Rating: Summary: Great Film! Review: I was able to snatch a copy of this at my local Border's (for some reason, they put it out early), and I was extremely impressed with the quality of the transfer. I watched the widescreen version as opposed to full-screen. I HATE full-screen presentations. You will not be sorry you got this film! No extras, really, but the film makes up for it. Good quality, great acting, good story, AMAZING singing by Judy!
Rating: Summary: One of Judy's Greatest! Review: In this film Judy Garlad plays Jenny Bowman, a famous singer playing at the Palladium in London. This visits her former lover, David's (Dirk Bogarde)home, to try and visit her son. He is not there, but Jenny begs with him to let her see Matt, her son. He does finally lets her see him at his boarding school, which sets up a hillarious scene of Jenny, David, and Matt climbing up a bell tower and getting quite an earfull at the top! That evening they go to a comical perfomace of H.M.S. Pinafore, where Matt plays Cousin Hebie. The next night, Matt goes with Jenny to her opening concert at the Palladiem, and they then spend the next few days together, visiting sights around London. Finally, Matt is told by David, that Jenny is his mother. He then does not vist Jenny at her hotel after many offers, which causes her to become upset, and David desides he and Matt will stay around her until she is feeling well again, and this is where the film ends. I think it is not only one Judy's better films, but perhaps one of the best if not the best. If you love Judy, you'll love this film!
Rating: Summary: Judy Garland shines on the lonely stage Review: In this, Judy Garland's final film, she finds herself alone onstage, singing her heart out, giving her audience love... which has been denied her. Judy plays an almost-mirrored image of herself, a singer who is famous and talented, with every reason to be happy... and is miserable. She sees a chance to find happiness during an engagement in London, and tracks down her ex-lover (Dirk Bogarde) and their illegitimate son that she gave up for a career so many years ago. There is an instant attraction between the singer and her son, but she decides she wants him to stay with her... and Bogarde will not hear of it, a severe blow to her. She vows never to sing again... For Garland fans, the film is a pleasure: they see Judy (in great voice) in concert in the film, as well as Judy the dramatic actress. The drama comes through beautifully: Garland and Bogarde play wonderfully together in the film's most memorable scenes, and their chemistry is absolutely fascinating to watch. But the movie's hardest punch is seeing Judy Garland literally as Judy Garland, a woman fighting for love, and a woman of hardness and frustration at life. "I Could Go On Singing" is literally, to quote the movie's trailer, "the story of a singer whose excitement never stops; whose songs never end". And if Judy Garland had to leave the motion picture, she certainly left with a bang... and her heart "on the wings of a song-singing day.".
Rating: Summary: Judys last is her best Review: Judy is without a doubt at her best in her last movie role. She plays the title role with such pazazz that you would think its her life shes playing. A big plus is all the songs she sings are from one of her concerts. A must have for any Judy fan!!!!!!!
Rating: Summary: Judy may have saved the best for last!!!! Review: No one else could have played this role as well as Judy Garland. She makes you laugh, and cry. And just the thought that this was the last motion picture that she would ever make just breaks your heart. If you can only get a used copy, get it, and watch it. Judy from the beginning of her career to the end of her career only became better. Many people have picked her to pieces in her final years, but when one realizes the hurdles that she leaped to give such fine performances they can only applaud her, and be thankful for such a person!!
Rating: Summary: What? Not anamorphic? Review: Sad! Really sad! Here I've been waiting for years for this beauty to be released on DVD, and what do I get: Non-anamorphic 2.35:1! Hey, MGM, this is 2004! No one produces "scope" movies on DVD any longer without having them enhanced for widescreen televisions. When enlarged they turn fuzzy and dull, and if you let them stay within the 4:3-frame you get a tiny image in the middle of your screen. Yes, MGM has at least cleaned up the dirt from the image since the LaserDisc release, but it's still pretty grainy with difficult contrasts and variable color intensity from scene to scene. In other words: a sloppy transfer done with minimal enthusiasm! Sad! Really sad!
Rating: Summary: Diagree with "Guilty Pleasure" review... Review: Sure, if you want to see Garland at her absolute peak, see the earlier MGM classics referenced in the intelligently written "Guilty Pleasures" review. Still, for those of us who are fascinated with the full spectrum of Garland's work, there is much to recommend "I Could Go On Singing"--despite its obvious flaws. Greatest of these is the warmth and straightforwardness of her rendition of "It Never Was You." Additionally, the authenticity of her acting in this film is striking. As an example, the love she felt for real-life son Joey Luft is well-documented. The love she conveys for her son in this movie gives you a sense of how she must have behaved toward her real son.
Rating: Summary: Judy at her best Review: There are a lot of negative things you can say about this movie: it's a soap opera; you know where it's going ten minutes in; with one exception, the songs are all original, and all lame, especially when compared to Judy's concert songs they're supposed to sound like. BUT none of that matters.
I was lucky enough to see Judy in concert a year before she died, and this movie gets it right--the interplay with the audience, the moves, the power of Judy at her height (as opposed to her tv shows where she looked awful and often seemed terrified)--and is as close as we will ever come to having Judy in concert at her greatest on film--and in color! Technically, Ronald Neame also gets it right--his camera is fairly passive, allowing Judy to do the work in long takes that respect both Judy and her audience.
Two other things need to be said: 1) Before Cabaret, this picture spliced together a plot with concert numbers that commented on or reflected that plot. Example: When things fall apart, and she'll never get to see her son again (not exactly a spoiler--it's a '60s soap opera!), she sings the one non-original song, I'll Go My Way By Myself, and it's absolutely stunning. And 2) Judy was a brilliant actress, and her dramatic performance is transcendent. In casual scenes she is so natural you'd swear she's making the dialogue up as she goes along (and she might well have been, but the other actors in the scene work well with her) in a way that can be put down as "not acting," but there was a real art to this artlessness. And in her dramatic scenes (at least one of which she wrote for and about herself--you'll know it when you see it) she is fearless, going emotional places that no "trained" actress would ever dare. Only when you see the out-takes (as in the dressing room scene with Charles Bickford in A Star is Born)can you believe that it's really "just" acting.
Rating: Summary: NOT A CLASSIC BUT STILL GOOD Review: This film is not really what I would call a musical as it lacks that bit of magic fairy dust that were in most of garland's other films although no musicals past 1958 are up to the standard of the musicals of the golden age.The drama and dramatic acting in this is however fantasic, Garland really shows that not only was she an amazing singer but an amazing actress as well and the supporting characters are also great especially the bloke that went on to be 'Quincy'; Bogarde goes well with Garland. There is only one nitpick I have though, I thought it was an unwritten law that all musicals [especially Judy Garland ones] were supposed to live 'and they all lived together happily ever after'?
Rating: Summary: Judy went out with a Bang! Review: This is probably in my top five favorite Judy movies! She is and always will be the greatest entertainer who ever lived. This film shows that Judy was an amazing actress! In the early MGM days, she made some fabulous films, but they never gave her the chance to play a dramatic role she deserved. I think another reason Judy was so amazing in this film is that she practically lived the life of Jenny Bowman. I also love the plot, Judy is kind of an Auntie Mame charecter, anyone who's seen the film knows what I'm talking about. It's a great movie for anyone who likes Judy, drama, or just a damned good film! What's also interesting is that in the hospitol scene (which I'm sure most of you know) Judy helped write a great deal of the dialogue. I'm glad they finally gave us a dvd of this film. I've been waiting forever! I actually paid $80 for a vhs copy of it a few years ago! But of course I still bought the dvd lol, after all, IT'S JUDY!
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