Judy by the Numbers: "I Could Go On Singing"
Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 8:00AM 
We have reached the end of Juy Garland's film career. From this point forward, this series will be focused exclusively on her television appearances. So, why not play Judy out the way she's remembered best, belting a big number in glorious Technicolor? But the hopeful title and Judy's brassy voice belie a darker truth. This week's number serves not only as the title song of the film, but also as a thesis for Judy Garland's later career.
The Movie: I Could Go On Singing (United Artists, 1964)
The Songwriters: Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg
The Players: Judy Garland & Dick Bogarde, directed by Ronald Nearne
The Story: If A Star Is Born represents Judy Garland's image as a tragic, romantic figure in Hollywood, then I Could Go On Singing may be the closest Garland got to a public confession of how messy the tragic parts of her life coud be. Filmed in England while Judy battled for divorce (and custody of her younger children) with Sidney Luft, the film looked like life mirroring art mirroring life. The story of a concert singer whose relationships disintegrate even as she tries to shield (and connect to) her estranged son incorporated biographical details and observations straight from Judy herself. Co-star Bogarde reported rewriting large scenes with Garland to incorporate her own musings on celebrity, addiction and performance.
Perhaps most telling is the scene that happens directly before Judy performs this number. She's all smiles and charm while placating the audience she kept waiting. She looks restored just stepping onstage. However, just moments before, injured and recovering from a destructive bender, she destroys the idea that performing was a pallative:
"There's an old saying: When you go onstage, you don't feel any pain; and when the lights hit you, you don't feel anything...It's a stinking lie."
Reader Comments (7)
Thanks for the Article you Can check point of sale software features
And Also POS software features
Perhaps this film (like so many others) shows us why so we love Judy. Her emotions are just beneath the surface; always there, always part of the lyric, and so emphasized in her delivery of the melody.
This is not an American Songbook standard. It is not a great song (though by a great songwriting team) that anyone but Garland could sell, sing, and make you cry.
On another note I had the chance to see a wonderful interview of George Cukor by Dick Cavett. Mr Cukor was very emphatic on the great talent of Judy Garland. He said that she was just beginning to come into her own as a dramatic actress.
This movie is so fascinating for how raw and uncomfortable close it is to Judy herself. Her performance is great.
Hurts so good.
Where was the Oscar for this,simply fantastic,so true and so close to the bone and she never shys away from the ugly of Hollywood.
Leslie19 - That's a good point. It's not a great song, but Judy sings it like it is. I agree with Cukor (not that he needed me to do so). This turn towards the dramatic in her last three films showed an exploration of talent that I wish had gone on longer.
It might not be a great song but it IS a very Judy song allowing her to clown and belt within the same song and have the big finish.
What is a great song that she performs in the film is "It Never Was You" which she sings in that one long take as the camera moves in ever closer picking up every emotion she's putting right out there for us the audience because she loves us so much and is opening a window to her soul for us to see.
The film is full of wonderful moments, and quite a bit of soap opera, but perhaps the closest glimpse we'll ever see of the real Judy is just before her first performance "Hello, Bluebird" as she stands in the wings psyching herself up to go on stage she claps and yells to the orchestra leader and then just before stepping out seems to transform from her everyday backstage self and assume a different posture and then she steps out and POW!!
While it might not be A Star is Born or Wizard of Oz caliber this is a fine, respectable close to her career (with a GREAT supporting cast) and far better than many legends have as their swan song. The circumstances behind her leaving Valley of the Dolls are regrettable and sad but I'm so glad that this film and not that was her last. This was the way for her to leave the stage-arms thrown outward, feet firmly planted, singing to the heavens just as it should have been.