84
A
Star Is Born
Release date 29th September 1954
Country : USA
Running time : 176 mins
Genre : Musical
Starring Judy Garland, James Mason
Screenplay by Moss Hart
Directed by George Cukor
Esther Blodgett is transformed into
Hollywood movie star Vicki Lester after Norman Maine discovers her.
Esther marries Norman but cannot prevent his heavy drinking which
threatens to destroy both their careers.
Judy Garland is wonderful in this classic Hollywood musical drama of one star rising while another falls. James Mason is good too as the falling star Norman Maine. This is the definitive version of a classic story. Unfortunately the complete version no longer exists and the cut available for many years did suffer from not showing the slow build up of Esther Blodgett and Norman Maine's relationship, a restored version utilises the soundtrack and still photos in the same way as Lost Horizon. Even without the visuals compared with the previously available version this is a revelation and the pacing seems much surer. Superb score too by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin including Garland's great torch song The Man That Got Away and Roger Edens' Born In A Trunk which sums up this great entertainer's life.
Songs include Gotta Have Me Go With You, Lose That Long Face, Somewhere There's A Someone, It's A New World, The Man That Got Away, Swanee, Born In A Trunk
Release date 29th September 1954
Country : USA
Running time : 176 mins
Genre : Musical
Starring Judy Garland, James Mason
Screenplay by Moss Hart
Directed by George Cukor
Judy Garland is wonderful in this classic Hollywood musical drama of one star rising while another falls. James Mason is good too as the falling star Norman Maine. This is the definitive version of a classic story. Unfortunately the complete version no longer exists and the cut available for many years did suffer from not showing the slow build up of Esther Blodgett and Norman Maine's relationship, a restored version utilises the soundtrack and still photos in the same way as Lost Horizon. Even without the visuals compared with the previously available version this is a revelation and the pacing seems much surer. Superb score too by Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin including Garland's great torch song The Man That Got Away and Roger Edens' Born In A Trunk which sums up this great entertainer's life.
Songs include Gotta Have Me Go With You, Lose That Long Face, Somewhere There's A Someone, It's A New World, The Man That Got Away, Swanee, Born In A Trunk
DVD Review
Digitally Obsessed
BBC Online
(UK Edition)
85 83
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
A Star Is Born image from
http://www.channel4.com/
