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Born This Way: Why 1954's A Star Is Born Is Notwithstanding The Best
Born This Way: Why 1954's A Star Is Born Is Notwithstanding The Best
"When all the world is a hopeless jumble,
And the raindrops tumble all around,
Heaven opens a magic lane.
When all the clouds darken up the skyway,
There'south a rainbow highway to be institute…"
This prelude to Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg's ageless ballad, "Over the Rainbow," unused in "The Magician of Oz," is sung by Marry (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, a.k.a. Lady Gaga) near the beginning of Bradley Cooper's "A Star Is Born." As she walks down an alley, yet dressed in her waitress uniform, the film'due south title materializes in big ruby letters, harkening dorsum to the ruby hue of the words when they accompanied George Cukor'south 1954 version of the motion-picture show, starring Dorothy herself, Judy Garland. Cooper's motion-picture show is, in fact, the fifth screen version of the story, and but might rank second just to the indelible Garland vehicle, cheers in no modest part to how it both channels and reinvents various elements of Cukor'southward masterwork.
Garland and Gaga were both 32 when their respective "Star Is Born" films received an Oct release in theaters, and the actresses each sought to have the coveted titular office launch—or in Garland's case, relaunch—their career as a major movie star. Even so what now stands every bit the crowning accomplishment of Garland's legacy ironically marked the end of her career equally a marquee name in Hollywood. The pangs of longing that characterize her two near memorable numbers in movie theatre, "Over the Rainbow" and "The Man That Got Abroad," mirror the loss that she endured throughout her life. During a Q&A at the 1967 Chicago International Picture show Festival, attended by Roger Ebert, Cukor noted, "People who aren't complicated in existent life come through as pretty bland on the screen. About dandy performers are not very happy and well adjusted. Perhaps that's the price they pay for being originals."
According to the illuminating volume released last fall, A Star Is Born: Judy Garland and the Film that Got Away, coauthored by Garland's daughter, Lorna Luft, along with Jeffrey Vance, the actress connected securely to the script considering of her own unresolved human relationship with her father, who died when she was a teenager, every bit well equally the begetter figure she found in her hubby, Sid Luft, who produced the film. Garland plays Esther Blodgett, a vocalizer unaware of her star power until she is discovered by Norman Maine (James Mason), a well-known motion-picture show actor with an unslakable thirst for alcohol. Her transformation from Blodgett to her studio-assigned persona as Vicki Lester is not all that far removed from Garland's own transition to celebrity, when she cast off the less-appealing name of Francis Gumm (vaudeville star George Jessel joked that information technology sounded like "Glum"). Just as the romance that blossomed between Lester and Maine was doomed for tragedy due to addiction, so was Garland's marriage to Sid, as he gave into his compulsion for gambling.
The baggage Garland brought to the project was dubbed in Luft and Vance's book equally "a fragile constitution, dependency on prescription medication, habits of lateness and volatility, and unmanaged manic depression." How poignant that the very symptoms contributing to the multiple delays that plagued Cukor'south film stemmed direct from a drug regiment enforced by MGM head Louis B. Mayer. Believing his new contract player to be too overweight, Mayer had studio doctors prescribe Garland Benzedrine combined with a phenobarbital to suppress her appetite while doubling her free energy.
Paved with self-serving intentions, this erratic brick route led directly to Garland's untimely death at historic period 47 of a barbiturate overdose—whether or not it was accidental is beside the point. The extra's about notorious declared suicide endeavor occurred after MGM suspended her contract, following the repeated delays she caused for 1950'south "Summertime Stock," featuring her iconic song, "Become Happy," that resulted in the studio losing money. The "slashed throat" sensationalized past the press was an easily remedied cut on her cervix that freed Garland from Mayer's studio, providing her with the necessary space to set for the greatest work of her career.
It was Cukor, of grade, who must be credited with the earliest and to the lowest degree known iteration of "A Star Is Built-in," which as well happened to be his first pregnant directorial endeavor. 1932's "What Price Hollywood" centers on waitress Mary Evans (Constance Bennett, Cary Grant'south fellow ghost in "Topper"), a most determined heroine with a Hollywood-fix name who makes a deliberate impression on drunkard director, Max Carey (owl-eyed Lowell Sherman), while playing hard-to-become with Lonny (Neil Hamilton), the boorish homo who lusts afterwards her. It's interesting how the Oscar-nominated screenplay, based on a story by Adela Rogers St. Johns, splits the father effigy and lover later embodied past Norman Maine into two, culminating in Mary's happy reunion with Lonny after Max'south death. We're not exactly rooting for the pair to exist together, since their outset date consisted of Lonny smashing in her glass door, dragging her to his business firm and force-feeding her caviar.
William A. Wellman's unofficial remake from 1937, the first to behave the title, "A Star Is Built-in," is an improvement in many respects, providing the outline for Cukor's version released 17 years afterward. Though Moss Hart rewrote the first one-half of the 1937 screenplay (which oddly earned the Oscar for Original Story), many stretches in the 2d act of the 1954 pic are nearly word-for-word replicas. It's easy to overlook that fact, however, since the peerless cast assembled past Cukor revitalize their lines with newfound life. One sentimental character from the 1937 film who never shows upwardly in subsequent versions is Esther's grandmother, who likens the young woman's dreams of stardom with the settlers who conquered the American wilderness, elevating her granddaughter's journeying to mythological proportions. In contrast, Cukor's remake feels bracingly modernistic in its visceral portrayal of studio-bred dysphoria, signified at the starting time by the Lynchian buzzing of floodlights and a Scorsese-esque employ of epilepsy-inducing flashbulbs.
Just as the 1954 "Star Is Built-in" is better than its 1937 predecessor, Cooper'south 2018 awards contender is a superior version of Frank Pierson'southward 1976 remake (both were produced past Jon Peters), starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. This was the first picture to take the story out of Hollywood and identify it in the music industry. Gaga's Ally is every bit much a nod to Steisand's Esther Hoffman as she is to Garland'southward Blodgett/Lester. Cooper's pill-popping rock star Jackson Maine speaks in a gravely voice evocative of Kristofferson'south troubled rocker John Norman Howard—ii heartrending alpha male characters whose eyes well upwardly long earlier their female counterparts intermission down. Streisand sought to break traditional gender roles past having Esther wear men's suits, make the beginning move past proposing union and inject the previously sexless yarn with frank if forced eroticism. "I believe there's a best of both worlds, mixing old and new," sings Esther, thereby justifying the purpose of a remake, as does Jackson's long-suffering sibling, Bobby (Sam Elliott), when he recalls how his brother believed that music was "essentially 12 notes between whatsoever octave. 12 notes and the octave repeats. It's the aforementioned story told over and over, forever. All any artist tin can offer the globe is how they see those 12 notes."
It's only appropriate that Gaga is planning to portray Fanny Brice in "Funny Girl" on Broadway, since that not merely happens to be Streisand's debut film function—the i that made her tie with Katharine Hepburn for Best Actress—but information technology also highly informed Streisand's approach to "Star Is Born," with its similarly bittersweet love story. The final long take on Esther'southward face equally she performs onstage ends in a freeze frame that aims to fire her visage into the viewer's minds, just as the concluding shot of Cooper'due south flick does, and the finale of "Funny Girl," for that matter. John makes a failed early effort at having Esther bring together him onstage, easing her fretfulness with the promise of "Trust me," yet in Cooper'south version, Ally goes through with it, allowing her duet with Jackson to be the moment they autumn in beloved.
Similar Streisand and Pierson did, Cooper surrounds himself in the picture show with real industry figures and close collaborators. During a conversation with Oliver Platt after the film's Chicago premiere, Cooper said he was inspired by Elia Kazan's line, "I don't audience actors, I take them for a walk around the block." His focus on management enabled him to deliver his near intuitive functioning to date, while his collaboration with Derek Cianfrance on "The Place Beyond the Pines" inspired him to utilize immersive long takes, keeping the photographic camera onstage during concert sequences.
When information technology comes to the actual star-making talent displayed by the heroines in the many "Star Is Born" versions, the degree of their skill varies conspicuously. We meet little of Mary's abilities in "What Cost Hollywood," apart from her on-camera performance of "Parlez-moi d'flirtation," a more understated forerunner to Marry making her grand archway with "La Vie En Rose." Yet for her initial audition, Mary works tirelessly at nailing her scripted scrap of business, rehearsing well into the nighttime. All nosotros get in the 1937 Wellman moving picture are a few celebrity impressions delivered past waitress Esther (Janet Gaynor), which are unseen by Norman (Frederic March) at the party where she is supposedly discovered. The most potent emotional peaks of Cukor's remake are abbreviated hither, serving as a blueprint insufficient of the total pic.
Whereas Garland sang along to prerecorded tracks, as per studio tradition, Streisand insisted on singing alive, a technique shared past Gaga and Cooper. What torpedoes the dramatic impact of the 1976 motion picture is Streisand's own ego, which removes any trace of Esther's vulnerability, leaving her with no tangible arc—she's essentially a star from the get-become. By stripping herself physically and emotionally of her pop star persona, Gaga succeeds in making the audience feel a sense of discovery when Ally steps into the spotlight. In many ways, this performance is the fulfillment of Gaga's own anthem of personal empowerment, "Born This Way."
From the very beginning, "A Star Is Born" carried echoes of Garland, as if foreshadowing her eventual moving-picture show that would top them all. Cukor wanted to directly Garland ever since he saw her sing "Happy Birthday" to Ethel Barrymore at his home, simply as Cooper got the idea to cast Gaga when he witnessed her performance of "La Vie En Rose" at a charity benefit. The opening scene of Cukor's "What Toll Hollywood," where Mary flirts with a picture of Clark Gable, is mirrored by Garland's 2nd feature film advent in "Broadway Melody of 1938," where she sings "You Made Me Love You" to her own snapshot of Gable (embedded above).
Clara Blandick, who went on to receive cinematic immortality every bit Auntie Em in "The Sorcerer of Oz," plays the disapproving aunt of Gaynor's Esther in Wellman's "Star Is Born," discouraging her niece from her technicolor dreams in Tinseltown (and when she finally arrives there, the colors popular just like they do in Oz). Three years after donning Dorothy's pigtails, Garland acted in a Lux Radio Theatre non-musical product of "Star Is Born" opposite Walter Pidgeon, and 2 decades subsequently, would invite Streisand as a guest on her television show. When the 1976 "Star Is Born" was originally pitched past James Taylor and Carly Simon, information technology was called "Rainbow Road," a title echoing the aforementioned prelude to "Over the Rainbow."
What makes this story such a valuable one to retell every generation or so is its timeless exploration of a dehumanizing business designed to exploit talent, enable addictions and snuff out those that may endanger its profits. Looked at all together, these five films serve as "evergreen" fourth dimension capsules, to infringe the name of Streisand's Oscar-winning tune she sings masterfully in one unbroken take while flirting with Kristofferson (Gaga will likely win the same Oscar for "Shallow"). Even in 1932, the idea of a director meeting a woman and wanting to put her in pictures is dismissed equally "the same old story." Wellman'south clever choice to bookend his flick with pages of the script accentuate the preordained nature of the piece.
Binding all these versions together is a single line of dialogue that serves as the older man's bye to his young discovery. In "What Price Hollywood," it is uttered only one time, when Max calls out to Mary, only to reply, "I just wanted to hear you speak again, that'southward all." In the subsequent remakes, the line became a request for Norman to take "one more expect" at Esther. This exchange occurs before in the film and then that its delivery toward the end will have more emotional heft. In the 1976 picture, the song, "With One More Look at You lot," coauthored by Paul Williams, pays homage to this line, intertwining it with John's signature tune, "Watch Closely At present."
As for the suicide sequence that typically follows this line, it is handled more or less identically in the 1937 and 1954 versions, with Norman walking into the bounding main, though Cukor'due south picture makes information technology all the more chilling by accompanying his decease with Garland'due south tender rendition of "It'southward a New World." Only two years after "Singin' in the Rain" opened in theaters, Stonemason's cocky-inflicted demise provides a stark contrast with Gene Kelly'southward rebellious splashing through puddles, conveying his refusal to let the changing weather condition—both in the conditions and the film industry—dampen his spirits. In the case of "Star Is Born," the tides of alter cannot be combated by our hero, he can but exist engulfed by them (Mason also references the Kelly film by claiming he's "fit as a fiddle and prepare for honey").
Yet the suicide of Max in "What Cost Hollywood" (embedded in a higher place) is even more than memorable, preceding the fatal gunshot with images of the man's life flashing before his eyes, a brilliant visual flourish for 1932. Later Kristofferson drives recklessly into oblivion while listening to his wife on the radio, Streisand has her well-nigh genuinely touching scene when she encounters his lifeless body, clinging to it equally if he were still alive. Cooper's limply hanging corpse can barely exist glimpsed through the window of his garage, and his fate is foreshadowed with equal subtlety later his very first performance in the film, when images of nooses appear on a billboard exterior the window of his limo.
Driving the human to his decease isn't only his habit, but the forces in his industry and the greater guild that neglect to treat him like a human being. In 1932, the scariest antagonist is the public itself, which attacks Mary after her wedding, tearing at her vesture with the zeal of ravenous zombies. No wonder Esther and Norman opted for a individual anniversary in the 1937 and 1954 versions, much to the chagrin of Libby, a press amanuensis who emerges as the main villain of the story. He has everything to gain from Norman's death, viewing Esther equally the studio's "hottest piece of holding" that must be protected at all costs. His contemptuous treatment of Norman is a blatant attempt to bulldoze the damaged man over the border.
In these 2 films, the veil-ripping scene was moved to Norman's funeral, intensifying the brutality of the mob'due south violation. The 1976 remake splits the villain in two, arising as an assistant (Gary Busey) who shoves drugs into Kristofferson'due south nostrils, and a vile DJ (M.Chiliad. Kelly), who provokes fights with the rocker, only to praise him once his life has expired. Cooper's film offers its own spin on the Libby archetype with Ally's managing director, Rez (Rafi Gavron), an detestable jerk responsible for Jackson's last deterioration by disarming the broken addict that he has no futurity with his wife. Much funnier is the pre-Hedda Hopper gossip columnist in "What Toll Hollywood" tasked with asking cheerfully invasive questions of Mary and Lonny. When she requests a photograph of his sculpted physique, he offers her his appendix in a jar before storming out of the room ("Has he gone to become it?" she asks).
Cukor's version of "A Star is Built-in" still proves impossible to equal primarily because of Garland herself, whose performance is one of the greatest e'er committed to celluloid. Whereas the 1976 and 2018 remakes culminate in a cathartic musical number, this film offers no such release, making the sense of loss all the more palpable. Bated from her refrain of "It'south a New World," sung off-camera, Vicki Lester's last song in the pic takes place at the top of the final human action: Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin's "Lose That Long Face." It's an exuberantly high-spirited number, with Garland performing in a hairdo resembling that of her daughter, Liza Minnelli, in after years. When the manager yells cut, Lester retreats to her makeup trailer and delivers a searing monologue unmatched past whatever sequence in every other iteration of the story.
Still clad in theatrical makeup, Lester's larger-than-life persona dissolves entirely as she speaks candidly with studio head Oliver (Charles Bickford). "You lot don't know what information technology's similar to watch somebody you love just crumble away, bit past bit, mean solar day past day, in front of your eyes and stand there helpless," Lester cries, echoing the feelings of Garland's countless admirers. "Love isn't enough for him. And I'm afraid of what's beginning to happen within me because...sometimes I hate him. I detest his promises to stop and so the watching and waiting to encounter it begin again. I hate to go home to him at nighttime and listen to his lies. My heart goes out to him considering he tries—he does effort. Only I hate him for failing. And I hate me, too. I hate me crusade I've failed, too. I accept. I don't know what'south going to happen to us, Oliver. No matter how much you love somebody...how do you alive out the days?"
Laying her soul bare, Garland articulates the plight of a caregiver and an addict with such raw agony that it transcends the fine art form of acting and registers on a level that is inescapably real. "Moss Hart understood when he wrote that sequence that Mama was both Norman Maine and Vicki Lester, that she would be speaking of her ain failures and drug dependency," writes Luft in her volume. "Mama was making a film well-nigh addiction, merely the characters were reversed." Wiping abroad her tears, Lester hurries out the door, hits her mark and belts out the final lines of "Lose That Long Face," all the while maintaining a effulgent expression. Garland's unabridged life is encapsulated in this sequence—the countless days of cheering strangers while harboring individual pain—and it remains one of the nearly powerful stretches of cinema ever conceived.
It also echoes how Cooper attempted to "capture fame sonically" in his film, cutting from loudness to nothingness and dorsum again. Another story from the production recounted by Luft occurred during the filming of Lester's shattering breakdown. "You really scared the hell out of me," Cukor exclaimed, to which Garland quipped, "Oh, that's nothing. Come over to my business firm. I do it every afternoon—but I only do it once at home." This exchange was after incorporated into Roger Allan Ackerman's splendid 2001 television adaptation of Luft'due south memoir, Me and My Shadows, starring Judy Davis in an astonishing functioning worthy of Garland herself. The best sequence re-stages her Carnegie Hall concert, an event Ackerman was present for, where the overture fittingly joins "The Homo That Got Abroad" with "Over the Rainbow."
Hollywood's history of awarding itself would naturally make Cukor's "A Star Is Born" appear to be a shoo-in for a full-on sweep at the Academy Awards. After all, the arrangement'due south own accolade had always been featured prominently in the plot, even back when it was referred to as an "Academy medal" in "What Price Hollywood." Wellman certainly knew a thing or 2 about Oscars, considering his 1927 moving-picture show "Wings" was the first to win Best Picture, while Gaynor was the beginning performer to exist named Best Actress. Had Garland won the award for "Star Is Born," it would've served equally the ultimate validation from an industry for which she had sacrificed and so much. After all, every bit the Best Actor winner in the pic notes, winning an Oscar "is an ample advantage for an entire career."
It'due south one of the keen ironies of Garland's life that she could hold an adult-sized Oscar—unlike the juvenile miniature she was presented for "Wizard of Oz"—only after the Academy loaned one out to Cukor, as detailed in the opening credits. Though the 1954 "A Star Is Born" earned 6 Oscar nominations, information technology was nowhere to exist plant in multiple disquisitional categories, namely Best Motion-picture show, Best Director and All-time Screenplay. Not only did Garland lose to Grace Kelly for "The State Girl" (who also played the wife of an alcoholic actor), but "The Man That Got Away" lost in the Best Original Song category to "Three Coins in a Fountain," the forgotten tune Steve Martin gets ridiculed for singing in "Planes, Trains & Automobiles." The fact "Star Is Born" left the 1955 Oscar ceremony empty-handed registered as a slap in the face up to Garland, and unlike the one accidentally administered by Norman Maine, it was not at all backhanded.
The rapturous response that the film earned at its splashy Los Angeles premiere was a mirage of "La La Land" proportions. Information technology promised what ultimately couldn't be delivered, a major comeback fueled past awards flavor glory. Despite the acclaim earned by Cukor'southward 181-infinitesimal version of the film, Harry Warner insisted that the pic be cut past a half-hour, arguing that it was also long—afterward all, it was the most expensive movie shot in Hollywood, yet the rerelease of "Gone With the Wind" was nevertheless raking in big money at the box function. Without the consultation of Cukor, Warner senselessly chopped the flick down to 154 minutes, rendering the story incoherent while removing many of the all-time scenes, such as the recording session for "Here's What I'm Here For" followed past Norman'southward marriage proposal, and near criminal of all, the "Lose That Long Face" number.
Since Warner didn't bother retaining a single impress of the original cut, Ronald Haver'southward 1983 restoration was forced to juxtapose moving-picture show stills with surviving audio in guild to recreate the 20 minutes of footage that were permanently lost. Though these sequences are initially jarring, they enhance the narrative immeasurably, while lending new layers of depth to Esther and Norman's relationship. The amusing bit where a woman lashes out at Norman subsequently he refuses to pose for a film is evocative of a similar moment in Scorsese's "The King of One-act," when ane of Jerry Lewis' disgruntled fans shouts, "I promise you get cancer!" Garland never lived to meet this improved version, having passed abroad in 1969, and Cukor died just two days prior to his scheduled screening of the restoration.
If Cooper'southward film proves anything, it's that the story of "A Star Is Born" volition eternally be worth "1 more look," though no successful remake can exist without being at least somewhat indebted to Cukor's version. Gaga is an platonic option to follow in Garland'south footsteps, in part because both women are icons of the LGBT community. The Stonewall uprising that occurred a day later Garland'southward funeral in New York City may likely have inspired Gilbert Baker to select Dorothy's cherished rainbow equally the defining symbol of his gay pride flag. Few singers have e'er tackled the difficulty of living one's dreams with as much resonance as Garland, a theme that continues to connect with anyone shamed out of existence with the one they beloved.
Garland's conviction to sing "The Human That Got Abroad" with operatic passion led vocal arranger Hugh Martin to bolt from the set, but she was entirely right in her choice, knowing fully well that this number foreshadowed the turbulent emotion she would later deliver sans music in the makeup trailer. The songs in Cooper'due south picture bulldoze the narrative only as much as they do in Cukor's version, with "La Vie En Rose" serving the same office as "The Man That Got Away" by wowing Maine (and the audience) with the singer'south stunning talent. When Cooper get-go meets Gaga backstage and offers to help take off her false eyebrows, the moment is an homage to perhaps the nearly meaningful scene of all in the 1954 film.
Marry's self-consciousness about the size of her nose reminds usa of the humiliating studio examination endured by Lester, who is informed that her "nose is the problem." After she was hired by MGM, rubber discs were inserted into Garland'due south nose in order for information technology to exist reshaped and so that she could be deemed camera-ready. Art continues to imitate life in the Cukor film, when Maine finds Lester post-makeover, caked in makeup and decked out in a ridiculous blonde wig. He insists that she remove all trace of artifice from her features before gazing at her reflection in the mirror. This is the greatest gift that Maine bestows to her—the realization that her beauty shines through only when she'south truthful to herself. To paraphrase Gaga's most pop vocal from the 2018 pic, she'south far from the shallow at present.
Lester goes on to win over audiences in her first major screen role represented by the "Built-in in a Trunk" medley, a show-stopping sequence similar to "Broadway Melody" in "Singin' in the Rain," yet far more tied to the central narrative. It gives Lester and Garland the opportunity to weave aspects of their own backstories into their artistry, proving that the more personal ane's work is, the more than information technology is bound to connect with others. Gaga believes that Ally doesn't truly go a star until the concluding frame of the film, afterward she reclaims her identity by ceasing to dye her brown hair red (her manager originally suggested "platinum"). Would Garland have ever become a star had Cukor encouraged her on the "Sorcerer of Oz" set to practise away with the blonde wig she was ordered to habiliment during screen tests? Why bother altering what was already sublime? Baby, she was born this way.
Lorna Luft and Jeffrey Vance'due south volume, A Star Is Born: Judy Garland and the Pic that Got Away, is available for buy on Amazon, as is the Blu-ray edition of George Cukor's restored "A Star Is Born."
"The Wizard of Oz" returns to the big screen courtesy of Fathom Events on Lord's day, January 27th; Tuesday, January 29th; and Wed, January 30th in honor of its 80th anniversary.
Matt Fagerholm
Matt Fagerholm is an Assistant Editor at RogerEbert.com and is a member of the Chicago Pic Critics Association.
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