PBS American Masters - Judy Garland By Myself (2004)

Picture a late night, amid the craziness of the 1960s, and see a vulnerable, largely misunderstood woman in her 40s. She’s at home, or maybe on the road again. One thing is certain: she’s alone, with just her thoughts for company, speaking randomly into a tape recorder. “I’m just trying to get a few things down,” she says. “I’m all by myself, as usual. Don’t know if anybody is interested, but I am. I’m just trying to be heard.”

The woman is Judy Garland, and heard she is, in AMERICAN MASTERS “Judy Garland: By Myself,” the first film that drew on Garland’s own words to tell her story. Culled from recordings she made in preparation for an autobiography she never finished, her writings and archival interviews, “By Myself” uniquely reveals Garland as she saw herself. “Do you realize how many people have talked about me, written about me, imitated me?” Garland says in the AMERICAN MASTERS documentary. “Well, it’s high time to stop. This is the story of my life and I, Judy Garland, am gonna talk.”

Actress Isabel Keating, who starred as Garland opposite Hugh Jackman in Broadway’s record-breaking hit The Boy From Oz, provides the voice of Garland and actor Harris Yulin narrates.

“Judy Garland: By Myself” goes well beyond a biographical recounting of a star’s rise and fall by interweaving Garland’s personal story with discerning parallels from her films. An extended sequence from A Star Is Born, intercut with Garland’s own thoughts, echoes her own broken marriages, extended bouts with addiction, spectacular comebacks and never-ending yearnings.

PBS American Masters

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