A Star Is Born (1937)

Touches You

One of my all time favorites.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

William A. Wellman's 1937 masterpiece "A Star Is Born" was one of the first movies to focus on the vicissitudes of fame. Janet Gaynor plays a farm girl who moves to Hollywood with the aim of becoming an actress. When she finally does, it happens as her lover's (Fredric March) career falls apart.The odd coloring helps to give a sense of the underbelly of all the glitz and glamor. It's inevitable that for one person's career to rise, another person's career must decline. The 1954 version starring Judy Garland and James Mason was much flashier but still managed to retain the original's spirit (I haven't seen the 1976 version starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson).This movie is undeniably one of cinema's all-time classics. Janet Gaynor and Fredric March are perfect in their roles. I recommend it.

Director William Wellman notoriously hated actors. It seems bizarre then that the one time he wrote his own screenplay it was a rather affectionate look at the lives of the stars. Hollywood didn't do introspection all that much, but here was woven a tragical drama that was absolutely in tune with the Tinseltown ethos, even as it brought to light its more troubled aspects.Wellman was, for the biggest part of his career, a director of action movies. And even though A Star is Born is a drama centring on a female character, he still films it with an emphasis on dynamics and rugged impact. Janet Gaynor is introduced with a rapid dolly-in as she comes through a doorway. In the scene that follows everyone is spitting out their dialogue. The scene ends with a close-up of Gaynor, after which she swiftly exits from the frame, leaving the screen totally black. And this is very much the pattern for the rest of the picture. It's a neat approach which gives things a fast-paced and punchy feel.As to the actual stars of this movie, Gaynor and Fredric March were two of the most experienced players around who were still in the right age and popularity bracket to get lead roles. Janet Gaynor was one of the more subtle and realistic performers of that era. She has such earnestness in her eyes, and despite actually being at the end of her own illustrious career, she utterly convinces as a keen youngster taking her first steps in the industry. March is much more theatrical, but he has an intensity that makes him very watchable.A Star is Born seems to have become a kind of touchstone story of Hollywood stardom. It's been remade twice for different generations, and a fourth version is reportedly in the works as I type. This first version is not quite the best, but it lays down a story that will remain timeless for as long as Hollywood continues to thrive.

It took me a long time to get round to seeing this classic and perhaps my expectations were a little unrealistic but I struggled through this film. May Robson plays the role of grandma admirably enough, but the beginning was unbelievably corny and the dialogue throughout the film is not particularly sophisticated apart from a retort or two from Fredric March. Without March, I don't think I could have made it through to the end of the film. And I'm prepared to accept that Janet Gaynor is a great actress but she's so underwhelming as Vicki Lester. Judy Garland might not have been a stunner but as soon as she opened her voice to sing, all was forgiven. And I think Gaynor's casting makes the whole film's premise extremely difficult to believe. I remember reading more than once that this film is still one of the most accurate portrayals of Hollywood at the time and it definitely touches on the cruelty of the star system which sees one actor catapulted into the stratosphere while another falls from great heights into the gutter. However, I think there's a more cynical side to this movie's message. And that was to keep feeding the audience with the mantra that anyone can make it in movies, however "average" your looks or talent.

A Hollywood love story, with the participants at cross-purposes in their respective careers, and alcohol a constant troubling factor. Though not profound--and steeped in sentiment, besides--this initial version of "A Star Is Born" makes a direct connection with the audience based on empathy for its characters, not songs or razzle-dazzle. Janet Gaynor, though a very big star in the 1930s, hasn't attained a large latter-day following for (most likely) the very reason she became an attraction initially: her giving, unselfish nature makes her a prime victim for love's heartaches, and one longs for her Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester to mature on-screen. However, the set-up for this collapseable union doesn't allow for grown-up emotions, and Gaynor remains a noble, twinkling doormat for fading actor Fredric March. If you can get passed the tearjerker angle (which also permeated the 1954 and 1976 remakes), this look at early Hollywood is surprisingly canny and sharp, and the deep, rich Technicolor makes it a marvel to look at. Story idea lifted from 1932's "What Price Hollywood?", with a screenplay worked on by at least ten different writers (some credited, some not). **1/2 from ****