A Star Is Born 1954

The applause of the world... and then this!

7.1 / 10   282 vote(s)
PG
Drama Music Romance

A movie star helps a young singer-actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career into a downward spiral.

Release Date 1954-10-01
Runtime 2h 56m
Directors George Cukor, Sam Leavitt, Edward Graham, Russell Llewellyn, Earl Bellamy, Ray Heindorf
Producers Sidney Luft, Jack L. Warner, Vern Alves
Writers Moss Hart, Robert Carson, William A. Wellman, Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell, Robert Carson, Ira Gershwin

One cannot watch this nowadays without seeing parallels between the James Mason role as "Norman Maine" and Judy Garland's own later life. He is the falling star of Hollywood kept afloat by booze and the ceaseless efforts of his studio boss "Oliver Niles" (Charles Bickford) to keep him from complete self-destruction. Meantime "Esther Blodgett" (Garland) is a struggling chanteuse taking any job she can until good fortune strikes. One night, serendipity takes a hand in this and their paths cross. He hears her sing "The Man That Got Away" with her band in a bar and is smitten both professionally and emotionally. As the title suggests, a star is well and truly born. Soon "Maine" is but an appendage to the newly renamed "Vicki Lester" which sees him spiral even more out of control, despite her addictive love for him. It's long (over 2½ hours) so inevitably, it sags at times - I could have done with more singing, but it is still a fine, touching, piece of cinema.

CinemaSerf