A Star Is Born

Plot synopsis:
Esther Hoffman, an aspiring singer-songwriter, meets John Norman Howard, a famous, successful and self-destructive singer/songwriter rock star, whom, after a series of coincidental meetings, she finally starts dating. Believing in her talent, John gives her a helping hand and her career begins to eclipse his.
Writer and director Frank Pierson, in his New West magazine article "My Battles With Barbra and Jon" summarized it thusly:
"An actress is a little more than a woman, an actor a little less than a man (Oscar Wilde) ... The woman in our story is ambitious to become a star, but it is not necessary: it can make her happier and richer, but she could give it all away and not be a better or worse person. With stardom she is only a little more than a woman. For the man, his career is his defense against a self-destructive part of himself that has led him into outrageous bursts of drunkenness, drugs, love affairs, fights and adventures that have made him a legend. His career is also what gives him his sense of who he is. Without it, he is lost and confused; his demons eat him alive. That's why he is a little less than a man. And it is not that her success galls him, or that she wins over him; the tragedy is that all her love is not enough to keep alive a man who has lost what he measures his manhood with; his career."
And so the conclusion is measured by the theme. He takes his life in the mistaken belief that he will then not drag her down with him.

Tags: tragedy, romantic, flashback

Review:
Judy Garland and James Mason (both Oscar nominated) turn in terrific performance as Esther and Norman.
The newer version sticks to the basic story but adds some great numbers for Garland, including "The Man That Got Away" and "I Was Born in a Trunk." In a major comeback, Garland had not worked in films since Summer Stock (1950), and her performance here is the best of her career.
However, the restored version contains stills to replace some of the cut footage, and gives a better sense of the film's power and scope.Second, all four major studio versions of the story (including "What Price Hollywood?") have their own merits and differ greatly from one another.
(A "formatted" version would be simply unwatchable, what with numerous scenes played by actors perched on the outer reaches of the screen, opposite each other.)James Mason turns in an absolutely brilliant performance, especially when one recalls the rigors of production, with filming going months over schedule, due to Judy's unhappy vicissitudes (so evident in her appearance even within the same scene!)  With the very able support of Charles Bickford, as the most benign studio head ever, and Jack Carson proving why Warners kept him employed so often for so many years.Plus musical direction taking fabulous advantage of Warners' studio orchestra (and WB's sound technicians who were, for several decades running, the envy of all the other major studios), and arrangements that must have overwhelmed first-run audiences with their incredible richness.It's a must-see, all right, and is in a class by itself, among the several screen versions of this beloved Hollywood saga..
This movie is not without its flaws, but overall, it is a masterpiece.The quintessential story of a couple, one who's career is on the rise, the other on the decline- is made extraordinary by the performances.Ester Blodgett, aka: Vicki Lester (Judy Garland) plays the unknown talent with pipes that would put an organ to shame.
Her singing in this movie is definitely a HUGE reason to watch it- especially the show stopper, "The Man that got away." Ester meets, by chance & some help from the bottle, the cinematic icon, Norman Maine (James Mason.) Even though he's drunk, he is taken with her.
Judy is absolutely mesmerizing as the wife who has discovered that love is not enough.James Mason delivers one of the best & most convincing performances of an alcoholic on the decline that I've ever seen on screen.
Alcoholic movie star Norman Maine (James Mason) meets singer Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) and gets her the screen test she needs to become a big star (and change her name to Vicki Lesterhas any name ever so desperately needed changing?).This was not my first viewing of A Star Is Born, but it was illuminating.
True, she doesn't look her best in the film, but her fulsome talent is on full, heart-wrenching display as Esther Blodgett, an obscure but thriving band singer who becomes movie star Vicki Lester thanks to Norman Maine, an alcoholic has-been movie star in career free-fall.
While her work in the fifteen-minute "Born in the Trunk" sequence is impressive, it is really later in the film when she soars, in particular, when she segues from the tap-happy "Lose That Long Face" into a breakdown scene in her dressing room with sympathetic studio head Oliver Niles portrayed with his typically stentorian fervor by Charles Bickford.The print condition and sound quality on the DVD are superb.
The two great scenes -- Judy Garland's night club performance of the Man that Got Away and her song and dance routine in her living room using a lamp shade as a Chinese hat -- don't make up for all of the other overly long and unnecessary (as far as the plot or the character development is concerned) musical numbers.
Not a few persons consider "A Star is Born" to be Judy Garland's finest film, and there is, indeed, a great deal to admire in it.Among the good: First, Sam Leavitt's Cinemascope cinematography may well be the best demonstration of wide screen Technicolor photography ever committed to celluloid.
She is not helped at all by a new (very dark and very short, with nary a hint of her Metro auburn) hair-do which is scarcely flattering.Though she looks smashing in the Academy Awards sequence and "Melancholy Baby," these are the only two sequences that recall her former prettiness, or find her successfully gowned.Then, as Noel Coward (a huge fan of hers) confided to his diary after seeing the unexpurgated version, it's "interminable." The picture was in severe need of trimming, and though it's undeniably true that the cutting was ham fisted, with the removal of worthy sequences, there can be no denying that "Born in a Trunk" (yes it has virtues--such as the stunning "Melancholy Baby" with Garland in the swank gray gown with opera gloves) is padded and unnecessary, bringing the whole momentum of the story to a dead halt, and causing British critic Leslie Halliwell to conclude that the "musical numbers add very little except length." All of which probably contributed to the picture's commercial failure.
I know that the Judy-Garland-can-do-no-wrong crowd won't like this, but she was, in my opinion, a bit too old and a bit too plump for the part and in all of her musical numbers, she is just trying so hard to knock it out of the park, the result is performances that are too over-the-top and frantic.
Judy Garland and James Mason have great performances and the beautiful use of Technicolor make this film an unforgettable classic.
Garland's Esther Blodgett (a.k.a. Vicki Lester) is on the rise as a young singer, while her mentor and lover, movie star Norman Maine (James Mason), is in a downward spiral.
This is the third of four versions of the tale, with the key plot twist being that it is a musical, designed to showcase Garland's distinctive talents as a bona fide song and dance legend -- which is both the film's saving grace and its ultimate undoing.Using flimsy boy-meets-girl stories as an excuse for all-singing, all-dancing musicals is part of Hollywood tradition; the stories never being as important as the musical moments they frame.
Either the musical numbers seem extraneous or the drama seems trite -- and with A STAR IS BORN, it is more than a little of both.Like the lamentable Streisand version that would follow, this was clearly intended as a vanity production, produced by Garland and her husband Sid Luft to rejuvenate Judy's sagging career and her damaged reputation.
They should have deleted the Long Face number, and instead, have her talk to the head of the studio, Charles Bickford, as played, maybe with a little less hysterics, and then have them call for her on the set, and then film a musical number with her sing "Melancoly Baby" singing by a piano like in the Born in a Trunk number.
Many of these sense could have been scaled down or deleted to make a more powerful punch to the story, for instance, the ride in the car after Norman picks up Vikie, Esther at that point in the movie, it was just a scene of babbling and could have been cut to get to the excellent scene when she asks him how he knows that she's a great singer and he simply says, "I heard you sing!" This whole scene is brilliant!
His performance near the end of the film with Judy Garland as she's in her self-pity state and not wanting to go to the benefit is a great scene for Tommy Noonan while doing a better acting job in that film than Judy Berharts acting.And one more thing before everyone decides to put my head on a chopping block: George Cukor was all wrong for the director.
Coming from the same county as James Mason, and having already seen a selection of his movies I was looking forward to this film.We watched what must have been the version where missing scenes were supplemented by publicity stills, and the original audio.
my Wife said "me too, her voice is doing my head in"...We are both educated adults, and understand the definition of a musical, but this film is just too long, and if I had to listen to Judy Garland sing again, I'd have thrown my drink into the surround sound to stop it once and for all.It was a massive shame that we couldn't stick with it...
Norman Maine (James Mason) is a film star who is supposed to appear before Blodgett's band, but like usual, he's drunk.
It probably would have been better to re-edit it with extant film only.Making it a bit more difficult for me to like A Star is Born is the fact that Garland doesn't do much for me.
However, as Judy Garland was a great singer, her Esther Blodgett was changed to a singer AND movie star--and the film is much more like a musical.
Judy Garland's interpretation of the character was a tour de force if ever there was one, imbuing and imbibing the persona with shades and contours which even the creator of the character would possibly never have visualized, making a legend out of an otherwise ordinary heroine with all human frailties.Which is not, of course, to say that James Mason, as the mercurial Norman Maine, fell short - it's just that the character of Vicki Lester was so powerful that it HAD to dominate the film.
However, overuse of prescription substances no doubt shortened her life...Maybe the movie hits me because Garland is ravaged already...great lighting and costuming can't hide the fact that this woman trying for stardom is not a young ingénue' but a woman who looks maybe 15 years older than her actual age of early 30's.Yet when Norman Maine (the great actor James Mason) tricks the studio head played by another great--Charles Bickford --into listening to Judy sing, .....all that matters to you is her "knock 'em dead" voice.
His flawed masterpiece (it was a little too long, then savagely cut 30 minutes by the studio, some characters are overwhelming, and the famous centerpiece "Born in a Trunk" works better as a Judy Garland showcase than for plot reasons) nakedly displays the nightmare of the Dream Machine, which is almost terrifying in its honesty.
Judy Garland and James Mason are phenomenal as Esther Blodgett and Norman Maine, a young up-and-coming singer who comes to the aide of his aging and fading star, and will continue to do so long after she achieves the status he once had.
She will be immortalized with "Over the Rainbow" from 1939's THE WIZARD OF OZ, and she showcases many memorable performances in A STAR IS BORN, from the famous 15-minute mini-epic (if slightly overrated) "Born in a Trunk" to the quietly piercing "It's A New World" to the whimsical "Someone at Last," but I think her finest is earlier in the film, with Norman hiding, listening from the shadows to the towering "The Man that Got Away," shot in a single long take of Judy and her soaring voice that quivers with fragility to the happy possibility of hope.
James Mason saw to that, but Judy Garland's performance is wasted by having forced her to sing poor music..
I wasn't too fond of Judy Garland, who never looked or acted like a big star in this movie, even though her character was really supposed to.
I have never seen Grace Kelly's turn in The Country Girl but if it is even half as good as Garland is here then I will be amazed.And then there is James Mason, an actor who just seems to get better with each film I watch him in.
It seems truly amazing that Judy Garland could have give such a perfectly emotional performance as the wife of a falling movie star by the name of Norman Maine(James Mason).
It was a 4 year comeback for films for Judy and she didn't make any more for another 7 years, so sit back and watch a great drama piece from Cukor with, I think two performances worthy of Best Actress and Actor and well what more could you say, it's even got the classic song "The Man Who Got Away." Brilliant..
That said, this is Judy Garland's last great screen musical performance - before pills and stage fright made her too unreliable to center a film around - and it is a wonderful showcase for one of the Hollywood Musical genre's greatest talents.
As a Christian, i enjoyed this It tells the story of Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), a singer and Norman Maine (James Mason), a famous actor with a serious alcohol problem.
Alcoholic actor Norman Maine (James Mason) takes pride in his new discover Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland) and manages to get the young woman a screen test, which turns into a studio contract where she quickly climbs to the top of Hollywood.
George Cukor's Direction, James Mason's Genius, and Judy Garland Too. One aspect of the very long dramatic musical remake of "A Star is Born" has been copied numerous times.
Both the 1937 film and this 1954 movie are far superior to the dreary, ill-conceived 1976 version, which does not even deserve to share the same title as the two classics.This 1954 version has the star power of Garland and Mason, plus the musical numbers and the colorful settings.
Quite early in George Cukor's A Star Is Born  the ambitious and troubled Judy Garland comeback vehicle  Garland, jamming with her band in an after-hours club called Bleu Blue, delivers an intense and flawless rendition of The Man That Got Away, filmed in a single long take.
Judy Garland pulls out all the stops in the classic film.She shows the world exactly why she is the greatest ever entertainer to have lived.Not only can she dance and sing,she proves that she can act in amazingly tender and poignant scenes.Her singing voice is the strongest it has ever been and is at is best in the heart rending "The Man That Got Away".
James Mason also turned in HIS best performance, acting like that "washed up" movie star that is so hard to play while you are in your prime.It's about Esther Blargett (Judy), who gets "discovered" by the washed up actor, Norman Maine (James) who has a really bad problem controlling his alcoholism.
This, the second of four movies entitled A STAR IS BORN (1937, 1954, 1976 and 2018), writes it's story around Judy Garland's big voice and big production pieces.
Yes we all know the story about the falling star coming into the orbit of the rising comet but played as convincingly as it is here and with marvellous song production numbers to boot, this really is almost a last hurrah for golden age Hollywood and all it stood for but at the same time it's adult themes of alcoholism and disintegrating marriage point forward to more a modern, sophisticated realism.We're properly introduced to Garland when she sings perhaps the ultimate torch song "The Man Who Got Away", with a powerhouse delivery which still doesn't overpower the song and immediately ensnares the passing ear of Hollywood legend Norman Maine, played with understated and underrated elan by James Mason.
Yes, the movie plays Mason's alcoholism less like the disease we nowadays understand it to be today and more like an almost wilful career-choice done almost to attract attention by a fading yesterday man such as Maine.Wonderfully staged and sympathetically directed by George Cukor, Garland's musical numbers are vivacious and heartwarming apart from a hackneyed Vaudevillian medley of over-heard Jolson songs, the best of them for my money probably being Judy putting on a one-woman show for Norman in her own living room.Both leads you feel get right into their roles only very occasionally teetering into florid melodrama.
The second of three filmed versions of the story is the best, thanks to Garland, who has the definitive role of her career as a small-time singer who is discovered by movie star Mason.
I love Judy Garland and every film I have seen her in, The Wizard of OZ, Meet Me in St Louis, Easter Parade and Now a star is born is fantastic.
The film is beautifully photographed and James Mason is fine but, please - do not try to tell me Judy Garland even came close to earning a nomination for this movie..
Garland was the finest musical star of her generation, and A Star Is Born is made for her.James Mason is every bit as good as her husband, and you can see where his character is going early in the film.
But this doesn't last too long, and by the mid- point, as Esther-cum-Vicky, is singing the massive number "Born in a Trunk", it's revealed itself as a dramatic classic of Hollywood's (just barely post) Golden Age.I've read a little criticism, not least of which from James Mason, who plays Norman (and damn he's amazing, more on him in a moment), of that sequence, that it stops the movie in its tracks, that it's not really too exciting, that it narratively doesn't work for the rest of the film.
This is a real shame but, thankfully, it isn't enough to wreck the film.In the end, "A Star is Born" qualifies as one of the best movie musicals of all time.
I'm guessing that people like a love story that's entertainment based.This version that starred Judy Garland and James Mason is quite a bit more expensive than the 1937 United Artists film that starred Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.
Judy Garland delivered the performance of her career that should have won her an Oscar as Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester the rising star who falls for her mentor, Norman Maine (James Mason), a Hollywood icon who can't get work anymore because of his drunken escapades.