Poorly made-up, coiffed, dressed and photographed, Miss Garland is at a distinct disadvantage before she is even out of the starting gate.
And why leave the starting gate when the story is utterly lacking in either originality and conviction ? not to mention motivation.
Even more ominous is the fact that this vehicle does not find her in the best of voice. Indeed it must be admitted that she sounds a bit ragged with the notable exception of "It Never Was You." This demerit coupled with the fact that the new songs are uninspired at best, renders the film's title open to waggery, as in those audience members who suggest that the word "not" should have been inserted before the word "go".
It's true that the acting of all the players is admirable, quite a feat for this slush. Garland freezes the blood in an angry scene with Bogarde in a hotel room, and in the lovely Stoke Poges scene she again reveals how much more effective she always was, (as in "A Child is Waiting,") when she underplays with inescapable poignance, rather than tossing bathos all over the walls. And it is assuredly true, that in the telephone scene her acting brings to bear all that is great in her.
But it is for Master Phillips that we reserve our especial praise. This young man manages his difficult assignment memorably. How else to explain how he handles his end of that same telephone conversation just as convincingly as just as heartbreakingly? What a pity that such a lush physical production as this could not have been extended to the star's appearance. One can only wonder how Ross Hunter would have transformed Judy into something recalling her former charms, given the pulchritude he enhanced in Misses Turner, Wyman, Hayward and Dee.
And why leave the starting gate when the story is utterly lacking in either originality and conviction ? not to mention motivation.
Even more ominous is the fact that this vehicle does not find her in the best of voice. Indeed it must be admitted that she sounds a bit ragged with the notable exception of "It Never Was You." This demerit coupled with the fact that the new songs are uninspired at best, renders the film's title open to waggery, as in those audience members who suggest that the word "not" should have been inserted before the word "go".
It's true that the acting of all the players is admirable, quite a feat for this slush. Garland freezes the blood in an angry scene with Bogarde in a hotel room, and in the lovely Stoke Poges scene she again reveals how much more effective she always was, (as in "A Child is Waiting,") when she underplays with inescapable poignance, rather than tossing bathos all over the walls. And it is assuredly true, that in the telephone scene her acting brings to bear all that is great in her.
But it is for Master Phillips that we reserve our especial praise. This young man manages his difficult assignment memorably. How else to explain how he handles his end of that same telephone conversation just as convincingly as just as heartbreakingly? What a pity that such a lush physical production as this could not have been extended to the star's appearance. One can only wonder how Ross Hunter would have transformed Judy into something recalling her former charms, given the pulchritude he enhanced in Misses Turner, Wyman, Hayward and Dee.