The Essentials - A Star is Born ('54)
SYNOPSIS
Norman Maine, a screen star whose alcoholism is beginning to interfere with his career,
discovers Esther Blodgett, a singer with "that little something extra,"
star quality. He shepherds her through the birth of her career even as his
own is falling apart, and as he does so, their love grows. But soon it
becomes clear that his problems are ruining her life and Maine performs a final, desperate act to free Esther from her commitment to him.
Director: George Cukor
Producer: Sidney Luft
Screenplay: Moss Hart
Adapted from the Screenplay by Alan Campbell, Dorothy Parker and Robert
Carson and the Story by Carson and William A. Wellman
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Editing: Folmar Blangsted
Art Direction: Malcolm Bert, Irene Sharaff
Music: Harold Arlen
Cast: Judy Garland (Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester), James Mason (Norman
Maine), Jack Carson (Matt Libby), Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles), Tommy
Noonan (Danny McGuire), Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery), Amanda Blake (Susan
Ettinger), Irving Bacon (Graves), Strother Martin (Delivery Boy), Grady
Sutton (Carver), Joan Shawlee (Announcer), John Saxon (Usher),
C-176 m.
Why A STAR IS BORN is Essential
A Star Is Born (1954) marks the apotheosis of Judy Garland's career, a
multi-faceted role exploiting her talents for song, dance, comedy and
tragedy alike as none of her other films ever did. In a sense, it was
planned that way. Screenwriter Moss Hart drew on his knowledge of Garland and
her career to re-structure the story for the 1954 version.
A Star Is Born marked the start of two profitable collaborations
for director George Cukor. Special Visual and Color Consultant George
Hoyningen-Huene, one of the nation's leading fashion photographers, and
production designer Gene Allen would play a major role in shaping his
directorial vision as he moved into directing in color. They would work with
him on most of his later films, making notable contributions to the visual look
of
Bhowani Junction (1956) and
Les Girls (1957) in particular.
Thanks to Huene and Allen's influence, and Cukor's immaculate taste,
A Star Is Born was one of the first films to indicate how the
CinemaScope process could be used artistically. Introduced only a year
earlier, the wide-screen process had helped draw audiences to epics like
The Robe (1953), the first film shot that way, but had stymied directors,
who found the new image unwieldy. Director George Stevens suggested it was
only good for photographing snakes. But by playing with color and
composition, Cukor showed that it could actually enhance a film's
effectiveness.
Ronald Haver's 1983 restoration of
A Star Is Born was the first
high-profile project of its nature, thereby raising public awareness of
film preservation issues. It sparked a movement to rescue other lost films, with his innovative use of stills and soundtrack to fill in for scenes that no longer exist. Certainly, it opened new doors for film preservationists. Later projects that followed in the wake of Haver's
A Star is Born restoration have included Frank Capra's
Lost Horizon (1937), Raoul Walsh's
Sadie Thompson (1928), Erich von Stroheim's
Queen Kelly (1929) and
Greed (1923-25).
Haver's search for missing scenes from the film, some illegally held by
collectors, also increased public and industry awareness of piracy. In the
year following the restoration's successful re-issue, legal action against private film collectors who had ignored the law and police raids on their homes increased
significantly.
by Frank Miller
The Essentials - A Star is Born ('54)
SYNOPSIS
Norman Maine, a screen star whose alcoholism is beginning to interfere with his career,
discovers Esther Blodgett, a singer with "that little something extra,"
star quality. He shepherds her through the birth of her career even as his
own is falling apart, and as he does so, their love grows. But soon it
becomes clear that his problems are ruining her life and Maine performs a final, desperate act to free Esther from her commitment to him.
Director: George Cukor
Producer: Sidney Luft
Screenplay: Moss Hart
Adapted from the Screenplay by Alan Campbell, Dorothy Parker and Robert
Carson and the Story by Carson and William A. Wellman
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Editing: Folmar Blangsted
Art Direction: Malcolm Bert, Irene Sharaff
Music: Harold Arlen
Cast: Judy Garland (Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester), James Mason (Norman
Maine), Jack Carson (Matt Libby), Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles), Tommy
Noonan (Danny McGuire), Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery), Amanda Blake (Susan
Ettinger), Irving Bacon (Graves), Strother Martin (Delivery Boy), Grady
Sutton (Carver), Joan Shawlee (Announcer), John Saxon (Usher),
C-176 m.
Why A STAR IS BORN is Essential
A Star Is Born (1954) marks the apotheosis of Judy Garland's career, a
multi-faceted role exploiting her talents for song, dance, comedy and
tragedy alike as none of her other films ever did. In a sense, it was
planned that way. Screenwriter Moss Hart drew on his knowledge of Garland and
her career to re-structure the story for the 1954 version.
A Star Is Born marked the start of two profitable collaborations
for director George Cukor. Special Visual and Color Consultant George
Hoyningen-Huene, one of the nation's leading fashion photographers, and
production designer Gene Allen would play a major role in shaping his
directorial vision as he moved into directing in color. They would work with
him on most of his later films, making notable contributions to the visual look
of Bhowani Junction (1956) and Les Girls (1957) in particular.
Thanks to Huene and Allen's influence, and Cukor's immaculate taste,
A Star Is Born was one of the first films to indicate how the
CinemaScope process could be used artistically. Introduced only a year
earlier, the wide-screen process had helped draw audiences to epics like
The Robe (1953), the first film shot that way, but had stymied directors,
who found the new image unwieldy. Director George Stevens suggested it was
only good for photographing snakes. But by playing with color and
composition, Cukor showed that it could actually enhance a film's
effectiveness.
Ronald Haver's 1983 restoration of A Star Is Born was the first
high-profile project of its nature, thereby raising public awareness of
film preservation issues. It sparked a movement to rescue other lost films, with his innovative use of stills and soundtrack to fill in for scenes that no longer exist. Certainly, it opened new doors for film preservationists. Later projects that followed in the wake of Haver's A Star is Born restoration have included Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937), Raoul Walsh's Sadie Thompson (1928), Erich von Stroheim's Queen Kelly (1929) and Greed (1923-25).
Haver's search for missing scenes from the film, some illegally held by
collectors, also increased public and industry awareness of piracy. In the
year following the restoration's successful re-issue, legal action against private film collectors who had ignored the law and police raids on their homes increased
significantly.
by Frank Miller
Pop Culture 101 - A Star is Born ('54)
The story for
A Star Is Born derived from 1932's
What Price
Hollywood?, in which Constance Bennett stars as a young actress who
achieves stardom with the help of once-great director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman). When
his alcoholism starts to threaten her career, he kills himself. The film was directed by George Cukor and produced at RKO under David O. Selznick.
When Selznick decided to attempt a new version of the story for his own
production company in 1937, he gave Cukor first shot at directing it, but
the director turned him down, feeling he had nothing to add to the story.
William Wellman, who also collaborated on the story, directed the film.
For this version the young actress (Janet Gaynor) was helped by a fading
star (Fredric March) who married her before realizing that his alcoholism was
ruining her career and personal life.
Hollywood legend has suggested several models for the character of
Norman Maine. Some claim the story was inspired by John Gilbert's marriage
to stage actress Ina Claire, who enjoyed a spurt of popularity in the early
days of talking pictures just as his career was sinking. Others have
suggested that Maine was modeled on John Barrymore. The most likely
candidate, however, is film director Marshall "Mickey" Neilan, whose
promising career was destroyed by drinking and other scandals. He, too,
had a wife whose success eventually eclipsed his, silent actress Blanche
Sweet.
One sequence in both the 1937 and 1954 films was indeed inspired by
John Barrymore's life. In 1937, Barrymore was in a sanitarium because of
his drinking. Cukor visited him there to discuss his playing a role in
Camille (he eventually cast Henry Daniell instead) and was struck by
the place's failed attempt at homeyness. Rather than a hospital, it was
just an old house that had gone to seed. When Barrymore took him into the
sitting room, he asked one of the attendants, "Can we sit in here, Kelly?
Nobody's going to come through and disturb us by pretending he's Napoleon."
Cukor reported this scene to Selznick, who used it as the basis for the
scene depicting Norman in the sanitarium.
In 1976, Barbra Streisand remade
A Star Is Born, this time
setting the story in the music business. She starred as rising singer
Esther Hoffman, with Kris Kristofferson as her self-destructive mentor,
John Norman Howard (a role turned down by Elvis Presley). The film
received mixed reviews but scored a hit at the box office and brought
Streisand and Paul Williams an Oscar® for Best Song for the picture's
theme, "Evergreen."
For the past few years, there have been discussions of a new version of
A Star Is Born, with rapper-turned-actor Will Smith in the Judy Garland role. The reversed-gender production would feature Smith as a rising star helped by a
self-destructive diva.
by Frank Miller
Pop Culture 101 - A Star is Born ('54)
The story for A Star Is Born derived from 1932's What Price
Hollywood?, in which Constance Bennett stars as a young actress who
achieves stardom with the help of once-great director Maximillan Carey (Lowell Sherman). When
his alcoholism starts to threaten her career, he kills himself. The film was directed by George Cukor and produced at RKO under David O. Selznick.
When Selznick decided to attempt a new version of the story for his own
production company in 1937, he gave Cukor first shot at directing it, but
the director turned him down, feeling he had nothing to add to the story.
William Wellman, who also collaborated on the story, directed the film.
For this version the young actress (Janet Gaynor) was helped by a fading
star (Fredric March) who married her before realizing that his alcoholism was
ruining her career and personal life.
Hollywood legend has suggested several models for the character of
Norman Maine. Some claim the story was inspired by John Gilbert's marriage
to stage actress Ina Claire, who enjoyed a spurt of popularity in the early
days of talking pictures just as his career was sinking. Others have
suggested that Maine was modeled on John Barrymore. The most likely
candidate, however, is film director Marshall "Mickey" Neilan, whose
promising career was destroyed by drinking and other scandals. He, too,
had a wife whose success eventually eclipsed his, silent actress Blanche
Sweet.
One sequence in both the 1937 and 1954 films was indeed inspired by
John Barrymore's life. In 1937, Barrymore was in a sanitarium because of
his drinking. Cukor visited him there to discuss his playing a role in
Camille (he eventually cast Henry Daniell instead) and was struck by
the place's failed attempt at homeyness. Rather than a hospital, it was
just an old house that had gone to seed. When Barrymore took him into the
sitting room, he asked one of the attendants, "Can we sit in here, Kelly?
Nobody's going to come through and disturb us by pretending he's Napoleon."
Cukor reported this scene to Selznick, who used it as the basis for the
scene depicting Norman in the sanitarium.
In 1976, Barbra Streisand remade A Star Is Born, this time
setting the story in the music business. She starred as rising singer
Esther Hoffman, with Kris Kristofferson as her self-destructive mentor,
John Norman Howard (a role turned down by Elvis Presley). The film
received mixed reviews but scored a hit at the box office and brought
Streisand and Paul Williams an Oscar® for Best Song for the picture's
theme, "Evergreen."
For the past few years, there have been discussions of a new version of
A Star Is Born, with rapper-turned-actor Will Smith in the Judy Garland role. The reversed-gender production would feature Smith as a rising star helped by a
self-destructive diva.
by Frank Miller
Trivia - A Star is Born ('54) - Trivia & Fun Facts About A STAR IS BORN
Director George Cukor had crossed paths professionally with Judy
Garland twice before. After he was fired from
Gone With the Wind,
and he spent a week directing tests for
The Wizard of Oz. His main
contribution to that film was changing Garland's look as Dorothy by
discarding her blonde wig and getting the makeup
department to give her a more natural look. That experience inspired the
scene in which studio makeup artists completely change Esther's appearance for her
screen test. Cukor was also considered as the director for
Meet Me in St.
Louis (1944) and even spent a few months working with the screenwriters before
the film was assigned to Vincente Minnelli, who would become Garland's
second husband.
The crowd shots of the Motion Picture Relief Fund benefit at the film's
opening combined footage shot for the film with newsreels from the world
premiere of
The Robe, the picture that had prevented Richard Burton from
playing Norman Maine.
The shots of dancers backstage at the Shrine Auditorium were modeled on
the Degas' painting
Dancers Adjusting Their Slippers.
The beach house scenes were actually shot on the studio sound stage.
Cukor created the illusion that the ocean was right outside by asking the
special effects department to superimpose the reflection of the ocean on
the glass doors. They also created a light breeze to move Garland's scarf.
Since a regular fan would have been too noisy and required post-dubbing,
the crew built a wind tunnel to pump in air from outside while also
muffling the sound of the fans.
One day when Garland refused to leave her dressing room, Cukor, who
hated summoning actors, decided to see what he could do to get her on the
set. When he walked into the room, she was the picture of dejection. "Is
anything wrong?" he asked. Then he realized how absurd the question was
and started laughing. Garland laughed too and said, "This is the story of
my life. I'm about to shoot myself, and I'm asked if there's anything
wrong." Then she came out to film the scene.
When Cukor complimented Garland on the intensity of her performance in
two takes of her temperamental scene after Norman's suicide, she quipped,
"Oh, that's nothing. Come over to my house any afternoon. I do it every
afternoon. But I only do it
once at home."
A Star Is Born was the only Judy Garland film to be released in
stereo.
A Star Is Born was the first film to have its premiere telecast
nationally. The live telecast was so well received that it was repeated the
following evening. This program is now available on the most recent VHS
and DVD releases of the film.
Film projects offered to Garland as a result of her performance in
A
Star Is Born included
Carousel,
South Pacific,
The
Three Faces of Eve and musical versions of
Alice Adams,
Saratoga Trunk and
All About Eve. She also was mentioned for
film biographies of Helen Morgan, Sophie Tucker, Laurette Taylor, Gertrude
Lawrence and Fannie Brice. She never appeared in any of these. In fact,
she would not make another film for seven years, when she won an Oscar®
nomination for Best Supporting Actress for
Judgment at
Nuremberg (1961).
FAMOUS QUOTES FROM A STAR IS BORN (1954)
" There are certain pleasures you get - little jabs of pleasure. When a swordfish takes the hook, or when you watch a great fighter getting ready for the kill, see?...If you had ever
seen a bullfight in your life, you'd know a great bullfighter the moment he
set foot to the ring -- from the way he stood, from the way he moved -- or,
or a dancer. You don't happen to know about ballet? That little bell rings
inside your head, that little jab of pleasure. And that's what happened to
me just now. You're a great singer!" - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"You've got that little something extra that Ellen Terry talked about.
Ellen Terry, a great actress long before you were born. She said that that
was what star quality was -- that little something extra. Well, you've got
it." - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"Do you know the only thing I can think of right now? The only thought that
comes into my mind is the way I wash my hair. You see, when anything
happens to me, good or bad, I make straight for the shampoo bottle." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"I can remember my first job singing with the band. And then one-night
stands clear across country by bus. Putting on nail polish in the ladies
rooms of gas stations. Waiting on tables. Wow! That was a low point. I'll
never forget it. And I'll never never do that again, no matter what. But I
had to sing. I somehow feel most alive when I'm singing." - Judy Garland as
Esther Blodgett.
"Listen, Esther, a career is a curious thing. Talent isn't always enough.
You need a sense of timing -- an eye for seeing the turning point -- or
recognizing the big chance when it comes and grabbing it. A career can rest
on a trifle. Like -- like us sitting here tonight. Or it can turn on
somebody saying to you, 'You're better than that. You're better than you
know.' Don't settle for the little dream. Go on to the big one...Scared?
Scared to take the plunge?" - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"He gave me a look at myself I've never had before. He saw something in me
nobody else ever did. He made me see it too. He made me believe it." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"If you'll be kind enough to glance between my shoulder blades, Mr. and
Mrs. Gubbins, you'll find there a knife buried to the hilt. On its handle
are your initials." - Jack Carson as Matt Libby.
"You know, Oliver, I sometimes think I was born with a genius -- an
absolute genius -- for doing the wrong thing." - James Mason as Norman
Maine.
" I know most of you sitting out there by your first names, don't I? I made a lot o' money for you gentlemen in my time through the years, didn't I? Well, I need a job now. Yeah, that's it...that's the speech. That's the -- I need a job. That's what I
wanted to say. I -- I need a job. It's as simple as that. I -- I need a
job, that's all. My talents, I may say, are not confined to dramatic parts.
I can play comedy, too." - James Mason, as Norman Maine, interrupting his
wife's acceptance speech at the Oscars®.
"...sometimes, I hate him. I hate his promises to stop, and then the
watching and waiting to see it begin again. I hate to go home to him at
nights and listen to his lies...I hate me cause I've failed too." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"I shall have to introduce myself all over again to a lot of people. They
won't know me when I'm not drinking." - James Mason as Norman
Maine.
"Friends, my eye! Listen. I got you out of your jams because it was my job,
not because I was your friend. I don't like you. I never did like you. And
nothing made me happier than to see all those cute little pranks of yours
catch up with you and land you on your celebrated face." - Jack Carson as
Matt Libby.
"Sympathy? That's not what you're getting from me, baby. You don't deserve
it! You know what a great monument to Norman Maine you are? He was a drunk,
and he wasted his life, but he loved you. And he took enormous pride in the
one thing in his life that wasn't a waste -- you. His love for you and your
success, that was the one thing in his life that wasn't a waste, and he
knew it. Maybe it was wrong to do what he did, but he didn't want to
destroy that -- destroy the only thing he took pride in. And now you are
doing the one thing he was terrified of. You're wiping it out! You're
tossing aside the one thing he had left. You're tossing it right back into
the ocean after him....You're the only thing that remains of him now, and
if you just kick it away, it's like he never existed. Like there never was
a Norman Maine at all." - Tommy Noonan as Danny McGuire.
"Hello everybody -- this is --
Mrs. Norman Maine." - Judy Garland as
Mrs. Norman Maine.
Compiled by Frank Miller
Trivia - A Star is Born ('54) - Trivia & Fun Facts About A STAR IS BORN
Director George Cukor had crossed paths professionally with Judy
Garland twice before. After he was fired from Gone With the Wind,
and he spent a week directing tests for The Wizard of Oz. His main
contribution to that film was changing Garland's look as Dorothy by
discarding her blonde wig and getting the makeup
department to give her a more natural look. That experience inspired the
scene in which studio makeup artists completely change Esther's appearance for her
screen test. Cukor was also considered as the director for Meet Me in St.
Louis (1944) and even spent a few months working with the screenwriters before
the film was assigned to Vincente Minnelli, who would become Garland's
second husband.
The crowd shots of the Motion Picture Relief Fund benefit at the film's
opening combined footage shot for the film with newsreels from the world
premiere of The Robe, the picture that had prevented Richard Burton from
playing Norman Maine.
The shots of dancers backstage at the Shrine Auditorium were modeled on
the Degas' painting Dancers Adjusting Their Slippers.
The beach house scenes were actually shot on the studio sound stage.
Cukor created the illusion that the ocean was right outside by asking the
special effects department to superimpose the reflection of the ocean on
the glass doors. They also created a light breeze to move Garland's scarf.
Since a regular fan would have been too noisy and required post-dubbing,
the crew built a wind tunnel to pump in air from outside while also
muffling the sound of the fans.
One day when Garland refused to leave her dressing room, Cukor, who
hated summoning actors, decided to see what he could do to get her on the
set. When he walked into the room, she was the picture of dejection. "Is
anything wrong?" he asked. Then he realized how absurd the question was
and started laughing. Garland laughed too and said, "This is the story of
my life. I'm about to shoot myself, and I'm asked if there's anything
wrong." Then she came out to film the scene.
When Cukor complimented Garland on the intensity of her performance in
two takes of her temperamental scene after Norman's suicide, she quipped,
"Oh, that's nothing. Come over to my house any afternoon. I do it every
afternoon. But I only do it once at home."
A Star Is Born was the only Judy Garland film to be released in
stereo.
A Star Is Born was the first film to have its premiere telecast
nationally. The live telecast was so well received that it was repeated the
following evening. This program is now available on the most recent VHS
and DVD releases of the film.
Film projects offered to Garland as a result of her performance in A
Star Is Born included Carousel, South Pacific, The
Three Faces of Eve and musical versions of Alice Adams,
Saratoga Trunk and All About Eve. She also was mentioned for
film biographies of Helen Morgan, Sophie Tucker, Laurette Taylor, Gertrude
Lawrence and Fannie Brice. She never appeared in any of these. In fact,
she would not make another film for seven years, when she won an Oscar®
nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Judgment at
Nuremberg (1961).
FAMOUS QUOTES FROM A STAR IS BORN (1954)
" There are certain pleasures you get - little jabs of pleasure. When a swordfish takes the hook, or when you watch a great fighter getting ready for the kill, see?...If you had ever
seen a bullfight in your life, you'd know a great bullfighter the moment he
set foot to the ring -- from the way he stood, from the way he moved -- or,
or a dancer. You don't happen to know about ballet? That little bell rings
inside your head, that little jab of pleasure. And that's what happened to
me just now. You're a great singer!" - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"You've got that little something extra that Ellen Terry talked about.
Ellen Terry, a great actress long before you were born. She said that that
was what star quality was -- that little something extra. Well, you've got
it." - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"Do you know the only thing I can think of right now? The only thought that
comes into my mind is the way I wash my hair. You see, when anything
happens to me, good or bad, I make straight for the shampoo bottle." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"I can remember my first job singing with the band. And then one-night
stands clear across country by bus. Putting on nail polish in the ladies
rooms of gas stations. Waiting on tables. Wow! That was a low point. I'll
never forget it. And I'll never never do that again, no matter what. But I
had to sing. I somehow feel most alive when I'm singing." - Judy Garland as
Esther Blodgett.
"Listen, Esther, a career is a curious thing. Talent isn't always enough.
You need a sense of timing -- an eye for seeing the turning point -- or
recognizing the big chance when it comes and grabbing it. A career can rest
on a trifle. Like -- like us sitting here tonight. Or it can turn on
somebody saying to you, 'You're better than that. You're better than you
know.' Don't settle for the little dream. Go on to the big one...Scared?
Scared to take the plunge?" - James Mason as Norman Maine.
"He gave me a look at myself I've never had before. He saw something in me
nobody else ever did. He made me see it too. He made me believe it." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"If you'll be kind enough to glance between my shoulder blades, Mr. and
Mrs. Gubbins, you'll find there a knife buried to the hilt. On its handle
are your initials." - Jack Carson as Matt Libby.
"You know, Oliver, I sometimes think I was born with a genius -- an
absolute genius -- for doing the wrong thing." - James Mason as Norman
Maine.
" I know most of you sitting out there by your first names, don't I? I made a lot o' money for you gentlemen in my time through the years, didn't I? Well, I need a job now. Yeah, that's it...that's the speech. That's the -- I need a job. That's what I
wanted to say. I -- I need a job. It's as simple as that. I -- I need a
job, that's all. My talents, I may say, are not confined to dramatic parts.
I can play comedy, too." - James Mason, as Norman Maine, interrupting his
wife's acceptance speech at the Oscars®.
"...sometimes, I hate him. I hate his promises to stop, and then the
watching and waiting to see it begin again. I hate to go home to him at
nights and listen to his lies...I hate me cause I've failed too." - Judy
Garland as Esther Blodgett.
"I shall have to introduce myself all over again to a lot of people. They
won't know me when I'm not drinking." - James Mason as Norman
Maine.
"Friends, my eye! Listen. I got you out of your jams because it was my job,
not because I was your friend. I don't like you. I never did like you. And
nothing made me happier than to see all those cute little pranks of yours
catch up with you and land you on your celebrated face." - Jack Carson as
Matt Libby.
"Sympathy? That's not what you're getting from me, baby. You don't deserve
it! You know what a great monument to Norman Maine you are? He was a drunk,
and he wasted his life, but he loved you. And he took enormous pride in the
one thing in his life that wasn't a waste -- you. His love for you and your
success, that was the one thing in his life that wasn't a waste, and he
knew it. Maybe it was wrong to do what he did, but he didn't want to
destroy that -- destroy the only thing he took pride in. And now you are
doing the one thing he was terrified of. You're wiping it out! You're
tossing aside the one thing he had left. You're tossing it right back into
the ocean after him....You're the only thing that remains of him now, and
if you just kick it away, it's like he never existed. Like there never was
a Norman Maine at all." - Tommy Noonan as Danny McGuire.
"Hello everybody -- this is -- Mrs. Norman Maine." - Judy Garland as
Mrs. Norman Maine.
Compiled by Frank Miller
The Big Idea - A Star is Born ('54)
Judy Garland was considered washed up in Hollywood after she was fired
by MGM in 1950 on grounds of "unreliability." When her personal manager and, eventually, third husband, Sid Luft, engineered her comeback as a concert
entertainer at New York's Palace Theatre and the London Palladium in 1951,
however, Hollywood's interest in her piqued. Luft was convinced that Garland
would return to movies as an even bigger star, and the vehicle he knew
would do it was a musical remake of the 1937 film classic
A Star Is
Born.
The role of screen newcomer Esther Blodgett was nothing new to Garland.
She had played her in a 1942 radio adaptation for
Lux Radio
Theatre. Before she left MGM, she had pitched a musical remake to
Louis B. Mayer as a follow-up to
Summer Stock (1950), but he rejected
the idea, claiming that her fans would never accept her as the wife of an
alcoholic. When Luft proposed the project to her in September 1951, she
jumped at the idea.
The original film's producer, David O. Selznick, had put re-make rights
up for auction in the '40s when his production company, Selznick
International, went out of business. They were picked up by Edward
Alperson. He joined Luft and Garland to create Transcona, their own
production company, to market the project.
Transcona sold
A Star Is Born to Warner Bros. as the first part
of a nine-picture deal that included three films starring Garland and six
others produced by Luft without her. The deal was announced in December
1952.
Transcona's contract included a list of acceptable directors and
co-stars for the film. At the top of the former list was George Cukor, one of
Hollywood's best directors of female stars. They never had to go any
further down the list. Luft called Cukor to arrange a meeting at the Brown
Derby. Before they could even sit down, the director told him that if he
was looking for someone to direct Garland, he'd be happy to do it. Cukor
was paid $6,250 a week for his work, but since he was under contract to MGM
at the time, he only got $4,000 a week from his home studio.
Finding a leading man was much harder. Laurence Olivier was the first
name on the list, but he wasn't interested. Richard Burton was next, but
he was already committed to make
The Robe at 20th Century-Fox.
Tyrone Power was too expensive. Stewart Granger read for the role, but
after two rehearsals decided that he didn't like Cukor's approach to film acting.
Cukor suggested Humphrey Bogart, who was a huge fan
of the first film, and Frank Sinatra, who desperately wanted the role.
Studio head Jack Warner felt Bogart was too old and Sinatra, who had not
yet made his own career comeback in
From Here to Eternity (1953), was considered too difficult. Errol Flynn also campaigned for the role, but Warner blackballed him from negative past experiences.
One name on the list that interested everybody was Cary Grant. The
thought of Hollywood's most debonair actor sinking into alcoholic despair
on screen was irresistible. Accounts differ as to why he turned down the
role. Luft, who courted him avidly for the part, says that Warner refused
to give Grant a percentage of the gross. Cukor, however, suggests more
personal reasons. Grant had misgivings from the start, but finally Cukor
got him to consent to a private reading, with the director reading all the
other roles. Grant was brilliant, and Cukor enthused, "Can there be any
doubt? This is the part you were born to play!" "Of course," Grant
replied. "That is why I won't." Apparently, the role struck too close to
home and his refusal to do it triggered a rift between the longtime friends that
would last for years.
When Grant turned down the role, Luft and Garland turned to the actor
they'd always considered their fallback, James Mason. The British star was
already a respected actor with acclaimed performances in such films as
Odd Man
Out (1947). He'd also revealed a brooding romantic side in art-house hits
like
The Wicked Lady (1945) and
The Seventh Veil (1946). In addition, he
and Garland had become friends when he'd first moved to Hollywood to star
in
Madame Bovary (1949), directed by her ex-husband Vincente Minnelli. He was
thrilled at the chance to work with her.
To complete the production team, Luft signed Moss Hart, an acclaimed
playwright and Oscar®-winning screenwriter, to adapt the script; Harold
Arlen, who had written "Over the Rainbow," to write the music; and Ira
Gershwin to do the lyrics.
In tailoring the screenplay for Garland's talents, Hart transformed Esther Blodgett from a
North Dakota farm girl who becomes a star in costume dramas to a seasoned
singer who leaves her current job with a band to become a Hollywood musical
star. They also combined aspects from two characters from the original - Esther's grandmother and an assistant director - to create the role of Danny, the
band leader who stands by Esther after Norman's death.
The Production Code Administration, Hollywood's self-censorship
organization, was concerned that the film not romanticize Norman's suicide.
In particular, when Esther's friend, Danny, tries to talk her out of her
depression after Norman's death, they demanded that Hart cut the line "It
took guts to do what he did when he found out he couldn't lick it. But he
did it." Instead, Danny says, "Maybe he was wrong to do what he
did."
Since this would be his first color film, Cukor enlisted noted fashion
photographer George Hoyningen-Huene as a special visual and color
consultant. During production meetings, Cukor was impressed with one of
set designer Lemuel Ayres' staff, Gene Allen, and elevated him to a
position as production designer. He would continue to collaborate with
Huene and Allen through the rest of his career.
by Frank Miller
The Big Idea - A Star is Born ('54)
Judy Garland was considered washed up in Hollywood after she was fired
by MGM in 1950 on grounds of "unreliability." When her personal manager and, eventually, third husband, Sid Luft, engineered her comeback as a concert
entertainer at New York's Palace Theatre and the London Palladium in 1951,
however, Hollywood's interest in her piqued. Luft was convinced that Garland
would return to movies as an even bigger star, and the vehicle he knew
would do it was a musical remake of the 1937 film classic A Star Is
Born.
The role of screen newcomer Esther Blodgett was nothing new to Garland.
She had played her in a 1942 radio adaptation for Lux Radio
Theatre. Before she left MGM, she had pitched a musical remake to
Louis B. Mayer as a follow-up to Summer Stock (1950), but he rejected
the idea, claiming that her fans would never accept her as the wife of an
alcoholic. When Luft proposed the project to her in September 1951, she
jumped at the idea.
The original film's producer, David O. Selznick, had put re-make rights
up for auction in the '40s when his production company, Selznick
International, went out of business. They were picked up by Edward
Alperson. He joined Luft and Garland to create Transcona, their own
production company, to market the project.
Transcona sold A Star Is Born to Warner Bros. as the first part
of a nine-picture deal that included three films starring Garland and six
others produced by Luft without her. The deal was announced in December
1952.
Transcona's contract included a list of acceptable directors and
co-stars for the film. At the top of the former list was George Cukor, one of
Hollywood's best directors of female stars. They never had to go any
further down the list. Luft called Cukor to arrange a meeting at the Brown
Derby. Before they could even sit down, the director told him that if he
was looking for someone to direct Garland, he'd be happy to do it. Cukor
was paid $6,250 a week for his work, but since he was under contract to MGM
at the time, he only got $4,000 a week from his home studio.
Finding a leading man was much harder. Laurence Olivier was the first
name on the list, but he wasn't interested. Richard Burton was next, but
he was already committed to make The Robe at 20th Century-Fox.
Tyrone Power was too expensive. Stewart Granger read for the role, but
after two rehearsals decided that he didn't like Cukor's approach to film acting.
Cukor suggested Humphrey Bogart, who was a huge fan
of the first film, and Frank Sinatra, who desperately wanted the role.
Studio head Jack Warner felt Bogart was too old and Sinatra, who had not
yet made his own career comeback in From Here to Eternity (1953), was considered too difficult. Errol Flynn also campaigned for the role, but Warner blackballed him from negative past experiences.
One name on the list that interested everybody was Cary Grant. The
thought of Hollywood's most debonair actor sinking into alcoholic despair
on screen was irresistible. Accounts differ as to why he turned down the
role. Luft, who courted him avidly for the part, says that Warner refused
to give Grant a percentage of the gross. Cukor, however, suggests more
personal reasons. Grant had misgivings from the start, but finally Cukor
got him to consent to a private reading, with the director reading all the
other roles. Grant was brilliant, and Cukor enthused, "Can there be any
doubt? This is the part you were born to play!" "Of course," Grant
replied. "That is why I won't." Apparently, the role struck too close to
home and his refusal to do it triggered a rift between the longtime friends that
would last for years.
When Grant turned down the role, Luft and Garland turned to the actor
they'd always considered their fallback, James Mason. The British star was
already a respected actor with acclaimed performances in such films as Odd Man
Out (1947). He'd also revealed a brooding romantic side in art-house hits
like The Wicked Lady (1945) and The Seventh Veil (1946). In addition, he
and Garland had become friends when he'd first moved to Hollywood to star
in Madame Bovary (1949), directed by her ex-husband Vincente Minnelli. He was
thrilled at the chance to work with her.
To complete the production team, Luft signed Moss Hart, an acclaimed
playwright and Oscar®-winning screenwriter, to adapt the script; Harold
Arlen, who had written "Over the Rainbow," to write the music; and Ira
Gershwin to do the lyrics.
In tailoring the screenplay for Garland's talents, Hart transformed Esther Blodgett from a
North Dakota farm girl who becomes a star in costume dramas to a seasoned
singer who leaves her current job with a band to become a Hollywood musical
star. They also combined aspects from two characters from the original - Esther's grandmother and an assistant director - to create the role of Danny, the
band leader who stands by Esther after Norman's death.
The Production Code Administration, Hollywood's self-censorship
organization, was concerned that the film not romanticize Norman's suicide.
In particular, when Esther's friend, Danny, tries to talk her out of her
depression after Norman's death, they demanded that Hart cut the line "It
took guts to do what he did when he found out he couldn't lick it. But he
did it." Instead, Danny says, "Maybe he was wrong to do what he
did."
Since this would be his first color film, Cukor enlisted noted fashion
photographer George Hoyningen-Huene as a special visual and color
consultant. During production meetings, Cukor was impressed with one of
set designer Lemuel Ayres' staff, Gene Allen, and elevated him to a
position as production designer. He would continue to collaborate with
Huene and Allen through the rest of his career.
by Frank Miller
Behind the Camera - A Star is Born ('54)
Filming started on October 12, 1953, with the train station sequence,
in which the newly signed Esther doubles for a star by waving a
handkerchief out a train window.
The first major delays were technical. Cukor had started making the
film in WarnerScope, a wide-screen process Warner Bros. had designed to
compete with CinemaScope. But even studio management knew the process
wasn't perfected. Albert Warner, who supervised the studio's technical
side, was negotiating for the use of CinemaScope as the film started
shooting. After two weeks of filming, he asked that they test the process,
so "The Man That Got Away" number was shot in two versions, one in
WarnerScope and one in CinemaScope. It was obvious the latter version was
superior, so they had to start the film over, at a cost of $300,000. They
also had to redo the number to make better use of the new screen size. As
a result, the film fell behind schedule a total of 18 days.
At first the limitations of working in CinemaScope presented an obstacle to Cukor.
There was a whole set of rules about what would and would not work in the
new system. The so-called experts advised against certain camera moves,
certain colors, tight close-ups and too much quick cutting. Finally he and
his two consultants on the film, production designer Gene Allen and color
consultant George Hoyningen-Huene, decided to ignore the rules and make up
new ones as they went along. As a result,
A Star Is Born was one of
the first films to make truly creative use of the CinemaScope
process.
Garland's musical mentor, Roger Edens, came over from MGM to supervise
the arrangements of her numbers.
Garland was on her best behavior during the early days of shooting, but
she slowly lost control. She first called in sick on November 9, which
kept her off the film for four days. She got sick again shooting outdoor
locations and missed three more days. She was sick again for two days in
December. Then they had to postpone a scene because she didn't like her
costume. Other days, she had to leave early because she was too tired or
sick to go on. By February, they were 41 days behind schedule. In late
March, she took two weeks off to get herself off all prescription
medications. Ultimately, the production would drag on for nine
months.
Making matters worse was the fact that Garland wasn't always home
resting when she was sick. She'd take a day off, then Cukor would read in
Louella Parsons' column that she had spent the night singing at a
nightclub. She'd leave early and go to the races. None of this was
released to the press. Instead, the Warners PR department attributed the
delays to Garland's relentless perfectionism.
Cukor was an expert on pushing actresses to an emotional brink and then
capturing it on film. For Garland's breakdown scene in Esther's dressing
room, he drove her so hard that she threw up before the first take. Then
he made her do the scene over and over until he had it just right. But he
was also an expert in easing tension on the set through humor. After the final take,
Garland was sobbing uncontrollably. He came up to her quietly, put his
hand on her shoulder and said, "Judy, Marjorie Main couldn't have done that
any better!"
In March, studio executives viewed a rough-cut of everything that had
been completed up to that point. Cukor wasn't happy with the footage, but
everyone else was delighted.
One addition Luft and Warners felt necessary was a number to
demonstrate Esther's triumph in her first big film. Rather than take a
chance on a new number that might not go over, Luft convinced Warner to
authorize a medley of standards. The sequence would become the "Born in
the Trunk" number, including performances of "I'll Get By," "You Took
Advantage of Me," "Black Bottom," "The Peanut Vendor Song," "Melancholy
Baby" and "Swanee." The number would add 18 minutes to the already long
film and cost an additional $250,000. Cukor, who objected to the sequence,
had already planned his annual vacation to Europe, so Warners took him off
salary and the film's choreographer, Richard Barstow, directed it instead.
Allen and Huene personally oversaw the shoot in order to protect Cukor's vision.
For the last two weeks of production, during which the "Born in a
Trunk" number was completed, Jack Warner approved a night-time shooting
schedule to better accommodate Garland's "body clock." This added still
more to the budget, as the unions required extra payments for evening
work.
Shooting finally ended on July 28, 1954, with retakes of the "Peanut
Vendor" song from the "Born in a Trunk" sequence. The first preview was
only five days away. The film's final budget was $5,019,770, making it
Warner Bros.' most expensive film and the second costliest in Hollywood
history, just behind David O. Selznick's
Duel in the Sun (1946), which
had cost just $205,000 more.
The film's completion was particularly joyous for Garland and Luft, who
had just learned that she was pregnant for the third time.
The first preview, on August 2, 1954, was a triumph for Garland. As
she left, fans shouted at her "Don't cut a single minute of it." The
second preview, on August 3, was equally successful. At this point the
film ran 196 minutes.
Shortly before the premiere, Cukor cut the film down to 181 minutes.
Among the footage removed was a segment from the "Born in the Trunk" number (Garland's duet with her father to "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" - a number she had performed at the start of her career with the Gumm Sisters); Norman's return to the Shrine Auditorium to try to learn Esther's name; Norman and Esther planning the beach house; and a montage of scenes from
Norman Maine's leading roles. The musical number is included in the most
recent DVDs of the film but the other footage has never been
recovered.
A Star Is Born premiered at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on
September 29. The New York premiere on October 11 was so big it had to be
held at two theatres, the Victoria and the Capitol.
In October 1954, after the film had opened and been reviewed, Harry
Warner, head of the studio's business side in New York, decided that the
picture was too long. He ordered another half-hour of cuts so that
exhibitors could get in one more showing per day. By this time, Cukor was
in India filming Bhowani Junction, so he was unable to influence the re-editing of the film. The cuts included an entire sequence in which
Norman and Esther lose touch with each other while Norman is on location. A
comic scene of her getting sick on the way to her first preview was also deleted,
along with two complete numbers, "Here's What I'm Here For," the song
Esther is recording when Norman proposes to her, and "Lose That Long Face,"
the number she does before and after she breaks down in her dressing room.
The cuts represented most of the scenes that developed Norman and Esther's
relationship. To make matters worse, the studio melted the negative from
the cut scenes to retrieve the film's silver content. Word of the cuts hit
the press and generated such a strong backlash against the film that
attendance dropped precipitously. As a result, despite the film's
promising opening, it ended up losing money.
With the film's box-office failure, Garland and Luft were broke. Both
Jack and Harry Warner had advanced Luft money against his share of the
profits. With they failed to see their money returned from ticket sales, they both ended up suing
Luft to get their money back. And the Lufts' contract with Warners for
future pictures was cancelled.
In 1974, film historian Ronald Haver was doing a Cukor retrospective at
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For the showing of A Star Is
Born, he put together a brochure featuring stills from the cut scenes
and descriptions of what was missing. This triggered interest at Warner
Bros., where an apprentice film editor discovered the complete three-hour
soundtrack in the sound department's storage vaults. Haver wanted to
create a restored version using the soundtrack with stills filling in for
the missing scenes, but was unable to raise the budget through the LA County
Museum.
In 1981, Haver enlisted the help of writer Fay Kanin, president of the
Motion Picture Academy® and a member of the National Committee for Film
Preservation. She pitched the restoration project to Warner Bros. chairman
Robert Daly, who gave Haver the go-ahead. Haver went through film storage
vaults on both coasts and dug up leads about private, illegally obtained
footage held by private collectors. He even had to call the police to
track down one collector who had a 35mm negative of "Lose That Long Face.
Eventually he assembled about 20 minutes of the missing half-hour,
including both cut musical numbers and the proposal scene. Along the way,
he also found a negative and print of the 1932 version of The Animal
Kingdom, a film long thought lost; a pristine 35mm print of the 1934
Of Human Bondage and the original negatives for the 1937 A Star
Is Born, along with costume and photographic tests for the 1954
version. Other treats he found included newsreel footage and kinescopes of
the film's premieres in Hollywood and New York and the first CinemaScope
version of "The Man That Got Away."
Ultimately, Haver put together a 176 minute restored print, featuring
the newly discovered footage, restored footage from the shorter version and
stills to fill in for the sequences nobody could find.
Haver showed the restored version to Daly on January 24, 1983. Daly
was so impressed that he authorized a theatrical reissue through Warner
Classics. Haver had invited Cukor to this screening, but the director died
the day before.
The restored A Star Is Born received its world premiere at the
Radio City Musical in New York on July 7, 1983. As soon as the lost
musical numbers appeared, the audience started applauding. At the end, the
audience gave the film a standing ovation. Both of Garland's daughters,
Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, were in the audience. Afterwards, they had
to be taken to a dressing room, where it took them 20 minutes to stop
crying.
by Frank Miller
Behind the Camera - A Star is Born ('54)
Filming started on October 12, 1953, with the train station sequence,
in which the newly signed Esther doubles for a star by waving a
handkerchief out a train window.
The first major delays were technical. Cukor had started making the
film in WarnerScope, a wide-screen process Warner Bros. had designed to
compete with CinemaScope. But even studio management knew the process
wasn't perfected. Albert Warner, who supervised the studio's technical
side, was negotiating for the use of CinemaScope as the film started
shooting. After two weeks of filming, he asked that they test the process,
so "The Man That Got Away" number was shot in two versions, one in
WarnerScope and one in CinemaScope. It was obvious the latter version was
superior, so they had to start the film over, at a cost of $300,000. They
also had to redo the number to make better use of the new screen size. As
a result, the film fell behind schedule a total of 18 days.
At first the limitations of working in CinemaScope presented an obstacle to Cukor.
There was a whole set of rules about what would and would not work in the
new system. The so-called experts advised against certain camera moves,
certain colors, tight close-ups and too much quick cutting. Finally he and
his two consultants on the film, production designer Gene Allen and color
consultant George Hoyningen-Huene, decided to ignore the rules and make up
new ones as they went along. As a result, A Star Is Born was one of
the first films to make truly creative use of the CinemaScope
process.
Garland's musical mentor, Roger Edens, came over from MGM to supervise
the arrangements of her numbers.
Garland was on her best behavior during the early days of shooting, but
she slowly lost control. She first called in sick on November 9, which
kept her off the film for four days. She got sick again shooting outdoor
locations and missed three more days. She was sick again for two days in
December. Then they had to postpone a scene because she didn't like her
costume. Other days, she had to leave early because she was too tired or
sick to go on. By February, they were 41 days behind schedule. In late
March, she took two weeks off to get herself off all prescription
medications. Ultimately, the production would drag on for nine
months.
Making matters worse was the fact that Garland wasn't always home
resting when she was sick. She'd take a day off, then Cukor would read in
Louella Parsons' column that she had spent the night singing at a
nightclub. She'd leave early and go to the races. None of this was
released to the press. Instead, the Warners PR department attributed the
delays to Garland's relentless perfectionism.
Cukor was an expert on pushing actresses to an emotional brink and then
capturing it on film. For Garland's breakdown scene in Esther's dressing
room, he drove her so hard that she threw up before the first take. Then
he made her do the scene over and over until he had it just right. But he
was also an expert in easing tension on the set through humor. After the final take,
Garland was sobbing uncontrollably. He came up to her quietly, put his
hand on her shoulder and said, "Judy, Marjorie Main couldn't have done that
any better!"
In March, studio executives viewed a rough-cut of everything that had
been completed up to that point. Cukor wasn't happy with the footage, but
everyone else was delighted.
One addition Luft and Warners felt necessary was a number to
demonstrate Esther's triumph in her first big film. Rather than take a
chance on a new number that might not go over, Luft convinced Warner to
authorize a medley of standards. The sequence would become the "Born in
the Trunk" number, including performances of "I'll Get By," "You Took
Advantage of Me," "Black Bottom," "The Peanut Vendor Song," "Melancholy
Baby" and "Swanee." The number would add 18 minutes to the already long
film and cost an additional $250,000. Cukor, who objected to the sequence,
had already planned his annual vacation to Europe, so Warners took him off
salary and the film's choreographer, Richard Barstow, directed it instead.
Allen and Huene personally oversaw the shoot in order to protect Cukor's vision.
For the last two weeks of production, during which the "Born in a
Trunk" number was completed, Jack Warner approved a night-time shooting
schedule to better accommodate Garland's "body clock." This added still
more to the budget, as the unions required extra payments for evening
work.
Shooting finally ended on July 28, 1954, with retakes of the "Peanut
Vendor" song from the "Born in a Trunk" sequence. The first preview was
only five days away. The film's final budget was $5,019,770, making it
Warner Bros.' most expensive film and the second costliest in Hollywood
history, just behind David O. Selznick's Duel in the Sun (1946), which
had cost just $205,000 more.
The film's completion was particularly joyous for Garland and Luft, who
had just learned that she was pregnant for the third time.
The first preview, on August 2, 1954, was a triumph for Garland. As
she left, fans shouted at her "Don't cut a single minute of it." The
second preview, on August 3, was equally successful. At this point the
film ran 196 minutes.
Shortly before the premiere, Cukor cut the film down to 181 minutes.
Among the footage removed was a segment from the "Born in the Trunk" number (Garland's duet with her father to "When My Sugar Walks Down the Street" - a number she had performed at the start of her career with the Gumm Sisters); Norman's return to the Shrine Auditorium to try to learn Esther's name; Norman and Esther planning the beach house; and a montage of scenes from
Norman Maine's leading roles. The musical number is included in the most
recent DVDs of the film but the other footage has never been
recovered.
A Star Is Born premiered at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on
September 29. The New York premiere on October 11 was so big it had to be
held at two theatres, the Victoria and the Capitol.
In October 1954, after the film had opened and been reviewed, Harry
Warner, head of the studio's business side in New York, decided that the
picture was too long. He ordered another half-hour of cuts so that
exhibitors could get in one more showing per day. By this time, Cukor was
in India filming Bhowani Junction, so he was unable to influence the re-editing of the film. The cuts included an entire sequence in which
Norman and Esther lose touch with each other while Norman is on location. A
comic scene of her getting sick on the way to her first preview was also deleted,
along with two complete numbers, "Here's What I'm Here For," the song
Esther is recording when Norman proposes to her, and "Lose That Long Face,"
the number she does before and after she breaks down in her dressing room.
The cuts represented most of the scenes that developed Norman and Esther's
relationship. To make matters worse, the studio melted the negative from
the cut scenes to retrieve the film's silver content. Word of the cuts hit
the press and generated such a strong backlash against the film that
attendance dropped precipitously. As a result, despite the film's
promising opening, it ended up losing money.
With the film's box-office failure, Garland and Luft were broke. Both
Jack and Harry Warner had advanced Luft money against his share of the
profits. With they failed to see their money returned from ticket sales, they both ended up suing
Luft to get their money back. And the Lufts' contract with Warners for
future pictures was cancelled.
In 1974, film historian Ronald Haver was doing a Cukor retrospective at
the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. For the showing of A Star Is
Born, he put together a brochure featuring stills from the cut scenes
and descriptions of what was missing. This triggered interest at Warner
Bros., where an apprentice film editor discovered the complete three-hour
soundtrack in the sound department's storage vaults. Haver wanted to
create a restored version using the soundtrack with stills filling in for
the missing scenes, but was unable to raise the budget through the LA County
Museum.
In 1981, Haver enlisted the help of writer Fay Kanin, president of the
Motion Picture Academy® and a member of the National Committee for Film
Preservation. She pitched the restoration project to Warner Bros. chairman
Robert Daly, who gave Haver the go-ahead. Haver went through film storage
vaults on both coasts and dug up leads about private, illegally obtained
footage held by private collectors. He even had to call the police to
track down one collector who had a 35mm negative of "Lose That Long Face.
Eventually he assembled about 20 minutes of the missing half-hour,
including both cut musical numbers and the proposal scene. Along the way,
he also found a negative and print of the 1932 version of The Animal
Kingdom, a film long thought lost; a pristine 35mm print of the 1934
Of Human Bondage and the original negatives for the 1937 A Star
Is Born, along with costume and photographic tests for the 1954
version. Other treats he found included newsreel footage and kinescopes of
the film's premieres in Hollywood and New York and the first CinemaScope
version of "The Man That Got Away."
Ultimately, Haver put together a 176 minute restored print, featuring
the newly discovered footage, restored footage from the shorter version and
stills to fill in for the sequences nobody could find.
Haver showed the restored version to Daly on January 24, 1983. Daly
was so impressed that he authorized a theatrical reissue through Warner
Classics. Haver had invited Cukor to this screening, but the director died
the day before.
The restored A Star Is Born received its world premiere at the
Radio City Musical in New York on July 7, 1983. As soon as the lost
musical numbers appeared, the audience started applauding. At the end, the
audience gave the film a standing ovation. Both of Garland's daughters,
Liza Minnelli and Lorna Luft, were in the audience. Afterwards, they had
to be taken to a dressing room, where it took them 20 minutes to stop
crying.
by Frank Miller
A Star is Born (1954) - A Star is Born (1954)
Judy Garland made perhaps the most triumphant of all movie comebacks in Warner Bros.'
A Star Is Born (1954), directed by George Cukor and released four years after Garland appeared in her final film at MGM, where she had been dismissed after more than a decade as that studio's reigning musical-comedy star. Sid Luft, then Garland's husband, oversaw her spectacular return to the screen by serving as producer of the film, which had a troubled production history in part because of Garland's illnesses and stormy temperament.
The story of a singer whose star rises at the same time her alcoholic husband (James Mason) sees his own movie career disintegrate,
A Star Is Born gave Garland not only her most intense dramatic role but a brilliant Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin score that provided her with a signature tune - "The Man That Got Away." Other songs include "Gotta Have Me Go with You," "It's a New World," "Somewhere There's a Someone" and "Born in a Trunk." The latter song was built into an elaborate production number for Garland that was filmed without Cukor's approval after he had finished his work on
A Star Is Born.
Garland's performance was met with superb notices, including
Time magazine's rave as "just about the greatest one-woman show in movie history." The movie won seven Academy Award nominations for Best Actress (Garland), Actor (Mason), Art Direction, Set Decoration, Costume Design, Musical Score and Song ("The Man That Got Away"). It was widely anticipated that Garland would win the award itself, and on the night of the ceremonies, television cameras were set up in her room at the hospital where she had given birth to a son, Joe Luft. In later years Garland loved telling a bitterly funny anecdote about how unceremoniously she was treated by the television crew when it was announced that the winner was instead Grace Kelly for
The Country Girl (1954). At the time, Garland friend Groucho Marx decried her Oscar loss as "the biggest robbery since Brink's."
A Star Is Born did not win in any category.
After the initial roadshow engagement, Warner Bros. cut some 45 minutes from the movie, much of which was replaced in a 1983 restoration by Ronald Haver.
A Star Is Born was remade most recently in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Predating the Garland version is a 1937 version starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The inspiration for all versions is most likely a movie called
What Price Hollywood? (1932), which was directed by Cukor and has a strikingly similar story line.
Producer: Sidney Luft, Vern Alves (associate)
Director: George Cukor
Screenplay: Moss Hart, from original screenplay by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, story by Robert Carson and William A. Wellman
Production Design: Gene Allen
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Original Music: Harold Arlen, Ray Heindorf (uncredited)
Lyricist: Ira Gershwin
Musical Direction: Ray Heindorf
Editing: Folmar Blangsted, Craig Holt (restored version)
Costume Design: Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg, Irene Sharaff
Principal Cast: Judy Garland (Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester), James Mason (Norman Maine), Jack Carson (Matt Libby), Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles), Tommy Noonan (Danny McGuire), Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery).
C-176m. Letterboxed
by Roger Fristoe
A Star is Born (1954) - A Star is Born (1954)
Judy Garland made perhaps the most triumphant of all movie comebacks in Warner Bros.' A Star Is Born (1954), directed by George Cukor and released four years after Garland appeared in her final film at MGM, where she had been dismissed after more than a decade as that studio's reigning musical-comedy star. Sid Luft, then Garland's husband, oversaw her spectacular return to the screen by serving as producer of the film, which had a troubled production history in part because of Garland's illnesses and stormy temperament.
The story of a singer whose star rises at the same time her alcoholic husband (James Mason) sees his own movie career disintegrate, A Star Is Born gave Garland not only her most intense dramatic role but a brilliant Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin score that provided her with a signature tune - "The Man That Got Away." Other songs include "Gotta Have Me Go with You," "It's a New World," "Somewhere There's a Someone" and "Born in a Trunk." The latter song was built into an elaborate production number for Garland that was filmed without Cukor's approval after he had finished his work on A Star Is Born.
Garland's performance was met with superb notices, including Time magazine's rave as "just about the greatest one-woman show in movie history." The movie won seven Academy Award nominations for Best Actress (Garland), Actor (Mason), Art Direction, Set Decoration, Costume Design, Musical Score and Song ("The Man That Got Away"). It was widely anticipated that Garland would win the award itself, and on the night of the ceremonies, television cameras were set up in her room at the hospital where she had given birth to a son, Joe Luft. In later years Garland loved telling a bitterly funny anecdote about how unceremoniously she was treated by the television crew when it was announced that the winner was instead Grace Kelly for The Country Girl (1954). At the time, Garland friend Groucho Marx decried her Oscar loss as "the biggest robbery since Brink's." A Star Is Born did not win in any category.
After the initial roadshow engagement, Warner Bros. cut some 45 minutes from the movie, much of which was replaced in a 1983 restoration by Ronald Haver. A Star Is Born was remade most recently in 1976 with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Predating the Garland version is a 1937 version starring Janet Gaynor and Fredric March. The inspiration for all versions is most likely a movie called What Price Hollywood? (1932), which was directed by Cukor and has a strikingly similar story line.
Producer: Sidney Luft, Vern Alves (associate)
Director: George Cukor
Screenplay: Moss Hart, from original screenplay by Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, story by Robert Carson and William A. Wellman
Production Design: Gene Allen
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Original Music: Harold Arlen, Ray Heindorf (uncredited)
Lyricist: Ira Gershwin
Musical Direction: Ray Heindorf
Editing: Folmar Blangsted, Craig Holt (restored version)
Costume Design: Jean Louis, Mary Ann Nyberg, Irene Sharaff
Principal Cast: Judy Garland (Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester), James Mason (Norman Maine), Jack Carson (Matt Libby), Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles), Tommy Noonan (Danny McGuire), Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery).
C-176m. Letterboxed
by Roger Fristoe
Critics' Corner - A Star is Born ('54)
AWARDS & HONORS
Judy Garland received Best Actress awards from
Look magazine,
Film Daily and
Box Office Publications. She and James Mason
also received the Golden Globes for Best Actor and Actress in a
Comedy/Musical.
A Star Is Born received six Oscar® nominations: Best Actress (Garland),
Best Actor (Mason), Best Art Direction, Best Song ("The Man That Got
Away"), Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Costumes. It might have
scored more had Warner Bros. not decided, based on its declining box office
figures, to not place any trade ads promoting the film.
By Oscar® night, Garland was eight months pregnant, which made her
performance of the number "The Man That Got Away" impossible, if not in poor taste.
She had ordered a designer maternity gown, but went into labor early and
delivered her son, Joey, by caesarian section the day before the awards.
To capture her anticipated victory in person, NBC had a special platform
constructed outside the window of her hospital room and sent a crew to wait
for the announcement of Best Actress.
When Grace Kelly was announced as the Oscar®-winner for
The
Country Girl the crew, which had been joking with Garland before the
ceremonies, silently packed up and went home.
A Star Is Born did not win a single Oscar®. James Mason lost the Best
Actor Academy Award to Marlon Brando for
On the Waterfront, while the Best Song
award went to the title number from
Three Coins in the Fountain.
Industry insiders have suggested that the major problem was Warners'
failure to get behind the film. By contrast, Kelly had both Paramount
Studios, which had released
The Country Girl, and her home studio,
MGM, behind her in the race. Others have suggested that word of Garland's behavior
during filming also helped cost her the award.
Garland put on a good front for the press, reminding them that she had
won a special Oscar® for
The Wizard of Oz (1939) years earlier and that
her real award was her infant son, but she really was heartbroken and
thought her Oscar® loss proved she was hated in Hollywood.
After the awards, Groucho Marx sent her a telegram that captured the
feelings of many fans over the years: "Dear Judy, this is the biggest
robbery since Brink's."
A Star Is Born was voted a place on the National Film Registry
in 2000.
by Frank Miller
The Critics' Corner on A STAR IS BORN
A Star Is Born had a promising theatrical opening, but attendance dropped seriously once the press reported that Harry Warner ordered 30 minutes cut from the film, damaging its structure. As a result, it lost money at the box office, taking in only $5.9 from U.S. and international markets during its initial release. It would take ancillary markets and
the re-issue of the 1983 restoration to push it into the profit
column.
"The year's most worrisome movie has turned out to be one of its best. In
it, one time teenage star Judy Garland, now 32 and out of movies for four
years, not only makes a film comeback almost without precedent, but puts
herself right in line for an Oscar®....A brilliantly staged, scored and
photographed film...principal credit for the success of
A Star Is
Born goes to [the] imaginative, tireless, talented Judy." -
Life
magazine.
"A remarkable range of entertainment is developed upon the screen. George
Cukor gets performances from Miss Garland and Mr. Mason that make the heart
flutter and bleed....It is something to see, this
A Star Is Born." -
Bosley Crowther,
The New York Times
"Judy Garland gives what is just about the greatest one-woman show in
modern movie history. She has never sung better. Her big, dark voice
sobs, sighs, sulks, and socks them out like a cross between Tara's Harp and
the late Bessie Smith." -
Time magazine.
"A star is shorn...every cut leaves a gaping hole. Not only the emotional
pattern but the very sense of the thing is lost." - Bosley Crowther,
commenting on the film's re-editing in
The New York Times
Critics' Corner - A Star is Born ('54)
AWARDS & HONORS
Judy Garland received Best Actress awards from Look magazine,
Film Daily and Box Office Publications. She and James Mason
also received the Golden Globes for Best Actor and Actress in a
Comedy/Musical.
A Star Is Born received six Oscar® nominations: Best Actress (Garland),
Best Actor (Mason), Best Art Direction, Best Song ("The Man That Got
Away"), Best Scoring of a Musical Picture and Best Costumes. It might have
scored more had Warner Bros. not decided, based on its declining box office
figures, to not place any trade ads promoting the film.
By Oscar® night, Garland was eight months pregnant, which made her
performance of the number "The Man That Got Away" impossible, if not in poor taste.
She had ordered a designer maternity gown, but went into labor early and
delivered her son, Joey, by caesarian section the day before the awards.
To capture her anticipated victory in person, NBC had a special platform
constructed outside the window of her hospital room and sent a crew to wait
for the announcement of Best Actress.
When Grace Kelly was announced as the Oscar®-winner for The
Country Girl the crew, which had been joking with Garland before the
ceremonies, silently packed up and went home.
A Star Is Born did not win a single Oscar®. James Mason lost the Best
Actor Academy Award to Marlon Brando for On the Waterfront, while the Best Song
award went to the title number from Three Coins in the Fountain.
Industry insiders have suggested that the major problem was Warners'
failure to get behind the film. By contrast, Kelly had both Paramount
Studios, which had released The Country Girl, and her home studio,
MGM, behind her in the race. Others have suggested that word of Garland's behavior
during filming also helped cost her the award.
Garland put on a good front for the press, reminding them that she had
won a special Oscar® for The Wizard of Oz (1939) years earlier and that
her real award was her infant son, but she really was heartbroken and
thought her Oscar® loss proved she was hated in Hollywood.
After the awards, Groucho Marx sent her a telegram that captured the
feelings of many fans over the years: "Dear Judy, this is the biggest
robbery since Brink's."
A Star Is Born was voted a place on the National Film Registry
in 2000.
by Frank Miller
The Critics' Corner on A STAR IS BORN
A Star Is Born had a promising theatrical opening, but attendance dropped seriously once the press reported that Harry Warner ordered 30 minutes cut from the film, damaging its structure. As a result, it lost money at the box office, taking in only $5.9 from U.S. and international markets during its initial release. It would take ancillary markets and
the re-issue of the 1983 restoration to push it into the profit
column.
"The year's most worrisome movie has turned out to be one of its best. In
it, one time teenage star Judy Garland, now 32 and out of movies for four
years, not only makes a film comeback almost without precedent, but puts
herself right in line for an Oscar®....A brilliantly staged, scored and
photographed film...principal credit for the success of A Star Is
Born goes to [the] imaginative, tireless, talented Judy." - Life
magazine.
"A remarkable range of entertainment is developed upon the screen. George
Cukor gets performances from Miss Garland and Mr. Mason that make the heart
flutter and bleed....It is something to see, this A Star Is Born." -
Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
"Judy Garland gives what is just about the greatest one-woman show in
modern movie history. She has never sung better. Her big, dark voice
sobs, sighs, sulks, and socks them out like a cross between Tara's Harp and
the late Bessie Smith." - Time magazine.
"A star is shorn...every cut leaves a gaping hole. Not only the emotional
pattern but the very sense of the thing is lost." - Bosley Crowther,
commenting on the film's re-editing in The New York Times
