I Could Go On Singing
In Bogarde's autobiographies and in the 2004 biography, it is recounted that Judy Garland's lines were substantially rewritten by Bogarde (with Garland's consent).
Plot
Judy Garland plays a superstar singer, not unlike herself, named Jenny Bowman. She had met a man 15-16 years before, who was now a prominent physician, played by British actor Dirk Bogarde, and they had produced a child whom she let his father raise in England.
Jenny wants to finally see him, but in the end is left to her true home, the stage. Originally titled The Lonely Stage, it was renamed I Could Go On Singing, so that audiences would know it was the first time Garland sang in a movie since A Star Is Born in 1954.
The movie contains some thrilling Garland concert musical numbers including By Myself, Hello Bluebird, It Never Was You, and the title song.
Cast
Judy Garland as Jenny Bowman
Dirk Bogarde as David Donne
Jack Klugman as George Kogan
Gregory Phillips as Matt
Aline MacMahon as Ida
Pauline Jameson as Miss Plimpton
Jeremy Burnham as Hospital surgeon
Lorna Luft as girl on boat
Joey Luft as boy on boat
Music
All songs performed by Judy Garland.
I Am the Monarch of the Sea (Judy Garland and Boys), music by Arthur Sullivan, lyrics by William S. Gilbert
Hello Bluebird, words and music by Cliff Friend
It Never Was You, Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson
By Myself, Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz
I Could Go On Singing, Harold Arlen and E.Y.
Harburg
Film reviews
"Either you are or you aren't - a Judy Garland fan that is. 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..." - Judith Crist, The New York Herald Tribune
"3 stars...Judy Garland is back on screen in a role that might have been custom-tailored for her particular talents. A new song, I Could Go On Singing, provides her with a little clowning, a chance to be gay, a time for wistfulness, an occasion for tears.