Earlier this week (June 22nd) marked the 40th anniversary of Judy Garland’s death at age 47.  She has been gone nearly as long as she lived, yet I guess such things don’t much matter when you’re immortal.  I have written about the great Garland in two previous books.  Her dazzling performance in The Pirate (1948) was one of my 100 Great Film Performances You Should Remember, and The Harvey Girls (1946) became one of five original movie musicals that I wrote about in Screen Savers, with particular emphasis on Judy’s marvelous work in the role that was the prototype—with its irresistibly funny mix of spunk and insecurity and repressed erotic longing—for her remaining vehicles at MGM.  On this blog, I have already called Everybody Sing (1938) my favorite of her pre-Oz pictures, and no one needs any help from me in finding their way to Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) or A Star Is Born (1954).  So, what other Garland moments should be recalled on this anniversary?

How about her gorgeous renditions of “But Not for Me” and “Embraceable You” in Girl Crazy (1943), or the poignancy she brought to ”Friendly Star” in the underrated Summer Stock (1950)?  All the concert scenes in I Could Go on Singing (1963) come as close as possible to capturing the excitement of being at “Judy at Carnegie Hall.”  Thanks to Garland’s innate artistry, her vocal of “Look for the Silver Lining” is the hands-down highlight of the bloated Till the Clouds Roll By (1946).  Similarly, she stops the enjoyably terrible Ziegfeld Girl (1941) dead in its tracks with the simplicity and perfection of her version of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows,” rendering her co-stars, an overacting Lana Turner and a zombified Hedy Lamarr, little more than mannequins beside her talent.  And “How About You?” with Mickey Rooney, from Babes on Broadway (1941), may be the spirited duo’s most charming and relaxed number of them all. 

So, if this is a week to be reminded of Judy, as if we ever need a reminder, there is so very much to savor.  Dig in.