Believe it or not, Rita used to wonder what was the big deal about…Judy Garland. Can you imagine?
With only a childish perspective from multiple viewings of The Wizard of Oz, “Somewhere over the Rainbow” and perhaps, “Zing! Went the Strings of my Heart” were the only songs I had any passing familiarity (and like Louis B. Mayer in the movie review that follows, I was not so impressed).
By chance, I happen to catch the made-for-tv bio pic, Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows (2001) based on daughter Lorna Luft’s biography of her legendary show-biz mama. The very great Judy Davis (an Australian actress known for a few Woody Allen pics from the 90s) channels the haunted chantreuse quite unlike any living actor I have seen so far. Tammy Blanchett also does an admirable job portraying young Frances Gumm (Judy’s birth name before MGM changed it) auditioning for the imperious movie mogul, Louis B. Mayer. Judy becomes a big star but she pays a high price for her fame, a lifetime addiction to amphetamines that the studio prescribes to her to keep her weight down and her perky energy up. When she collapses on the set because of the bullying of her director, she’s only given 3 weeks to recover even though the doctor insists she needs 6. Her mother (Marsha Mason as the quintessential stage mother) and the studio push and push poor Judy until she is just a bundle of nerves but that voice…that voices flattens all in its path.
My favorite part is when Judy Davis as Judy is seen backstage revving herself up for her famous Concert at Carnegie Hall which is considered to be a once in a lifetime, star performance. A very famous critic is said to have wept openly at Judy’s performance. Picture perfect, the issue of that concert has never gone out of print. If one listens to that CD and sees the actual concert footage from Judy Garland: The Concert Years there is no doubt, you too shall also be converted to a die-hard Judy fan. Not just for gay men anymore (or Rufus Wainwright who had the audacity to try and recreate her concert.) Judy Garland was performer who gave of and above her humanity and she had the voice to do so. The documentary contains clips from the variety show she hosted on CBS during the 60s. Among the highlights on DVD are her duets with Barbara Streisand, her daughter Liza Minnelli, Lena Horne and Tony Bennett. Lorna Luft hosts the documentary and covers a happier time in the singer’s life, when she returned to her career as a singer and stopped doing movies, with the notable exception of her one-woman tour de force in A Star is Born. These are all must-see rentals.
