Why did they have to fire her?
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 105 | June 28, 2021 9:28 AM |
I love Judy but there is only so much bad behaviour you can keep up with before you are fed-up.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | June 19, 2021 9:07 PM |
She seems really good in this.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | June 19, 2021 9:12 PM |
No, she wouldn't have OP. She was sensational in nothing. She was an OK child star, who became a dumpy ugly little thing, played every dramatic parts like she had just lost Toto all over again, and felt entitled to score any dick she wanted, like she was Lana Turner or something.. She was basically Lena Dunham without the writing chops. I despise her victim persona and her childish, self-indulgent acting. I know for a fact that she had nothing whatsoever to do with stonewall. Also her singing is like nails on a chalkboard, and her voice is sad.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | June 19, 2021 9:56 PM |
[Quote] I despise her victim persona
R3 come on man. Even if you dislike Judy's work don't you think that a child forced into the movie business, scurtinized for their appearance every day, constantly called fat and forced to consume a diet of soup and cigarettes, worked 18 hours a day, pumped with upper and downer drugs and getting drug addicted as teen just to continue being a money making machine for a few more years, is actually a victim.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | June 19, 2021 10:07 PM |
Judy was miscast and would’ve sucked.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 6 | June 19, 2021 10:15 PM |
Because they would have had to rename it Annie Get Your Bottle
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | June 19, 2021 10:21 PM |
[quote] Even if you dislike Judy's work
I do, and also, from the interviews I've seen, she was rude to colleagues, badmouthing them in interviews, a nightmare to work with, and a bitch to the people who were either trying to help her, or were less powerful than she was.
| by Anonymous | reply 8 | June 19, 2021 10:23 PM |
Betty Hutton just doesn't have "it". Looks and sounds like she's in a high school musical.
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | June 19, 2021 10:25 PM |
Deanna's first kiss was DL fave Robert "Bobby" Stack
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 10 | June 19, 2021 10:28 PM |
hummmm, the blue eyes, the curly hair, the boyish charm...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 12 | June 19, 2021 11:18 PM |
[quote]Why did they have to fire her?
Because at the rate things were going the movie would have ended up with a 2023 release date.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | June 19, 2021 11:46 PM |
The role should have gone to Betty Garrett.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | June 20, 2021 12:14 AM |
Annie shouldn't be low wattage, r14.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | June 20, 2021 12:17 AM |
Sorry, but she was miscast in ANNIE. Not rowdy and coarse enough for it. Actually, Hutton was perfect for it, if she had a better director to guide her.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | June 20, 2021 12:52 AM |
Annie Get Your Defibrillator
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | June 20, 2021 12:58 AM |
Hey, everyone! Let's all go to the movies and see a Betty Garrett film!
Said nobody ever.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | June 20, 2021 1:01 AM |
Annie didn't get her Gumm.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | June 20, 2021 1:03 AM |
[quote]Hey, everyone! Let's all go to the movies and see a Betty Garrett film!
[quote]Said nobody ever.
Says you!
| by Anonymous | reply 20 | June 20, 2021 1:05 AM |
Judy darling, are you STILL in that SHIT business?!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 21 | June 20, 2021 1:06 AM |
Doris Day would have been ideal.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | June 20, 2021 1:09 AM |
Doris did do it a few years later. Sort of.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 23 | June 20, 2021 1:20 AM |
And Doris wasn't so great either.
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | June 20, 2021 1:27 AM |
Betty Hutton should never have been allowed near a movie camera. She always played to the balcony, even in close-ups.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | June 20, 2021 1:49 AM |
Betty Hutton was perfect casting.
And the movie was a box office hit. So there's that.
She just needed a director who could have toned her down a bit.
Judy looks unwell in those clips.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | June 20, 2021 1:53 AM |
Playing Annie Oakley Betty Hutton had the natural earthiness required for the role. Judy could only 'act' rough.
| by Anonymous | reply 27 | June 20, 2021 2:00 AM |
Judy wasn't right for Annie Oakley, that's for sure. Betty Hutton was too broad. My vote is for Debbie Reynolds, but she had her breakthrough just a couple of years too late to play Annie in the film.
| by Anonymous | reply 28 | June 20, 2021 3:26 AM |
Debbie played Annie onstage years later onstage. The production was directed by Gower Champion. Both she and the show got rave reviews and it was headed to Broadway.
And then it closed.
| by Anonymous | reply 29 | June 20, 2021 4:25 AM |
[quote] Hey, everyone! Let's all go to the movies and see a Betty Garrett film! Said nobody ever.
Vaffanculo!
| by Anonymous | reply 31 | June 20, 2021 4:42 AM |
It's unbelievable that she got cast in AGYG. First of all she was in terrible shape, in no shape to make a movie, hopelessly addicted to drugs and alcohol, a mental and physical wreck. Second of all she was just plain wrong for the role. Judy Garland did wistful and vulnerable very well; brash and in your face and combative was not her strong suit. But she was the premier singing star at MGM so I guess the studio heads figured she would be perfect to cast in the big budget musical AGYG. Wrong! In the footage that shows her singing "Doing What Comes Naturally" she's singing pretty well but she looks terrible. Betty Hutton turned out to be just right for the role. But I never cared much for all the mugging and facial gymnastics that she indulged in as Annie.
| by Anonymous | reply 32 | June 20, 2021 4:59 AM |
[quote)] "She was sensational in nothing."
Wrong.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 33 | June 20, 2021 5:38 AM |
Sweet Bob on a date with Judy
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 34 | June 20, 2021 1:03 PM |
Because "Judy Got Her Seconals."
| by Anonymous | reply 35 | June 20, 2021 1:05 PM |
More like, "Annie, get your meds " OP
| by Anonymous | reply 36 | June 20, 2021 3:06 PM |
And very nice too @2:10....what.a.bitch
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 38 | June 20, 2021 3:29 PM |
This would have been perfect except for that little scene stealing waste of space.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 40 | June 20, 2021 3:40 PM |
Mama would've been shenshashional belting out "There'sh No Busshinessh Like Show Busshinessh!"
| by Anonymous | reply 41 | June 20, 2021 3:49 PM |
R39 One more example of the kind of outfit any and everyone who designed her clothes constantly re-interpreted for Garland, this time with an upturned collar.
As Edith Head said, "Judy has no neck."
| by Anonymous | reply 42 | June 20, 2021 4:52 PM |
They were right to fire Judy. She might have made a good Annie ten years earlier, but by 1950 Judy was getting old before her time, was monumentally unprofessional, and Annie needs to be young, fresh, on fire as she discovers the larger world, and seriously ballsy. Hutton should have been right but overdid it, Reynolds would have been perfect, but Judy never had the ballsiness and by then her inner fire was down to coals and ash.
If Judy hadn't been fired, all the old queens would have spent the last 70 years whining that it wasn't made when she was capable of getting through the role without embarassing herself.
| by Anonymous | reply 43 | June 20, 2021 5:00 PM |
Yes, it's perfect for a gal who always wanted to be a gym teacher!
| by Anonymous | reply 44 | June 20, 2021 5:25 PM |
Judy was in good shape in 1949 and ready to take a stab at Annie, but preproduction on the film wasn't finished yet, so they rushed her into In the Good Old Summertime. That was a happy set and a good, light romantic comedy, but after that, she was exhausted and needed a break. Instead, the suits at MGM threw her right into Annie with her most hated director, Busby Berkeley. She melted down and that was it.
After her serious mental break in 1947, Judy was fragile and a one-picture-a-year performer. Her contract was for two pictures a year, and the suits just wouldn't modify it. I agree that Judy shouldn't have been Annie. After In the Good Old Summertime, a movie she WAS right for, they should have given her a long break and put her in either Royal Wedding or Showboat.
| by Anonymous | reply 45 | June 20, 2021 5:29 PM |
Busby Berkeley caused the already fragile Judy to go over the cliff.
Judy was able to pull herself together for A Star Is Born which was after Annie.
At least she didn’t have to appear in those hag movies like Bette David and Joan Crawford.
| by Anonymous | reply 46 | June 20, 2021 5:54 PM |
[quote]Annie needs to be young, fresh,
Ethel Merman was 16 years older than Judy and 38 when she played Annie on Broadway.
| by Anonymous | reply 47 | June 20, 2021 6:23 PM |
The real tragedy was Judy not playing Rose in Gypsy. If she'd been up for it, that would have really been something. I'm sure it wouldn't have been the traditional loud mouthed Rose we're used to from the Merman mold, but she'd have found a way to give Rose a little vulnerability and possibly made her even scarier that way. Less aggressive and more conniving and covert in her narcissism.
| by Anonymous | reply 48 | June 20, 2021 6:53 PM |
I think the great tragedy was not being able to see Judy’s “Mame” a much better fit for her than even Gypsy.
| by Anonymous | reply 49 | June 20, 2021 6:55 PM |
She was so smart. And so funny. And so talented. Fuck whoever got her addicted to drugs. She was a kid, and they fucked her up.
| by Anonymous | reply 50 | June 20, 2021 6:56 PM |
All these parts were so beyond her reach it's ludicrous. She could do ONE thing. Judy.
| by Anonymous | reply 51 | June 20, 2021 7:19 PM |
Betty's performance makes me cringe. Judy would have been better, even if we had to wait longer for the film to finish.
| by Anonymous | reply 52 | June 20, 2021 7:29 PM |
[QUOTE] She was so smart. And so funny
really ? when ?
| by Anonymous | reply 53 | June 20, 2021 7:30 PM |
An older, healthy Judy would have been a fantastic Rose, Dolly Levi, and Auntie Mame. But Judy was never really healthy after her breakdown in 1947. She put in some great performances here and there, but that was between ever-growing spirals of addiction. Her Hong Kong overdose in 1964 finished her off, even though the corpse kept walking around for 5 more years.
Tragic.
| by Anonymous | reply 54 | June 20, 2021 7:32 PM |
I honestly don't think Judy would ever have agreed to play the part of a manic, pushy stage mother.
| by Anonymous | reply 55 | June 20, 2021 7:32 PM |
Judy couldn't play Helen Lawson; she certainly couldn't have played Mama Rose.
| by Anonymous | reply 56 | June 20, 2021 7:34 PM |
Especially with the ravishing Natalie Wood, who was every bit the child star that she was, except sexy and clever
| by Anonymous | reply 57 | June 20, 2021 7:35 PM |
A more stable Judy could have put a lot of her feelings about her own childhood and her own mother into Mama Rose. The fragile Judy which actually existed never could have done it, though.
By the time Judy was tapped to play Helen Lawson, she was all but worn out. She couldn't have managed any performance at that point, much less one that worked against her usual vulnerable persona.
| by Anonymous | reply 58 | June 20, 2021 7:58 PM |
The clips of Judy in "AGYG" show her singing, which Judy excels. But she would've been wrong for the part. Betty Hutton is just "OK" as a singer. If you could somehow combine Hutton's non singing part with Judy's voice and singing parts, that would be perfect.
Wasn't Judy's performance or problems on her last film a major reason she was dropped?
[quote]My vote is for Debbie Reynolds
No too bouncy, pretty and perky. No one, at the time, would've believed Debbie couldn't "get" man. (And for you snarky gays, I said "GET" not "KEEP."
[quote]No, she wouldn't have OP. She was sensational in nothing.
Here performance in "Judgement at Nuremberg" was sensational. It was her best drama ever. This is what kills me about Judy. She was she was so used to being a "star" she didn't want anything less. Her role in "Nuremburg" was only supporting but she was brilliant in that role. If she had been willing to craft a "second career" in supporting roles, she would've lived decades more and found success and money.
| by Anonymous | reply 59 | June 20, 2021 8:00 PM |
You can see a glimpse of the Mama Rose Judy could have done if you watch I Could Go On Singing, especially in the scene where she tells Dirk Bogarde that she's done being a figure for public consumption. She puts a lot of simmering rage into that scene that could also bee a part of her Mama Rose.
| by Anonymous | reply 60 | June 20, 2021 8:00 PM |
Agreed, R59. Also, supporting roles would have taken less time and put much less pressure on Judy.
| by Anonymous | reply 61 | June 20, 2021 8:01 PM |
Had she been at Fox in 1950, and a bit healthier, she would have been a brilliant Eve Harrington. You would have understood why she got a Sarrah Siddons award after her first play.
| by Anonymous | reply 62 | June 20, 2021 8:05 PM |
Judy would have been a lousy Auntie Mame. The role required someone who had humor, effortless, old money elegance and style. Garland was too rags-to-riches, dumpy-looking and caught up in her own tragedy.
| by Anonymous | reply 63 | June 20, 2021 8:05 PM |
Judy did blackface in several of her movies, I think. It was considered no big deal than. Lots of Hollywood stars did it.
| by Anonymous | reply 64 | June 20, 2021 9:14 PM |
"Blackout over Broadway", the great finale in BABES ON BROADWAY makes people screech in horror today (the opening chorus with everyone 'blacking up" signing lyrics like "Everybody's gonna be dancin' on air the they hear 'em playin' 'Swanee River' in Times Square" is jaw-dropping) but the main number is stunningly staged by Busby Berkeley and Judy's "Franklin D. Roosevelt Jones" is one of her most thrilling MGM vocal performances.
| by Anonymous | reply 65 | June 20, 2021 9:25 PM |
[quote] Judy would have been a lousy Auntie Mame. The role required someone who had humor, effortless, old money elegance and style. Garland was too rags-to-riches, dumpy-looking and caught up in her own tragedy.
You’ve never seen Mame, have you?
| by Anonymous | reply 66 | June 20, 2021 9:43 PM |
I also wish Judy had been strong enough to live to sing the Sondheim songs (not necessarily play the roles): Send In The Clowns, Losing My Mind and Nothing’s Gonna Harm You were all in her ballad wheelhouse. Instead we had to hear Streisand over-emote them.
| by Anonymous | reply 67 | June 20, 2021 9:47 PM |
I'm sure that if Judy hadn't been a insatiable alcoholic nymphomaniac mentally unstable unreliable bulimic unprofessional self-pitying pill popper, she would have been good in all those parts
| by Anonymous | reply 68 | June 20, 2021 10:12 PM |
Blackface is gross, but it was, unfortunately, common in popular culture then. Judy was early in her career when she did those roles. She had little say over which songs she sang or how they were staged.
| by Anonymous | reply 69 | June 20, 2021 10:47 PM |
Is someone in this thread really suggesting that Judy wasn't talented? She was a fall-down fucking mess, but she had buckets of talent and charisma. To suggest otherwise is absurd.
| by Anonymous | reply 70 | June 20, 2021 10:48 PM |
[quote]Is someone in this thread really suggesting that Judy wasn't talented? She was a fall-down fucking mess,
She was. She was a "fucking mess" o' talent.
| by Anonymous | reply 72 | June 20, 2021 10:58 PM |
She was talented, but not THAT talented. Pretty tiresome IMO. And fucking ugly.
| by Anonymous | reply 73 | June 20, 2021 11:00 PM |
"As Edith Head said, "Judy has no neck."
And no waist. And no height (she was 4'11). What she DID have was a barrel chest and disproportionately long legs. A very strange figure. As Bob Mackie said she couldn't get clothes off the rack due to her odd size and shape, they had to be made specifically for her. And then there were her weight fluctuations. She gained weight easily and tended to be pudgy, but she would go on crash diets (one such diet had her ingesting only two cups of unsweetened tea a day) and along with her drug addiction she would sometimes get skeletally thin, like she was at the end of her life. She really was a costume designer's nightmare.
| by Anonymous | reply 74 | June 20, 2021 11:26 PM |
She was slightly hunchbacked too.
| by Anonymous | reply 75 | June 21, 2021 12:06 AM |
And she looked it, r47...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 76 | June 21, 2021 12:11 AM |
"If she had been willing to craft a "second career" in supporting roles, she would've lived decades more and found success and money."
*
What supporting roles was she offered that she turned down, r59?
| by Anonymous | reply 77 | June 21, 2021 12:16 AM |
I knew the author of this book...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 78 | June 21, 2021 12:20 AM |
I look at those blackface routines in Judy Garland movies and take them for what they were; just silly entertainment that was made a long time ago. Nothing to get upset about.
| by Anonymous | reply 79 | June 21, 2021 12:34 AM |
It was a compound CRIME that Merman wasn't cast in "Gypsy" and that Garland wasn't cast as the bankable alternative.
SHAMEFUL
| by Anonymous | reply 80 | June 21, 2021 12:41 AM |
I vote for Debbie too! Belly Up Boys!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 81 | June 21, 2021 1:02 AM |
Ugh now I am mad we don’t have a version of Judy singing “If he came into my life today”. Or of “Some People”.
Still, while I can see her as Mame, and less so as Gypsy, and even in Hello Dolly, if we are going to what if those films, I would still go with Lanbury, Merman and Channing.
| by Anonymous | reply 82 | June 21, 2021 1:18 AM |
The story is that Judy was handed her dismissal notice from AGYG by mistake. She was only supposed to get a warning because of her lateness' and absences. Well that's the story.
| by Anonymous | reply 84 | June 21, 2021 1:36 AM |
Just because Judy Garland was a good singer does NOT mean she would be "sensational" in every musical role in history. She would have been terrible as Mame or Mama Rose or Annie Oakley. She could belt out the songs but she would have been totally wrong for the role.
| by Anonymous | reply 85 | June 21, 2021 2:18 AM |
3 from I Could Go On Singing...
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 86 | June 21, 2021 2:21 AM |
[quote]She was so smart. And so funny. really ? when ?
Here.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 87 | June 21, 2021 2:24 AM |
"[R3]=Deanna Durbin"
Only on Datalounge. Only. Bravo!
| by Anonymous | reply 88 | June 21, 2021 2:31 AM |
Love Singing R60.
Here's the scene. Most in ONE TAKE.
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 89 | June 21, 2021 2:32 AM |
If she had been in good health and all that, I think Judy's campy comic side could have worked wonderfully in Mame.
Or as it would have been known: JUDYMAME
| by Anonymous | reply 90 | June 21, 2021 2:39 AM |
[quote][R3]=Deanna Durbin
Pretty good for a one-armed typist.
| by Anonymous | reply 91 | June 21, 2021 2:41 AM |
[quote]“If he came into my life today”.
Oh, dear.
| by Anonymous | reply 93 | June 21, 2021 2:45 AM |
If Judy had lived long enough, she could've been Abuela in "In the Heights."
| by Anonymous | reply 94 | June 21, 2021 2:46 AM |
I love Judy, but I don’t think she would have been good in this AGYG movie. The movie adaptation ended up sucking, and her instability would have been blamed for it had she stayed.
| by Anonymous | reply 95 | June 21, 2021 2:51 AM |
Judy would have been marvelous in Miss Saigon....and Mickey as the Engineer!
| by Anonymous | reply 96 | June 21, 2021 2:51 AM |
"I could go on singing till the cows come home"
Till the cows come home. Till the cows come home.
TILL THE COWS COME HOME???? REALLY????
Such bovine imagery suggests Cybill Shepherd's dancing in At Long Last Love.
| by Anonymous | reply 97 | June 21, 2021 2:58 AM |
[quote]R58 By the time Judy was tapped to play Helen Lawson, she was all but worn out.
Judy hasn’t got that hard core, like me. She never learned to roooooollll with the punches.
| by Anonymous | reply 98 | June 21, 2021 3:00 AM |
Susie, you gave us those hand stylin's!
Offsite Link| by Anonymous | reply 99 | June 21, 2021 3:05 AM |
Whoa, R76 - Ethel could have used some of Judy's Benzedrine.
| by Anonymous | reply 100 | June 21, 2021 3:13 AM |
Ask your mother R97. Once she gets home.
| by Anonymous | reply 101 | June 21, 2021 3:18 AM |
Ask your mother R97. Once she gets home.
| by Anonymous | reply 102 | June 21, 2021 3:18 AM |
Scho nisch, they named it twisch.
| by Anonymous | reply 103 | June 21, 2021 3:31 AM |
r97: Yes, those lyrics are super clunky. Not amongst Harburgs best.
| by Anonymous | reply 104 | June 28, 2021 9:06 AM |
[quote]Judy never had the ballsiness and by then her inner fire was down to coals and ash.
I think Judy had balls in real life, she stood up for herself when she was grown, had a scathing wit and reportedly loved a dirty joke, but it just did not come across on screen, especially when she was ill. You can see it a little in the backstage scene in A Star is Born and even more in I Could Go on Singing.
A lot of what attracts people to Judy is all the what-ifs in her career. She was terribly ill but when she could perform, she was phenomenal. She would have been a fine Mama Rose on film, though not on stage. She couldn't have done Mame if only because she's too short for it, and her double-takes were more Marie Dressler stumbles than Rosalind Russell side-eyes.
| by Anonymous | reply 105 | June 28, 2021 9:28 AM |
