Watch I Could Go on Singing For Free

Must See Movie...

Admirable film.

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

As others have noted, the story itself is certainly not top draw. A soap-operatic mishmash about a driven show biz mom, prim and proper stiff upper lip Brit doc and an illegitimate teenage son into whose life driven mom wants to re insinuate herself, well it's all right out everybody's favourite soap (spoof) As The Stomach Churns. Happily however, the whole enterprise is almost fully redeemed by the brilliant performances of Judy Garland, Dirk Bogarde, Gregory Phillips, Jack Klugman and Aline MacMahon. If you're a Judy Garland fan (and I am) you'll overlook the quill and parchment foolishness and wallow instead in the great songs and near flawless acting.Certainly, as others have also noted, there are threads of Judy Garland's life woven into this uneven tapestry, but one standout reason for watching this film, for those who never got to see Judy live, is to get a sense of the enormous power, indeed charisma the lady projected from the stage. I saw her in person twice with that first show being near the end of her 'Carnegie Hall' tour. With Mort Lindsay conducting thirty or more musicians out came 4' 11" 'Joltin' Judy' for what she once described as "two hours of POW!" Alone!No dancing chorus boys!No backup comedy acts!It wasn't just a concert - it wasn't an event - it was a HAPPENING - exactly as the concert sequences in this film imply. It's a shame other characters in the story weren't more fully fleshed out, and certainly it is highly regrettable that Judy Garland was such an underrated actress. It is equally shameful that she didn't cop an Oscar nomination for her performance or indeed that I COULD GO ON SINGING was her cinematic swan song. But we do have what she left us in movies, her television series and her glorious recordings, most especially those great Capitol Records titles like MISS SHOW BUSINESS, JUDY, ALONE, JUDY IN LOVE, THE LETTER, JUDY! THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT and of course JUDY GARLAND AT CARNEGIE HALL. Under brilliant producer Voyle Gilmor she got to work with the best musicians and orchestrater's in the business, people who knew exactly how to showcase her unique vocal talents, names like Nelson Riddle, Gordon Jenkins, Jack Marshall and the aforementioned Mort Lindsay among others. Indeed, it is why, along with film titles like A STAR IS BORN and I COULD GO ON SINGING that I unhesitatingly say Judy Garland will always GO ON SINGING!!

Critical opinion of I COULD GO ON SINGING seems to be a consensus that it represents a sad finale to her career, but I do not see it that way at all. Because while the plot is old hat and could have been lifted right out of a cheap soap opera, the considerable talents of the cast, with Garland still in peak form leading the way, make this film greater than the sum of its parts.Garland is Jenny Bowman, a singer whose career has always come first. Fifteen years previously, she had an affair with then-medical-student and now successful doctor David Donne (Dirk Bogarde), an affair which produced a son. Jenny, forced perhaps into a choice (it isn't quite clear in the somewhat muddled script), leaves the boy with his father, who marries another woman with whom he raises the boy, Matt (Gregory Phillips). Matt grows up believing his father's wife to be his mother; again, the reason for all these lies seems unclear.Anyway, perhaps inevitably, after the death of David's wife, Jenny shows up in London while on a concert tour and proceeds to try to insinuate herself into her son's life. Since the kid, like most upper-middle-class English children were in those days, is in boarding school, it is easier for Jenny to go behind David's back in her quest for the affections of the boy.In the end, the plot is almost negligible, though I do feel that the David character is a bit too much of a bastard for my taste; Jenny is clearly a self-centered woman but she isn't unreasonable or without human feelings. At times David is such a cold fish one wonders what she ever saw in him.No, what matters in the end is Garland's performance. And what a performance it is! Jenny Bowman as written appears to have been based at least loosely on Judy, and she does not spare herself: despite her prodigious talent, this woman is not a hero; she is just an ordinary person in many ways, with an extraordinary talent that sometimes brings out the worst in her.I COULD GO ON SINGING and A STAR IS BORN are probably the only two films Garland ever made in which the lead character was pure Judy. No doubt A STAR IS BORN is the superior film, but this one is hardly the disappointment the critics of the day seemed to think it was, and especially when Garland is onstage, a bit overweight but the voice still intact, the magic is still there and quite irresistible.

"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.