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.
Review by Gary F. Taylor
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Spanish/English Dual
spanish subs
no pass
