Film Review
Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make an A-list celebrity. The film
that delivered the most savage critique of Hollywood and the movie
business in general also marked Judy Garland's remarkable but
all-to-brief comeback. Since she was dismissed by MGM in 1950,
Garland's personal crises had worsened and had made her virtually
unemployable. Few believed that she would ever appear on the
silver screen again. The former star of
The Wizard of Oz (1939)
and
Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
confounded audiences and the critics alike when she came back in a blaze of glory.
A Star Is Born was the absolute
highpoint of Garland's career, made all the more glorious
by its sheer improbability.
George Cukor's first colour film and his first musical,
A Star Is Born is a remake of a
1937 film (of the same title), directed by William Wellman and starring
Fredric March and Janet Gaynor, which was itself partly inspired by
Cukor's
What Price Hollywood?
(1932). The film was again remade in 1976 by Frank Pierson, with
Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. Needless to say, of
these three films, Cukor's is by far the best. Cukor
would go on to direct a number of other impressive
musicals, including
Let's Make Love (1960)
and
My Fair Lady (1964).
James Mason was an inspired casting choice to play opposite
Garland. (Originally the part had been offered to Cary Grant, but he refused,
mainly because he did not wish to work with someone as notoriously
unreliable as Judy Garland). Here, the darkly introspective Mason
is the portrait to Garland's Dorian Gray. In her Faustian pact with the Hollywood
moguls, Garland gives up the very things that can bring happiness and stability
to her life in order to fulfil her ambitions. As she rises into
the Heavens, her one true love falls into Hell; he is what she will become
in the awful zero-sum game that is show business.
Both of the leading characters in this film represent aspects of Judy
Garland's own life. After a meteoric rise to fame in the
late 1930s, the actress had difficulty coping with the pressures of
stardom and her decline was almost as spectacular. Low
self-esteem coupled with some serious psychological disorders drove
Garland to drink and drugs, a lethal combination that made her
increasingly neurotic and unreliable. Yet her talent was beyond
dispute and, as this film shows, she was not only a great singer, but
also a truly remarkable actress. The authenticity that she brings
to her performance in
A Star Is Born
is both mesmerising and heart-breaking. For her role in
this film, Garland was nominated for the Best Actress Oscar, but lost
out to Grace Kelly; Groucho Marx described this as the biggest robbery
since Brink's.
Despite garnering some very favourable reviews, the film fared poorly
at the box office. Concerned that the runtime would put off
audiences, Warner Brothers authorised a series of ham-fisted cuts which
shaved around forty minutes off the 192 minute runtime. Although
much of the cut material was lost, the film was partially restored in
the early 1980s, with the insertion of unused alternate takes and
photographic stills. The film is now considered to be one of the
finest of the Hollywood musicals, thanks to Garland's show-stopping
rendition of such hits as
I'll Get By,
You Took Advantage of Me,
My Melancholy Baby and
Swanee. Possibly the most poignant example of art imitating life
that you can imagine.
© James Travers 2009
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Next George Cukor film:
Lust for Life (1956)
Film Synopsis
One-time matinee idol Norman Maine has lost both his public and the
confidence of the studio bosses who employ him, and he hastens his
decline by drowning his sorrows in alcohol. One evening, he is
intent on making a spectacle of himself at a charity gala event, but he
is rescued by a young nightclub singer, Esther Blodgett. When he
hears her sing, Norman is convinced that she will make a great film
star and persuades studio executive Oliver Niles to offer her a
contract. When the leading actress in a major production becomes
indisposed, Esther, now known as Vicky Lester, replaces her, and she
becomes an overnight sensation. Esther's happiness is crowned
when Norman agrees to marry her. But just as Esther's film career
takes off, Norman's comes to an abrupt standstill when he is fired by
his studio. Unable to find work, the actor sinks deeper into
depression and he soon concludes that his wife would be better off
without him...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.