A Star Is Born (1937)
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Director: William A. Wellman
Honors:
Hollywood looks at the romantic side of the movie industry as well as
the disastrous side in A Star Is Born,
a Technicolor picture from the quality based production company of Selznick
International Pictures. For many audiences this film provides images of fabled
Hollywood, a place most only hear stories about or see in newsreels, in
beautiful color giving it an even more charming land of glitz and glamour. But
the picture focuses on the tragedy that lies behind the scenes of what people
see on the screen, the downfall of a once bright star as he succumbs to his own
demons to his ultimate demise. With two stark contrasts in tales intertwined by
a love story A Star Is Born is a
feature that leaves an impact on audiences as a classic tragedy.
A Star Is Born is a romantic
drama about a farm girl that rises to become a famous actress with her aid and
romance with a falling alcoholic movie star. With dreams of Hollywood in her
eyes a small town girl, Ester (Janet Gaynor), makes her way to the land of
movies, First discovering that it is not easy to break into the business she
gains an opportunity through meeting a once great star in Norman Maine
(Frederic March) while waitressing. With help from Norman and his connections
to a major studio, Ester, now going by stage name Vicki Lester, becomes
America’s newest sweetheart actress. Ester and Norman’s relationship blossoms
into marriage, but as Vicki rises in fame Norman falls deeper into his
depression knowing he is a has-been. Norman tries to quit his drinking, but his
frustration brings him to the edge of destruction. Reaching the heights of the
Hollywood elite, Ester vows to give up her dreamed career to help her husband
which leads Norman, upon discovering her plan, to drown himself. Vicki, broken
from her great lose, is led to continue her dream, carrying on the name of her
once great husband.
The picture is a tale that begins innocently as a story of fulfilling
one’s dreams, but turns into a tragic tale of lose and how an individual
suffers from falling from such high success. Directed by the seasoned and
versatile William A. Wellman, A Star Is
Born is presented in a very smooth production. The picture is displayed in
its beautiful Technicolor to aid the romantic view of Hollywood, before turning
into a difficult story of a very flawed man, leaving audiences to forget they
are watching a color picture (a rare event at this point in feature films). Wellman
portrays the innocent wonder of a young lady in Hollywood for the first time,
fulfilling the use of Technicolor as a marvelously still infantile luxury of
motion pictures, but as an intelligent filmmaker he still knows that the story
is the paramount notion to any picture, which is why this early color picture
works well.
Starring two Academy Award former winners in Janet Gaynor and Frederic
March, A Star Is Born was obviously
meant to have the quality in acting as well as production value as determined
by the “quality first” studio of Selznick International. Gaynor won her Academy
Award at the age of 21, and here 10 years later she still pulls off the
innocence of her character, Ester, and her turn to maturity. Gaynor would use
her own 1927/28 Academy Award as the prop award in the picture as Vicki Lester
wins the award for best actress. Gaynor’s own performance would earn her a
nomination, once again, for the award. March has the much more difficult task
of playing the troubled and multi-dimensional character of Norman Maine, an
alcoholic and quickly falling star of years past. His character rides the
rollercoaster of emotions and drunkenness until he sacrifices his life that
Ester may not have to put up with destructive nature. March too would earn as
best actor nomination for his performance as well, an award he first achieved
for role in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Even the supporting cast would be of great quality. The picture is
bookended with the support of Ester’s grandmother, the one that reminds Ester to
keep reaching for her dreams, played by an Academy Award nominee May Robson.
Andy Devine plays the role of Danny, a neighbor of Ester in early days of
moving to Hollywood who too tries to find work in town, he being an assistant
director. Devine’s raspy voice and innocent demeanor makes him a likable man
that you would see as a trusted friend of Ester in good times and bad. Adolphe
Menjou supplies the greatest supporting character as Norman’s pal and movie
producer that helps make Ester into Vicki the starlet of Hollywood. Menjou
seems to always be around the major motion pictures, making him a great fit of
a veteran studio producer in the film
A Star Is Born shares
similarities to the George Cukor picture of 1933 What Price Hollywood. In that feature you get similar storylines of
a rising stress and a heavy drinking man that falls from success, but in that
case the male character is a director. It is reported that Cukor was offered to
direct A Star Is Born, but turned it
down due to the similarities to his former picture. RKO, the studio that produced
What Price Hollywood, considered
filing a suit over plagiarism due to the two films striking similarities, but
decided not to follow suit. Time would have a sense of humor however as George
Cukor would direct a remake of A Star Is
Born in 1954 starring Judy Garland.
The film would be well represented at that year’s Academy Awards,
receiving seven nominations. Aside from March and Gaynor’s nominations for
acting, the film received nods for best picture, best writing, and best
assistant director, while winning for best story and receiving a honorary Oscar
for its Technicolor cinematography (as color feature films were still a new
advent to motion pictures). The film would leave a lasting impact on Hollywood
itself, being remade in 1954 and 1976. The story would continue to be an idea
that is pushed around as a plot in many studios for decades as a classic
tragedy tale. This early film version stands well with time in production
quality and reverence, despite falling into public domain in the 1954, after
the not having the copyright renewed after the first remake by Warner Bro.
The film provides an excellent early color time capsule of striking
early color views of Hollywood, Los Angeles, and Grauman’s Chinese Theater in its
hay day of the Golden Age of film. For that purpose alone the picture is worth
looking at, but the film and its story does overshadow its simple cinematic
beauty with a classic tale of rise and fall, success and tragedy.
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