Customer Reviews

Star Is Born

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The film A STAR IS BORN, the 1954 Judy Garland musical for Warner Bros., has been through nearly as many trials and tribulations as any real-life movie-star wannabe to maintain its reputation and realism. The director--George Cukor's--love/hate letter to the joys and sorrows of Hollywood stardom came in just over three hours long--181 minutes. In an ironic affirmation of the film's recognition that "the lush days are over" for Hollywood, the studio cut the actual release print down to 154 minutes so that theater owners could squeeze in one extra screening per evening. That is the only version we had between 1954 and 1983, and any revivals, cinematheque offerings or TV broadcasts--quite enough to sustain the cult of the movie and Judy Garland's bravura performance as a Hollywood star married to an alcoholic has-been--sprang from that truncated release.

In 1983, a partially restored, 170-minute-long version of A STAR IS BORN hit first-run movie screens after long and loving archival and editorial struggle. It was a matter of using anything available to make up for the scenes Warner Bros. had hacked out--stills, amateur home movies made from the set, audio tracks--anything. Most significantly, the restoration reinstituted the entire portion of the movie which appear in the DVD as all of Chapters 14, 15 and 16 in which Garland's character takes a long-shot chance at an acting career; but although that enhanced plot-line was reintegrated into the movie, the static and museum-like restoration was in many ways more admirable than lovable. Still, it gets across the idea that Judy Garland's character--singer Esther Blodgett--faced her own trials and tribulations on the way to becoming "Vicki Lester" the film star.

The current 1999 DVD goes the 1983 theatrical release two better: it incorporates even more material previously thought lost--in particular audio--and the newer computer technology was used for a thorough digital "scrub" of the already handsome restoration. Previous reviewers are right: the restored sequences can still be a bit off-putting, but the DVD now for sale at 176 minutes is a noticeable improvement over the 1983 release and probably the closest we'll ever get to Cukor's original masterpiece. Is the color perfect? No, 1954 Technicolor was still garish and candy-colored; interestingly, the scenes filmed outdoors at night come across as more realistic than some of the interiors, and the character's facial tones look more realistic. Is the sound perfect? It's a good 5.1 multitrack engineering that sounded good on my budget-level home theater, and it certainly holds better aural technology than was available in 1950s movie houses.

A STAR IS BORN is very much a movie about movies, a "backstage" musical something like CABARET where the singing and dancing occur as staged performances or otherwise make sense as something the screen characters would naturally do. (As opposed to the more impressionistic, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN type of movie where characters break character and burst into song artificially.) Judy belts Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin's unforgettable "The Man That Got Away" in an after-hours club, an impromptu performance later described by eavesdropping leading man Norman Maine (James Mason) as "singing just for yourself and 'the boys in the band.'" (And with those last five words, a play was born.)

The performance-within-a-performance element that any backstage music requires come from two indelible production numbers from Vicki Lester's films. "Born in a Trunk" is by far the better known but the restoration added the endearing "Lose That Long Face," in which another unsinkable Vicki character sings a message of undying optimism as she tap-dances and flat-foots through studio-set rainy streets (Hmm, wonder where they got that idea?)

But most of Garland's performances are in more intimate venues. After rising starlet Vicki Lester becomes Mrs. Norman Maine, her husband puts her to use as "my own little jukebox" as she sings hit songs from her movies. In a particularly charming sequence, Garland's character plays homage to--and gently spoofs--the Fifties penchant for grandiose fantasy production numbers by acting out the round-the-world extravaganza ("Somewhere There's) A Someone At Last" to a background record, using what's available in the living room to mimic props and delighting the sophisticated Mason. The message is clear: it's the star, not the production values, that matter most.

Indeed, Judy Garland IS the star who makes this movie; her fictional Vicki Lester comes alive when fused with elements of Garland's own poignant and turbulent life as an all-too-visible film personality. In this movie her performances--as actor and song stylist--were never better; volumes of praise have been written to which I happily agree. But those who surround "Vicki Lester" are a key component of the film's success, too: James Mason's "Norman Maine" confronts his wife's tendency to overdramatize with a subtle performance as the self-deprecating, self-loathing alcoholic who increasingly becomes the object of his wife's charity. Jack Carson the perennial WB "heavy" of the postwar years (recall him from "Mildred Pierce" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof") is in full force as Matt Libby, the gladhanding and cynical studio publicist. Charles Bickford, perhaps best remembered today as father to Lee Remick's character in "The Days of Wine and Roses," adds humanity to the thankless role of the authoritarian film-studio owner Oliver Niles. And Tom Noonan is perfect as the buddy to impart real-life wisdom to "Mrs. Norman Maine."

People who love Judy Garland certainly should go for this improved and more watchable classic, even if they already have a prior version at home. I think lovers of musicals in general will agree that A STAR IS BORN deserves a place among the tip-top musicals of the 1950s, whether or not they are satisfied with the cardboardish ersatz for Chapters 14-16. Just hop over those with your DVD remote and find out what Warner Bros. left after its butchering! A great film at a great price; go for it.

I read all the reviews listed prior to purchasing and I didn't read anywhere that reconstruction actually meant that they put black and white still pictures in the place of the missing moving picture sequences. At one point I felt like I was watching a slideshow presentation with music and sound! I had no idea the movie would be so choppy and for that I'm deeply disappointed.

I don't feel like it was worth the price and I probably won't ever watch it again. Too bad too, because what I did see of the performance was good. Unfortunately, I felt like I only got 3/4 of the movie and the rest was fill in the blanks.

The best. Absolutely the best film Hollywood has ever offered. It is a musical which has not only heartwarming songs and dances but one with a real plot, a story so often repeated in this world- a story of dizzying rise and dizzying fall- and a story which stood up to being exposed without the songs.

I like Judy Garland and think she was tremendously talanted as both an actress and a singer so when I was watching A Star is Born on AMC or TCM I thought it was an entertaining movie but not my favorite of her movies because it was a little uneven I guess because of all the footage that was cut out but I would hardly call the movie a dud but just that it had good performances but the excessive editing hurt the plot and it probably would have been better if left alone but it is worth watching if you are a fan of Judy Garland or James Mason, etc.

People have a tendency to state which version of a "Star is Born" is BETTER than the other and which version you should buy, the one with Janet Gaynor or the one with Judy Garland. I have both dvd versions of "A Star is Born" and would not part with either. They are both different, both classics and belong in all your collections for you to have a "rounded-out" collection of the classics. The version with Janet Gaynor has more "cute" moments and the ending is very heartwarming when the grandmother shows up. The version with Judy Garland tugs at your heart-strings forever.

Judy Garland was an actress of the true MGM mold - that is to say, she knew how to do it bigger, better and louder than everybody else. True of her life, her concert performances and most of her film appearances, and in this 1954 release, she does Warner Bros. proud by being her good old MGM self for an almost three-hour epic.

Surely one of Hollywood's most melodramatic love stories, 'A Star is Born' follows the lives of Esther Blodgett (Garland), a talented star on the rise, and Norman Maine (James Mason), a once-major talent in fast alcoholic decline. They suffer the slings and arrows of the Hollywood machine, and in the end, only one career can survive.

What's truly unique about 'A Star Is Born' is the palpable sincerity and tenderness with which Mason and Garland play their parts. Mason is on top form as Norman maine, and gives a wholly believable account of a man seeking redemption through nurturing a new talent. He's a perfect match for Judy in every way - where her performance is big and larger-than-life, so is his. The actors have a delightful chemistry, a believable bond that fixes us to their story.

Garland gives what must be the greatest performance of her career, imbuing the realtively ordinary part of Blodgett with a luminosity and innocence rarely portrayed in film. When she cries, we truly believe she is sad. When she smiles, we are happy for her. But when she sings, she opens up her character to the audience in a way quite unlike any other. Even in her big, blowzy numbers like 'Swannee' and 'You Gotta Have Me Go With You', she lets her vulnerability and frailty shine through, and we are truly in awe of her. Seminal classics like 'The Man That Got Away' and 'Swannee' are here too, and still ring out as some of the finest examples of songwriting and musical arrangement anywhere.

The supporting cast, though for the most part perfectly sufficient, includes an excellent performance by Tommy Noonan as Esther's friend and advisor, Danny McGuire.

Direction by George Cukor, is, as ever, exemplary, and sets a standard that few directors have ever managed to equal. He is surely the only man in Hollywood's history to bring such believable humanity to the likes of Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, and Judy garland. His portrayal of a doomed relationship and the effects it has is still as valid today as it was fifty years ago. Using simple, uncomplicated shots and perfectly-pitched performances, Cukor creates the ideal stage on which Garland and Mason play.

The Special Features of this DVD are wonderful - the mini-documentary of the premiere party at Coconaut Grove is a gorgeous slice of a glamorous Hollywood that we'll probably never see again. There are more versions of 'The Man That Got Away' than you can shake a stick at, and 'When My Sugar Walks Down The Street' is a charming, if somewhat pointless, inclusion. The actual DVD quality is excellent, for a movie that's half a century old. Unfortunately, the 'restored scenes' are little more than a series of blurry still shots and audio tracks, but are an important inclusion nonetheless.

All in all, 'A Star Is Born', in terms of technical quality, extras and, most importantly, film standard, is one of the best films of all time. A must-have that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Many films have a convoluted history, but few so much as A STAR IS BORN. The basic story of a famous Hollywood alcoholic who promotes the career of an unknown--only to see her star rise as his falls--was based on the lives of a number of silent-era figures and first filmed in 1932 as WHAT PRICE HOLLYWOOD? After a number of plot changes, the story reemerged in 1937 as A STAR IS BORN starring Janet Gaynor and Frederic March. Then, in the 1940s, A STAR IS BORN was recycled into a radio play--and the leading lady was Judy Garland.

Garland's private life was difficult, and in 1950 she made a highly publicized suicide attempt. When she proved unable to recover herself quickly, she was fired by MGM amid much negative publicity, and it was assumed her career was over. But within a few years Garland reemerged as a powerful concert performer, and momentum began to build toward a screen comeback. Garland, who recalled her radio presentation with fondness, suggested A STAR IS BORN.

The production was plagued with problems. A number of leading actors turned down the male lead before James Mason accepted. A considerable portion of the film was shot when Warner Brothers decided to present it in Cinemascope, and this entailed scrapping all previous footage reshooting from scratch. Garland herself proved typically highstrung, and her temperament led to numerous delays. The budget ran out of control, and by the time A STAR IS BORN arrived on the screen it had become the single most expensive film made up to that time.

The film's opening seemed to justify all the difficulty and expense. Critics were positive and the public was eager. But Warner Brothers remained concerned about the film's length--and although director George Cukor offered to recut the film gratis, the studio hacked it apart. It was soon apparent that critics and audiences alike were considerably less enthusiastic about the edited version, and the film ended its theatrical release with a whimper.

During the decades that followed the film gained a reputation as a mutilated masterpiece. A lackluster 1970s remake fueled interest in a restoration, but the missing footage could not be relocated. In 1983, however, the full, unedited soundtrack and many of the missing scenes were rediscovered. In working with the film, conservators pioneered the use of still photography to fill in the still-missing scenes, a technique that would be used to restore such classics as GREED, METROPOLIS, and LOST HORIZON. And upon release, A STAR IS BORN was once again hailed as a masterpiece.

Stylistically, A STAR IS BORN is an aggressive film filled with bright colors, bombastic music, and larger than life performances. As such, it seems typical of "blockbuster" films of the 1950s and 1960s. But A STAR IS BORN uses this "bigness" to a considerably different end than its counterparts: rather than containing garish display for its own sake, it contains it for thematic purpose.

The theme developed by writer Moss Hart and director Cukor (who considered this his masterpiece) is one of the various levels of artificiality intrinsic to show business, and differences between degrees of artificiality are carefully drawn in scene after scene. The audience enjoys a show--never knowing that the star is blind drunk. The set crew prepares to film an upbeat musical number--never aware that the leading lady is having hysterics in her dressing room. Guests join their hostess in watching a movie--never knowing that their host is being quietly fired in an adjoining room.

The performances that drive A STAR IS BORN are perfectly in line with the film's juxtaposition of reality and artifice. Garland offers a justly famous bravado performance in broad strokes and with an undercurrent of artifice that becomes increasingly noticeable as the film builds, underscoring her gradual immersion in and consumption by the film industry. Mason, in equally brilliant fashion, contrasts her with a performance that becomes painfully realistic as the film progresses. The dissonance created is quite startling: it is easy to see why the two characters attract each other, but it is also easy to forecast how they will self-destruct.

Although musical numbers abound, A STAR IS BORN is not typical of the genre, for the music does not form the primary structure of the film. Still, like most other elements in the film, the songs feed into the film's themes--and always in the most ironic way possible. Near the film's conclusion, Maine ask Vicki to sing for him while he, unbeknownst to her, prepares for suicide. The song she sings is "A New World." And indeed after Maine's death it will be all of that, a world in which unreality will go unchecked and Vicki will win applause by introducing herself as "Mrs. Norman Maine," turning her private grief into box office salvation.

A STAR IS BORN is profoundly bitter film that for all its brashness operates in a remarkably subtle way to make a very dark statement about Hollywood fame: the entertainment we enjoy on screen is an illusion with a price, and that price is a confusion of reality and fantasy played out with stakes of life and death. The DVD offers the film in its restored state, in Cinemascope, and with television broadcast footage of the Los Angeles premiere. If you're serious about film, this is a must-own, must-see.

--GFT (Amazon.com Reviewer)--

Everyone watches and adores this film because Judy Garland is so magnificent in it. It's her comeback film and rarely has she been so riveting. But I'd like to concentrate on an aspect of the movie that is curiously (tragically) overlooked: the understated and beautiful performance by James Mason.

Mason's portrayal of the tortured, alcoholic Norman Maine is a performance of depth and grace. Mason was a brilliant, quiet actor who infused Maine with a sardonic sense of humor and a haunting sort of pathos. While this is Garland's picture from beginning to end, I will always argue that it's Mason's character who is central to the movie and that Mason was pivotal in getting Garland's performance to resonate.

Most Garland biographers say that Judy was in love with Mason and that the two had an affair. One senses their chemistry and Judy's almost desperate willingness to please the handsome British star. Their interplay together is touching and holds up wonderfully well after half a century. I contrast the Garland-Mason chemistry to the non-existent interaction between Gaynor-March and the dismal Streisand-Kristoferson remake in 1976.

Appreciate also the supporting performances by Charles Bickford and Jack Carson, two characters too-often overlooked. One of my favorite scenes is when Bickford visits Mason in the aftermath of his arrest for DUI, and offers him a script with a supporting role. The proud character of Norman Maine refuses the role and lies by saying another studio is interested in him. Bickford knows this is balderdash, but is so gentle and insistent that he at least try his hand once more at acting.

So watch this marvelous film and enjoy the incomparable talent of Judy Garland, but save a thought and glance for the gorgeous gentleman who played Norman Maine. What an actor he was.

A STAR IS BORN is a remake of the very successful 1937 movie. This time lots of good music is added to the story about the rise of a fresh young talent and the simultaneous descent through alcoholism of her actor husband. The script is by Moss Hart and the director is George Cukor.

The performances in the lead roles by James Mason and Judy Garland are superb. James Mason gives a very believable portrayal of a drunk who is disintegrating rapidly in the most pathetic way as the film progresses. Veteran character actors Jack Carson, Charles Bickford and Tom Noonan make their usual dependable contributions.

George Cukor had been a stage manager and had run his own stock company before coming to Hollywood. He won an Oscar for his work in the movie version of MY FAIR LADY in 1964.

A STAR IS BORN was nominated in 1954 for Oscars for Best Actor (James Mason), Actress (Judy Garland), Color Costume Design, Color Art Direction, Scoring of a Musical Picture and Song ("The Man That Got Away"). The main competition for Academy Awards in that same year came from ON THE WATERFRONT and THE COUNTRY GIRL.

"A Star Is Born" was Judy Garland's comeback film after nearly a four year hiatus from the screen. Judy is Esther Bloggett, a singer turned movie star who's rising fame coincides with her husband's (James Mason)meteoric down-swing. When the film premiered it was hailed as a critical and artistic masterpiece. Unfortunately Warner boss, Jack L. Warner, thought the film ran too long to get his money's worth out of only two showings per night. So he set to work chopping whole sequences out and the result was a truncated version that infuriated director George Cukor and cost Judy Garland her Oscar for Best Actress. In the eighties, film historian Ron Haver set out to restore this movie, only to discover that most of the missing footage remains missing to this day. However, he did uncover two gems, Judy's "Lose That Long Face" and the rehearsal/proposal scene as well as a few outtakes that helped him string together a restoration of sorts using still images to link up the story. It is this version of the film that Warner has released on DVD and I must say that I'm not sure how to take this re-issue. Yes, the transfer is as pristine and glorious as Warner Brothers can make it. Colors are bold and beautiful. But the portions of film that are missing jar the viewer from fully appreciating the film's performances, particularly in the first half of the movie where nearly 30 minutes of film stock remains lost, with only an audio track to sustain the first time viewer. To be sure, "Star" has never looked or sounded better and it is a blessing to have Judy and James Mason back on the screen in an anamorphic widescreen transfer. One merely wishes that the missing footage, in whatever condition, would turn up after all these years, allowing "Star" to be whole once again. As a film historian my recommendation is that you buy this disc. As pure entertainment, you may want to reconsider.