A Star Is Born
Directed by George Cukor
Written by Moss Hart; 1937 screenplay by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, and Robert Carson; story by Carson and William A. Wellman
1954/USA
Transcona Enterprises/Warner Bros.
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
#284 of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
[box] Judge George J. Barnes: Were you Norman Maine the actor?[/box]
This is a fine musical melodrama but it’s not a movie I love.
Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) is the singer with a band that is one of the opening acts at a benefit. Norman Maine (James Mason), one of the featured stars, shows up roaring drunk and stumbles into her act. Esther reacts like a trooper turning his appearance into a comedy spot. Later that night, after he sobers up, Norman goes in search of Esther and finds her jamming with some other musicians at a closed club. He recognizes star quality when he sees it and offers to bring Esther to the attention of Hollywood bigwigs. Before he can do this, though, he is more or less shanghai’d off to a remote shooting location.
Esther has bought the dream though and does her best to get somewhere in Hollywood. She is renamed Vickie Lester in the process. When Norman returns, he gets her a plum part and her talent does the rest and makes her a major star. Unfortunately, twenty years of heavy drinking and bad behavior have rendered Norman virtually unemployable. Norman’s addiction plays havoc with his romance and marriage to Vickie. With Jack Carson as a cynical PR man and Charles Bickford as a studio head.
This has some amazing numbers for Garland, particularly “The Man That Got Away”, and a great performance by Mason. The rest of the numbers seem sort of shoe-horned into the melodrama but are quite OK. The jabs at Hollywood hypocrisy are effective. I’m going to be in the minority, I know, in feeling like Garland goes way over the top in the final third of the movie.
This movie was a remake of A Star Is Born (1937) directed by William A. Wellman and starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. I prefer the story as a straight drama. It was remade again in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson as a rock and roll melodrama.
A Star Is Born was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actress; Bess Actor; Best Art Decoration-Set Decoration, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Music, Original Song (“The Man That Got Away”); and Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.
Trailer
I’ll be one of those people who disagrees with you on this one. I think this is the best version of the story. Both Mason and Garland are at their best here.
Then again, I’m likely to always say that about James Mason, so take that as you will.
I think this movie is quite OK but I want to love it. I’ll keep watching now and then and see if it happens.
Yes, Garland is overdoing it, but that song “The one that got away” is so exactly down my lane that I can forgive the movie a lot. Also I like that this one has a lot more meat on it than your average musical. Too bad the current version is using a lot of stills. That detracts.
I watched the one with stills too. Some footage gets cut for a good reason.
Oh, and a very merry Christmas to you, Bea!
A very Merry Christmas to you as well! Are there any decorations at all in Tel Aviv?
Nope, only what we do ourselves and in the Russian supermarket. We did go to a Christmas event in the Danish group, which included a visit from Santa. Our son was very excited and gave him a big hug. Oh, those days when you belived in Santa…
I’ve only seen this in the restored version with all the stills, which does make it very slow. I love Judy Garland and I think she is so great singing The Man That Got Away, but she seems miscast in this to me – she has clearly been around too long to be the up-and-coming star.
I also prefer the earlier Wellman version, though I believe that was really an unofficial emake of an even earlier George Cukor film, What Price Hollywood, so Cukor was remaking Wellman remaking his own work here! But they are two of my favourite directors and I love all the versions (well, except for the Streisand/Kristofferson one, which I haven’t seen since I saw it at the cinema on release!) Anyway, Bea, sorry to leave you such a lot of comments in one go – no need to reply to them all. 🙂
What is sad is that Garland was only 32 years old at the time and seemed older than that to me. I’ve also only seen the Streisand version in the theater and will probably leave it at that!