Garland had not made a film since she had negotiated release from her MGM contract soon after filming began on Royal Wedding in 1950, and Star was promoted heavily as her comeback. For her performance, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Esther Blodgett is an aspiring singer with a band, and Norman Maine is a former matinée idol whose career is beginning to decline. When he arrives intoxicated at a function at the Shrine Auditorium, studio publicist Matt Libby attempts to keep him offstage. Norman rushes away and bursts onto a stage where an orchestra is performing, but Esther pretends that he is part of the act.
Realizing that Esther has saved him from public humiliation, Norman invites her to dinner and watches her perform in an after-hours club. He urges her to follow her dream and convinces her she can break into movies. Esther tells Danny McGuire, her bandmate, that she is quitting their gig to pursue movies in L.A.
Norman is called away early in the morning. He later hears Esther singing on a television commercial and tracks her down. Studio head Oliver Niles believes Esther is just a passing fancy for the actor but casts her in a small film role when Maine appeals to their friendship. The studio arbitrarily changes her name to "Vicki Lester", which she finds out when she tries to pick up her paycheck. When Norman persuades Niles to hear "Vicki" sing, she is cast in an important musical film, making her a huge success. Her relationship with Norman flourishes, and they wed.
As Vicki's career continues to grow, Norman finds that his worsening alcoholism has rendered him unemployable. He arrives, late and drunk, in the middle of Vicki's Oscar acceptance speech and starts ranting at the audience for turning their backs on him; when Vicki attempts to calm him down, he accidentally strikes her in the face.
Vicki continues working and tells Oliver that Norman has entered a sanitarium. While visiting the racetrack, he runs into Libby, who mocks him for living on Vicki's money. The resulting fight prompts Norman to go on a drinking binge; he is arrested and receives ninety days in jail. Vicki bails him out and brings him home, where they are joined by Niles. Norman overhears Vicki telling Niles that she will retire from acting to care for him, and Niles retorting that Norman's poor life choices are his alone to bear. Finally realizing what he has done to himself, Vicki, his career, and the people around him, Norman tells Vicki that he is going for a swim, walks into the ocean, and drowns himself.
At Norman's funeral, Vicki is mobbed by reporters and insensitive fans. Despondent, she becomes a recluse. Finally, her old bandmate Danny convinces her to attend a charity function. When she arrives on stage, the master of ceremonies asks her to say a few words to her fans. She says, "Hello, everybody. This is Mrs. Norman Maine", which prompts the crowd into a standing ovation.
Judy Garland on location filming a scene as a restaurant carhop
In December 1952, George Cukor was approached by Sid Luft, who proposed the director helm a musical remake of the 1937 film A Star Is Born, with his then wife Judy Garland in the lead role.[7] Garland had portrayed Vicki Lester in a December 1942 Lux Radio Theater broadcast with Walter Pidgeon, and she and Luft, along with several associates, had formed Transcona Enterprises specifically to produce the project on screen.[8] Cukor had declined to direct the original film because it was too similar to his 1932 work What Price Hollywood?, but the opportunity to direct his first Technicolor film and first musical, work with screenwriter Moss Hart, and especially with Garland, appealed to him, and he accepted.[9] It was Garland's first film since leaving MGM.[10]
Getting the updated film to the screen proved a challenge. The story is a classic backstage rise and fall of success entertainment, The Dance of Life 1929 the genre's premier early example. The scenario by its title demands the fact of stardom for its inclusion in casting. Otherwise the story of personal decline could as well have been portrayed by Oscar Levant, no stranger to the movie musical, and who had worked previously with Jack Carson here playing studio publicist Matt Libby. The greater casting then concerned Cukor and he wanted Cary Grant, whom he had directed three times before, for the male lead, and went so far as to read the entire script with him. Grant, while agreeing it was the role of a lifetime, was more interested in traveling with wife Betsy Drake, and steadfastly refused the role (he also turned down Roman Holiday and Sabrina).[11] He was also concerned about Garland's reputation for unreliability. Cukor never forgave Grant for declining the role. The director then suggested either Humphrey Bogart or Frank Sinatra for the part, but Jack L. Warner rejected both. Garland suggested John Hodiak, with whom she worked in The Harvey Girls eight years earlier, but he was unavailable. Stewart Granger was the frontrunner for a time, but withdrew when he couldn't adjust to Cukor's habit of acting out scenes as a form of direction.[12] Ultimately, James Mason was signed.
The film was originally announced to be made in 3-D but Warner Brothers later announced that it was to be made in WarnerSuperScope using Warner's new All-Media camera with no mention of 3-D.[13] Filming began on October 12, 1953. As the months passed, Cukor was forced to deal not only with constant script changes but an unstable leading lady plagued by chemical dependencies, significant weight fluctuations, illnesses, and hypochondria.[14] After eight days of filming, including both standard and CinemaScope versions of "The Man That Got Away", studio executives decided the film should be the first Warner Brothers picture to use CinemaScope.
In March 1954, a rough cut was assembled, still missing several musical numbers, and Cukor had mixed feelings about it. When the last scene was shot in the early morning hours of July 28, 1954, Cukor had already left the production and was unwinding in Europe.[15] The long "Born in a Trunk" sequence was added after Cukor left, supervised by Garland's professional mentor Roger Edens.
The first test screening the following month ran to 196 minutes, and despite ecstatic feedback from the audience, Cukor and editor Folmar Blangsted trimmed it to 182 minutes for its New York premiere that October. The reviews were excellent, but Warner executives, concerned the running time would limit the number of daily showings, made drastic cuts without Cukor, who had departed for India to scout locations for Bhowani Junction. At its final running time of 154 minutes, the film lost two major musical numbers and crucial dramatic scenes; Cukor called it "very painful" to watch.[16]
A Star Is Born cost more than $5 million to produce,[2] making it one Hollywood's most expensive films at the time.
Release
the film's trailer.
On October 22, 1954, it was reported that Warner Bros. had removed 27 minutes from the film, and the new version would be sent back to theaters on November 1.[17]
Following Garland's death in 1969, the uncut film was reissued in Los Angeles and New York.[18]
1983 restoration
In October 1981, an Academy tribute to Ira Gershwin was held, in which the musical number "The Man That Got Away" was screened. Following the ceremony, academy president Fay Kinan expressed interest in the removed footage. By courtesy of Warner Bros. studio chairman Robert A. Daly, film preservationist Ronald Haver was granted access into the studio's film vaults.[19] Alongside archivist Don Woodruff and editor Craig Holt, Haver located four minutes of the missing thirty minutes inside a storage facility that belonged to film librarian Merle Ray Harlin, who had been recently convicted of grand theft of motion pictures.[20] Over the course of six months, Haver located more missing scenes, including two complete musical numbers: "Here's What I'm Here For" and "Lose That Long Face".[19] Additionally, the film's stereophonic soundtrack had been found inside the Burbank sound library. However, seven to eight minutes of matching footage to some of the film's dramatic scenes was never located. Rather than scrap these scenes, a choice was made to intersperse the soundtrack with filtered production stills of these sequences, assembled from the archives.[21]
On July 7, 1983, the reconstructed version (with a runtime of 176 minutes) was screened at the Radio City Music Hall.[22] Those in attendance included James Mason and Garland's daughters Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft. Cukor had died the night before a special screening of the film was held at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater on January 24, 1983.[21] In the spring of 1984, the restored film was reissued and shown at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York City. For this engagement, an outtake of Garland's performing "The Man That Got Away" (in a different costume and hairstyle) was included. The same year, when PBS was producing its documentary for Great Performances, Judy Garland: The Concert Years, another small piece of footage was found and shown for the first time in the program: Garland singing "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street", which was deleted from the "Born in a Trunk" sequence.
Home media
Warner Home Video released the 176-minute 1983 "restored" version on home video in various formats on January 4, 1984.[23] It was released on DVD in letterbox widescreen format on September 19, 2000. The film was digitally remastered from original CinemaScope elements for superior picture clarity and optimal audio vitality and features a remastered English audio soundtrack in Dolby Digital 5.1 and subtitles in English and French. Bonus features include the network telecast of the Hollywood premiere at the Pantages Theatre on September 29, 1954; highlights from the post-premiere party at the Cocoanut Grove; three alternative filmings of "The Man That Got Away" with additional original recording session music; a short musical sequence that appeared in a test screening but was deleted before the film's official premiere, "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" (which was to be part of the extended "Born in a Trunk" sequence); and the theatrical trailers for this, the 1937 original, and the 1976 remake.
On June 22, 2010, Warner Home Video released the film on Blu-ray and DVD. The release also included supplemental features such as alternate takes, deleted scenes, excerpts from Garland's audio recording sessions, a collectible book of rare photos, press materials, and an essay by film historian John Fricke.[24]
During its initial release, A Star is Born earned $6 million in North American distributor rentals.[3] However, despite its huge popularity, the film failed to make a profit for Warner Brothers due to its excessive cost.
Critical reaction
The performances of Mason and Garland were praised; both earned Academy Award nominations, and each won a Golden Globe Award.
The film received critical acclaim; on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 98% based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads "A Star Is Born is a movie of grand scope and intimate moments, featuring Judy Garland's possibly greatest performance."[26]Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote the film was "one of the grandest heartbreak dramas that has drenched the screen in years." He also added: "The whole thing runs for three hours, and during this extraordinary time a remarkable range of entertainment is developed upon the screen...No one surpasses Mr. Cukor at handling this sort of thing, and he gets performances from Miss Garland and Mr. Mason that make the heart flutter and bleed."[27]
Abel Green, reviewing for Variety, felt the "casting is ideal; the direction sure; the basic ingredients honest and convincing all the way. Miss Garland glitters with that stardust which in the plot the wastrel star James Mason recognizes."[10]Harrison's Reports wrote that "...in addition to being a powerful human-interest drama that frequently tugs at the heartstrings, the picture is studded with nice touches of comedy and vastly entertaining musical interludes that are well-placed and do not interfere with the progress of the story." The paper also applauded Garland's performance, writing she "has never appeared to better advantage than she does in this film; she not only makes the most of her exceptional musical talents, but also endears herself to the audience with her highly sympathetic portrayal of a wholesome young woman..."[28]
Time wrote that Garland "gives what is just about the greatest one-woman show in modern movie history".[29]Jack Moffitt of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "the perfect blend of drama and musical—of cinematic art and popular entertainment". He furthermore felt "the entire success of the picture depends upon the fact that Judy really has it. Her song styling is as individual and arresting as Ethel Merman's. And, as the picture progresses, she proves it in one smash number after another."[30] Similarly, Newsweek wrote that the film is "best classified as a thrilling personal triumph for Judy Garland...As an actress, Miss Garland is more than adequate. As a mime and comedienne she is even better. But as a singer she can handle anything from torch songs and blues to ballads. In more ways than one, the picture is hers".[31]
The soundtrack has never been out of print. It was originally released by Columbia Records in 1954 in 10-inch 78 rpm and 12-inch 33+1/3 rpm editions, and also on 7-inch 45 rpm records.
In 1988, Columbia released the soundtrack on compact disc, taking the overture and the main musical numbers directly from the film's stereo soundtrack due to the fact no stereo pre-recordings for the soundtrack master existed for this number.
In 2004, in commemoration of the film's 50th anniversary, Columbia, Legacy Recordings, and Sony Music Soundtrax released a nearly complete, digitally-remastered, expanded edition of the soundtrack. Due to the lack of a complete multitrack version of all songs and score from the film, the CD includes a mix of monaural and stereo elements in order to make as complete a soundtrack as possible.
Because some of the songs were not complete on the film soundtrack, as well as the fact that many of the original music stems had been lost or destroyed subsequent to original mono mixdown, numbers such as "Here's What I'm Here For" and "Lose That Long Face" are taken from the original mono LP masters.
Other numbers such as "Gotta Have Me Go with You" are mostly in stereo, save for brief sections where the mono soundtrack album master was used in order to remove various endemic plot-related sound effects from the track. All of the instrumental tracks are in mono as well due to the fact that the original elements have been lost or destroyed.
The 2004 soundtrack also includes three vocal outtakes – an alternative vocal for the reprise of "It's a New World" that Esther sings while Norman goes for his final swim; "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street", which was intended to be part of the "Born in a Trunk" sequence, but was deleted for time constraints; and "The Trinidad Coconut Oil Shampoo Commercial", which was taken from the only surviving recording of the complete track, a very worn acetate artist reference disc.
In addition, much of the instrumental portion of the 2004 soundtrack contains partial or whole outtakes. This CD also sees the first CD release of the complete version of "Gotta Have Me Go with You" with the full introduction, as well as "The Man That Got Away" with an expanded introduction not used in the original film.
The original Columbia 1954 mono vinyl version of the soundtrack has been released on CD in Britain by Prism Leisure and is available for digital download. This version includes bonus tracks of Judy Garland's Decca recordings of songs from other films.
In 2016, a third remake was announced, directed by Bradley Cooper, starring alongside Lady Gaga, who composed new music for the film. The 2018 adaptation was released to critical acclaim on October 5, 2018.[40]
All four official iterations have been nominated for at least four Academy Awards.[41]
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director and producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO when David O. Selznick, the studio's head of production, assigned Cukor to direct several of RKO's major films, including What Price Hollywood? (1932), A Bill of Divorcement (1932), Our Betters (1933), and Little Women (1933). When Selznick moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1933, Cukor followed and directed Dinner at Eight (1933) and David Copperfield (1935) for Selznick, and Romeo and Juliet (1936) and Camille (1936) for Irving Thalberg.
Judy Garland was an American actress, singer, and vaudevillian. She attained international stardom and critical acclaim as an actress in both musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist, and on the concert stage. Renowned for her versatility, she received a Golden Globe Award, a Special Tony Award and was one of twelve people in history to receive an Academy Juvenile Award.
Meet Me in St. Louis is a 1944 American Christmas musical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Divided into a series of seasonal vignettes, starting with Summer 1903, it relates the story of a year in the life of the Smith family in St. Louis leading up to the opening of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in the spring of 1904. The film stars Judy Garland, Margaret O'Brien, Mary Astor, Lucille Bremer, Tom Drake, Leon Ames, Marjorie Main, June Lockhart and Joan Carroll. The film was adapted by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe from a series of short stories by Sally Benson originally published in The New Yorker magazine called "The Kensington Stories" and later in novel form as Meet Me in St. Louis. The film was directed by Vincente Minnelli, who met Garland on the set and later married her. Tony Award-winning designer Lemuel Ayers served as the film's art director.
Judy Holliday was an American actress, comedian and singer.
Harold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, including "Over the Rainbow", which won him the Oscar for Best Original Song, he was nominated as composer for 8 other Oscar awards. Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the Great American Songbook. "Over the Rainbow" was voted the 20th century's No. 1 song by the RIAA and the NEA.
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, it was primarily directed by Victor Fleming, who left production to take over the troubled Gone with the Wind. It stars Judy Garland, Frank Morgan, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Billie Burke, and Margaret Hamilton. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson, and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, while others made uncredited contributions. The music was composed by Harold Arlen and adapted by Herbert Stothart, with lyrics by Edgar "Yip" Harburg.
Easter Parade is a 1948 American Technicolor musical film directed by Charles Walters, written by Sidney Sheldon, Frances Goodrich, and Albert Hackett from a story by Goodrich and Hackett, and starring Judy Garland, Fred Astaire, Peter Lawford, and Ann Miller. The film contains some of Astaire's and Garland's best-known songs, including "Easter Parade", "Steppin' Out with My Baby", and "We're a Couple of Swells", all by Irving Berlin.
"The Man That Got Away" is a torch song written for the 1954 version of A Star Is Born. The song, with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by Ira Gershwin, is performed in the film by Judy Garland. "The Man That Got Away" was ranked #11 by the American Film Institute on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs list. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the 27th Academy Awards but lost to "Three Coins in the Fountain".
Gay Purr-ee is a 1962 American animated musical film produced by United Productions of America and released by Warner Bros. It features the voice of Judy Garland as Mewsette, a feline living in the French countryside wanting to go to Paris in her only animated-film role, as well as Robert Goulet in his first feature film as her love interest Jaune Tom. While the film did received positive reviews, in reality, it was a box office failure. It is also the first animated feature film to be theatrically released by Warner Bros, and the second and final animated film by UPA.
I Could Go On Singing is a 1963 British-American musical drama film directed by Ronald Neame. It stars Judy Garland in her final film performance alongside Dirk Bogarde, and Jack Klugman. Originally titled The Lonely Stage, the film was renamed so that audiences would know that Garland sings in it; she had not sung in a film since A Star Is Born in 1954.
A Star Is Born is a 1937 American Technicolor drama film produced by David O. Selznick, directed by William A. Wellman from a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell, and starring Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as a fading movie star who helps launch her career. The supporting cast features Adolphe Menjou, May Robson, Andy Devine, Lionel Stander, and Owen Moore. At the 10th Academy Awards, it became the first color film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A Star Is Born is a 1976 American musical romantic drama film directed by Frank Pierson, written by Pierson, John Gregory Dunne, and Joan Didion. It stars Barbra Streisand as an unknown singer and Kris Kristofferson as an established rock and roll star. The two fall in love, only to find her career ascending while his goes into decline. A Star Is Born premiered at the Mann Village Theater on December 18, 1976, with a wide release by Warner Bros. the following day. A huge box office success, grossing $80 million on a $6 million budget in North America, the film became the 2nd highest-grossing that year. Reviews praised its performances and musical score, but criticized the screenplay and runtime. At the 49th Academy Awards, the film won Best Original Song for its love theme "Evergreen".
Till the Clouds Roll By is a 1946 American Technicolor musical film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a fictionalized biopic of composer Jerome Kern, portrayed by Robert Walker. Kern was involved with the production, but died before its completion. It was the first in a series of MGM biopics about Broadway composers.
Kathryn Card was an American radio, television, and film actress who may be best remembered for her role as Mrs. McGillicuddy, Lucy's mother on I Love Lucy.
The songs from the 1939 musical fantasy film The Wizard of Oz have taken their place among the most famous and instantly recognizable American songs of all time, and the film's principal song, "Over the Rainbow", is perhaps the most famous song ever written for a film. Music and lyrics were by Harold Arlen and E.Y. "Yip" Harburg, who won an Academy Award for Best Song for "Over the Rainbow."
"Get Happy" is a song composed by Harold Arlen, with lyrics written by Ted Koehler. It was the first song they wrote together, and was introduced by Ruth Etting in The Nine-Fifteen Revue in 1930. The song expresses the gospel music theme of getting happy, an expression of religious ecstasy for salvation.
Lucille Norman was an American mezzo-soprano, radio personality, and stage and film actress active in the 1940s and 1950s.
Girl Crazy is a 1943 American musical film starring Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney. Produced by the Freed Unit of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it is based on the stage musical Girl Crazy – which was written by Guy Bolton and Jack McGowan, with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin. It was the last of Garland and Rooney's nine movies as co-stars, the pair appearing only once more together on film, as guest stars in 1948's Words and Music.
Ronald Haver was an American film historian, preservationist and author. For over twenty years, he was director of Film Programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
That's Entertainment! is a studio album by Judy Garland. It was released on October 31, 1960 by Capitol Records, and arranged by Jack Marshall and Conrad Salinger.
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