Judy- the Judy Garland film.

Judy - the Judy Garland film.

In the end Judy Garland succumbed to the demons that seemed to swallow her up and then devour her relentlessly. It was the saddest story in the entire history of the Hollywood film industry. It was almost too painful for words and emphasised the fragility of a young girl who grew up in the spotlight and then became the haunted woman. This was no cautionary tale more a classic example of what happened to a genuine Hollywood star who had it all at a ridiculously young age and then realised that there was no safety net when fame and celebrity eventually overwhelmed her.

Judy, the latest cinema blockbuster, rehashed and regurgitated that well chronicled story about Judy Garland, undoubtedly one of America's most lovable of all sweethearts, a singer par excellence and one of Hollywood's charming darlings. But for Judy Garland the hearts and roses of her earlier career would be abruptly replaced by the knives and daggers of those who were determined to bring her down.

We're all familiar with the child star appearance in the Wizard of Oz and in hindsight we can only imagine what might have happened to her had the overnight success that  propelled her into the Hollywood limelight not blown up in her face quite as quickly.  But as the years that followed and maturity loomed, it soon became apparent that here was a singer who could really belt out a song with heartfelt conviction.

Soon, the agents came calling, directors and producers from Hollywood's most enthusiastic studios would come knocking on her door and Garland was snapped up in no time at all. With that thick, black and lustrous hair, a powerful and colossal voice that could grab hold of all the nuances and layers of every emotion inside the song, Garland's richly textured voice would deliver any song with a melodramatic authority that had never really been heard at all in America nor the world for that matter.

Judy follows the story of the latter half of her career when drugs had taken an almost suffocating hold on her life. Her torturous relationship with Micky Deans and the celebrated appearance at London's Talk of the Town would rip huge holes in her private lifestyle and subsequently lead to her premature death at the age of 47. Now there would follow an almost painful decline, that horrendous disintegration into her private world of hell, more and more drugs before sliding into a disastrous sequence of failed dalliances with men, a relationship with Deans that was destined to fall flat on its face and loneliness.

Meeting the showbiz and theatre impresario Bernard Delfont for the first time, Garland, played beautifully by Rene Zellweger, confronts the seasoned West End wheeler and dealer with a good deal of cynicism, privately doubting whether Delfont can give her what she may be looking for. Garland muddles her way painstakingly through the London period constantly declaring her love for the capital city but then retiring to her dressing room with head in hands, depression imminent and never entirely sure whether she can win the hearts of a very critical West End audience.

And yet it was that never ending cycle of terrible lack of confidence, destructive self criticism and that almost obsessive search for perfection that followed Garland everywhere. There were the drama queen histrionics, the uppers and downers, more pills, more drinks, and nothing but self loathing. It all spiralled out of control very quickly and before her closest advisers could do anything more to help her there was death.

The film charts at first Garland's stormy marriage to Sid Luft, from whom Judy gave birth to Lorna and then inexplicably glosses over her marriage to Vincent Minelli, from whom there was Liza. Then Garland stumbles into a whirlwind romance with Micky Deans with whom she would immediately fall in love with but not before falling out big time with Deans when Garland suspected that Deans was turning into a control freak.

Then there was the glorious alliance with two members of the public. When Garland leaves the theatre, she's suddenly faced with a couple of gentlemen who just happened to be waiting outside the Talk of the Town in the hope of meeting their heroine in the flesh. Rather unexpectedly Garland asks them out for a spot of dinner. You're inclined to think that poetic licence has been used here but the image of a Hollywood superstar dining out at an Aberdeen Steak House with a couple of middle aged men from the Clapham Omnibus still sends a warm glow down your back.

Towards the end of the film when Garland was literally down in the gutter and the audiences were at their most hostile, we begin to see Garland at her feistiest, her strongest, her most defiant and, above all, her most magisterial. She cranks the volume to full blast, booming out that vast and emotional megaphone of a voice into the ether, punching the lyrics into the farthest reaches of the West End of London and cracking the glasses of the assembled throng inside the Talk of the Town.

All of Garland's repertoire was proudly displayed before an audience that had finally been won over. There was the funny, whimsical 'Trolley Song' and then the ones that weren't featured in the film. 'Meet Me in St Louis' and the turbo charged 'Zing! Went the Strings in my Heart' were typically Garland at her very best and a Hollywood glamour girl at the height of her career. 'I Got Rhythm' was Garland ripping into the very essence of the Hollywood song book and 'It's A Great Day for the Irish' was her personal tribute to Ireland, Garland at her most bubbly and celebratory. 'Come Rain or Shine' is Garland at her gutsiest.

It does seem a crying shame that the world never really got to see Judy Garland in her prime because some of us still miss that red blooded dynamism, that devil may care, carefree abandon and that authentic cry from the heart. We will wonder what exactly she would have thought of her equally as extrovert daughters Liza and Lorna. Liza of course will always be associated with Cabaret, that sensually edgy and sexy blockbuster of a film that ensured her legend. Lorna is still singing for her particular supper but the feeling persists that Judy Garland is somewhere out there on that permanent 'Yellow Brick Road' chasing a rainbow that can never be caught.