I Could Go on Singing **** (1963, Judy Garland, Dirk Bogarde, Jack Klugman) – Classic Movie Review 6,728

The often impressive and moving 1963 British drama film I Could Go on Singing memorably pairs Dirk Bogarde with Judy Garland in her last film before her tragic death from an accidental barbiturate overdose in London in 1969, aged just 47. 

Director Ronald Neame’s often impressive and moving 1963 British drama film I Could Go on Singing memorably pairs Judy Garland, now 41, and Dirk Bogarde. It proved Garland’s last film before her tragic death from an accidental barbiturate overdose in London on 22 June 1969, aged just 47.

Garland is superb in her final movie about a temperamental, hard-drinking American singer (in an eerie fictionalised self-portrait) called Jenny Bowman, who comes over in London for an engagement at the London Palladium and to spend time with her son Matt (Gregory Phillips) and possibly reclaim him from her one-time lover, British surgeon David Donne (Bogarde). When his father returns from Rome, Matt is torn between his loyalty to him and his love for his mother.

Mayo Simon’s screenplay (from a story by Robert Dozier) and Neame’s handling are flat and uninspired, but Garland astonishes and Bogarde gives a wonderfully loyal co-starring support turn. And, when Garland goes on singing at the London Palladium, it is a showstopper.

Fans of both stars will find it easy to forgive I Could Go on Singing’s shaky dramatics when the film is treasurable for Garland’s emotional fireworks and as the only record in the movies of the magic of her stage performances. She most memorably performs her trademark song ‘By Myself’ from The Band Wagon. Jack Klugman and Aline MacMahon give notable support turns as George and Ida.

Also in the cast are Pauline Jameson, Jeremy Burnham, Eric Woodburn, Robert Rietty, Gerald Sim and Russell Waters.

I Could Go on Singing (also known as The Lonely Stage) is directed by Ronald Neame, runs 100 minutes, is made by Barbican, is released by United Artists, is written by Mayo Simon, is shot in widescreen by Arthur Ibbetson, is produced by Stuart Millar and Lawrence Turman, and is scored by Mort Lindsey, with costumes designed by Edith Head (who denied she had any part in the criticised red dress Garland wears to sing ‘By Myself’).

I Could Go on Singing is named after the song by Harold Arlen (music) and E Y Harburg (lyrics). Garland also sings the tender ballad ‘It Never Was You’ (music by Kurt Weill, lyrics by Maxwell Anderson). She sings it live on the set, accompanied by just pianist Dave Lee. ‘It Never Was You’ and ‘By Myself” were shot at Shepperton Studios on a re-creation of the London Palladium stage. Garland also sings I Am the Monarch of the Sea from HMS Pinafore by Gilbert and Sullivan and Hello Bluebird (words and music by Cliff Friend).

Judy Garland in I Could Go on Singing.

Garland’s own children, Lorna Luft and Joey [Joseph] Luft, are extras as Girl and Boy on boat.

Bogarde later claimed that he extensively rewrote his scenes with Garland as originally ‘they were so awful’. Garland’s lines were rewritten by Bogarde with her consent. He also alleged the crew referred to Garland as ‘it’ because of her behaviour. Nevertheless, despite Garland’s reported lateness and absence, the film was completed on the planned budget of $1.4 million in 12 weeks between May and July 1962. It was premiered at London’s Plaza Cinema on 6 March 1963.

Oddly, mystery writer John D MacDonald published a novel based on the screenplay.

Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. She is best known as Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz (1939) but also for A Star Is Born (1954) and Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Renée Zellweger stars in the 2019 biopic Judy.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,728

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

The criticised red dress Judy Garland wears to sing ‘By Myself’.

Dirk Bogarde and Judy Garland in I Could Go on Singing.