Hindsight

Today a dance number and an awesome ballad by Ms. Garland.

 First this groovy dance number: Something about dancing and hats this week, but this time not Fosse inspired; just plain unbelievably talented Judy Garland.  I do have a soft spot for Judy.   She was so gifted and yet so terribly alone.   Although, there is this presumption that the underbelly of Judy's career was not made public until after her death; how can one really believe that?  Her work always suggest a vulnerability tinged with some sort of odd grit. You know what I mean?  It just seems as if Judy is never just  performing, but truly giving away something of herself.  Judy has so many dimensions in this dance number, "Forget your Troubles," that it is hard to believe she is not even thirty.  When She did this number, for the film Summer Stock, she knew it was her final work at MGM.  She had been fired, yet they paid her a small fee to come back and re-record a dance number.  She is quite thin in this performance, but in the rest of the film shot months before, she is a good deal heavier; the physical manifestations of her varying drug use. Through it all, her vulnerable yet dreamy self, comes through.  Wow!

 I also wanted to celebrate what I consider one of the best ballads from Hollywood, "The Man that Got Away." My friend Max and I use to play this scene over and over again, mimicking her gestures and blown away by her timing and feel for the music.  There will NEVER be another Judy Garland.   She gives so many clues in her performances that there is much more going on than mere presentation.  Judy could convey fear, regret and hope all in one song as she does here.  This film got Judy an Oscar nomination, and in many ways was something of a comeback for her, for it showed she could succeed away from MGM, as an independent actress.