin' speech all traces of the character have been wiped clean and it's Garland, raw and emotional, up there on the screen. She was never to make another film, which is probably just as well. With this you can say she went out on a high.Co-star Dirk Bogarde fights a losing battle, (and he gets some terrible lines to say). He's a prissy, fussy stuffed shirt and you can never believe that he and Garland could ever have been romantically involved. There is also a wonderful turn from that great and perpetually undervalued actress Aline MacMahon as Garland's dresser-cum-secretary-cum-companion. But it's Garland's show. The panavision frame can hardly contain her.

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.