# Judy Garland - any opinions?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judy-garland-any-opinions/981046>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [March 11, 2023, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judy-garland-any-opinions/981046 "2023-03-11T23:29:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judy-garland-any-opinions/981046/21 "2023-03-13T19:15:49Z")

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> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Otherwise, she gets a big meh from me too in everything else she’s done.

Not even Lucille 2?

> [@Crane](#):
>
> Judy Garland seemed more like a fixture. A sad story, but I find it difficult to sympathize with the foibles of the rich and famous. They had alternatives. Durbin managed it.

I’d say family support – or lack of it – makes a huge difference. When it’s your _family_ who’s pushing you and manipulating you, it’s hard to break free. That said, I give Deanna Durbin huge props. I believe she was the highest earner in Hollywood at the time she left it all behind.

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**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judy-garland-any-opinions/981046/22 "2023-03-13T20:00:28Z")

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> [@Siam\_Sam](#):
>
> Oddly enough, I feel exactly the same way about her daughter Liza Minnelli. _Cabaret_ is one of my favorite films, and it would not be at all the same without her.

Oddly enough, I feel the exact opposite. She was horribly miscast. Don’t get me wrong, her singing is fantastic and that’s the problem.  
Sally Bowles is a sad, delusional girl/woman, dreaming of making it big on the stage or in movies. But here she is in Kit Kat Club, a really sleazy dive. Look at Grey as MC and the girls in in the orchestra. Fosse made them look almost almost like a freak show. If Sally Bowles of the movie sang like that, she wouldn’t be working in such a place. The tragedy of her story is undermined with the obvious talent LM had at that point. I see Sally Bowles more as a Susan Alexander or Lina Lamont.

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**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\
**Post date:** [March 13, 2023, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/judy-garland-any-opinions/981046/23 "2023-03-13T20:42:58Z")

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I pretty much agree. Liza Minelli is SO talented she kind of overwhelms the movie. The role of Sally Bowles has been played by many actresses on stage over the years. (Brooke Shields, Teri Hatcher, Judi Dench, Jane Leeves, Debbie Gibson! among others…) I’ve never seen the play, but I’m sure the experience is quite different from the movie…The ‘real’ Sally Bowles, Jean Ross (whose life Christopher Isherwood based Sally on) , died in 1973 and refused to have anything to do with ‘Cabaret’ or talk about it. Interesting reading on Wikipedia, if all true. Apparently she was not too talented, but quite wild, and outlandish in appearance.

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