Ten years ago we reviewed a Blu-ray of the Technicolor A Star is Born that was described as ‘the best transfer possible.’ I felt the need to explain why it hadn’t been fully restored:
(from 2012) “The film elements may not even exist to restore it properly. Even if they do, don’t hold your breath or expect a fabulous restoration to be performed. Some studios, especially Warners, have commissioned full digital restorations. Titles like The Wizard of Oz have warranted going to great lengths to transfer the three B&W Technicolor film strips separately, and then combine and align them in the digital realm. It’s so expensive that only a few old movies qualify for rescue in this manner, titles that will generate enough income to justify the expense. A Star is Born is a famous picture yet not a practical candidate. Neither are hundreds of other terrific 3-strip Technicolor movies. Perhaps the price tag will eventually drop … before the surviving elements for all of these films are lost to decomposition.”
Well that day has arrived, for the Warner Archive is now routinely releasing 3-strip Technicolor features given full digital restorations; every month re-premieres a beautiful MGM musical, it seems. A Star is Born was once the domain of terrible knock-off Public Domain transfers. I’ve been advised that Warners likely acquired the vintage title from David O. Selznick when they produced the 1954 Judy Garland remake. Either the Selznick organization or WB took good care of the Technicolor elements.
A Star is Born ’37 was an early feature produced in the 3-strip Technicolor process. Selznick had already released The Garden of Allah in 3-strip with Marlene Dietrich and Charles Boyer; it’s what’s playing at Grauman’s Chinese in an early scene of this picture. David O.’s memos contain a note to an underling insisting that he is the film’s true author. It’s often regarded as a reworking of What Price Hollywood?, a pre-Code film made at RKO when Selznick was head of production. The work of his credited writers was second-guessed by uncredited pinch hitters that included Adela Rogers St. John, Ring Lardner Jr. and the ubiquitous Ben Hecht, all of whom were probably rewritten by Selznick himself. The independent Selznick production was originally released through United Artists.
The storyline is basic rags to riches with some Hollywood heartbreak added for good measure. Ambitious farm girl Esther Victoria Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) lets her grandmother (May Robson) give her some money to run away to Hollywood, where she finds a friend in assistant director Danny McGuire (Andy Devine) but no luck in a studio system overrun by would-be hopefuls from the sticks. But then she meets alcoholic star Norman Maine (Fredric March), who gets her a screen test and then a leading role right off the bat. Under her new name Vicki Lester our girl zooms to instant stardom while Norman slips in popularity. The studio is forced to give him up. Vicki is working more than ever, and eventually Norman decides that he’s a millstone around her neck.
The show fronts a veneer of cynicism, especially in the person of press agent Matt Libby (Lionel Stander). Yet Esther enjoys a fairytale rise to fame. Janet Gaynor gives a terrific performance simply by not looking ridiculous as the hayseed hopeful in Tinseltown. Few previous Hollywood-on-Hollywood movies had treated the subject seriously. In the silent comedy Show People, Marion Davies elicits big laughs striking exaggerated facial expressions to prove what a great actor she is. Curiously, the only ‘acting’ Gaynor’s wannabe Vicki Lester does are some dreadful star imitations. People tell us that she’s fantastic, luminous, etc., on screen.
Much of A Star is Born is very accurate. A zillion good-looking women arrived in L.A. to seek their big chance, and only a tiny percentage found meaningful acting work. One of the better early scenes has the receptionist of a talent agency give Gaynor a peek into a busy telephone exchange: operators repeat 40 times a minute that there are no jobs available. The direction is clear and to the point, a cornerstone of William A. Wellman’s personal style. The former man of action proved to have a talent directing actresses. Janet Gaynor had featured in sentimental classics since the silent era (Murnau’s Sunrise) and this show gives her an opportunity to play in a melodrama with some very realistic rough edges. Alcoholism as a serious problem was not a popular movie subject, and Gaynor and March present it in believable terms.
We fully believe how Gaynor’s Esther Victoria Blodgett gets her break. Jolly pal Andy Devine can’t do much for her but Esther catches the eye of matinee idol Norman Maine, played with finesse and understatement by Fredric March. We just have to take it for granted that the girl from the corn belt has some magic light in her eye. That and the fact that the script makes sure that every other available female in the film is a contemptible snake.
Norman jump-starts Esther’s career based on nothing but friendship and good faith. The dispiriting truth of such arrangements is that the powerful person often ends up sleeping with the hopeful wannabe and loses their judgment, if they had any in the first place. We don’t see the screen test and in fact, we never see Esther perform. From then on everything she does turns to gold. A Star is Born supports the notion that stars are indeed ‘born.’ Esther just happens to have the magic, an elusive star power that the public will embrace. The irony is that Norman knows his own stardom is slipping through his fingers.
The more cynical among us will mentally re-write Esther’s part the same way we did Debbie Reynolds’ Kathy Selden in Singin’ in the Rain (which happens to be due for release in 4K Ultra HD). Esther may not use Norman, but the effect is almost the same. A new life means a new identity as Vicki Lester; being renamed is like being reborn. It’s a Depression – era fairy tale to which millions of American females could relate.
Like most big Hollywood movies about The Movies, A Star is Born criticizes everyone but the producers. Studio head Oliver Niles (Adolph Menjou) is something of a saint. Niles agreeably signs Esther on the basis of Norman’s say-so, casting the complete unknown in a major production as well. Esther thinks for a second that Oliver is hitting on her right in his office. He instead turns out to be a truly loyal friend, a detail that must have warmed the heart of lecherous predator Harry Cohn. Niles is understanding and flexible with Norman’s outrageous behavior. He never disassociates himself from the disgraced actor, even after a scandalous debacle at the Oscar ceremony.
The big villain is Lionel Stander’s loathsome press agent. Matt Libby pronounces Esther’s original last name as if it were a disgusting bodily function. Worse, Libby indulges a psychotic need to kick Norman Maine when he’s down. Much of the town is just as unforgiving. They judge the big star’s bad behavior when he’s on top, and are eager to jeer him when he’s not. That’s fairly accurate as well. One stays loyal to friends and benefactors in Hollywood, but the competition separates everyone else into winners and losers.
There’s nothing in the show about producers overworking their actors, running their love lives, cheating them out of money, forcing them to work in crummy movies or feeding them drugs to keep them on their feet for long shooting days. Not that that was always the case. Esther gets a leading role on the basis of a screen test? It would be more likely that she would be hired as a contract player and used to dress up parties and perhaps get cozy with whoever the studio needed to entertain. Ask Shelley Winters.
Even if it glamorizes workaday Hollywood A Star is Born gets a lot of the atmosphere right. The script handles Maine’s drinking problem and Vicki Lester’s attempt to do help him with dignity and grace. Selznick’s memos chart considerable discussion with the Production Code office over Maine’s last scene in the film.
No wonder Hollywood ate up A Star is Born: it’s an affirmation of the town as a worthwhile place with some worthwhile people. There were just as many ethical movie people in the Golden Age as there were predators and fakes, and the script probably oversells the worst of the town in an effort to make Vicki and Norman seem more virtuous. The picture was nominated for seven Oscars and won two: original story and cinematography. Ms. Gaynor is fine, if a little old to be a green kid from Wahoo South Dakota. Fredric March is uncommonly sensitive, at least when compared to some of the more pompous ‘important’ roles he was playing at the time. His Norman Maine is a decent guy who never learned how to cope with the no-restraint benefits of fame.
The supporting parts function well, with Menjou and Stander doing particularly fine work. Good bits are filled by faces familiar (Francis Ford, Franklin Pangborn) and unusual. Edgar Kennedy is Esther’s sweetheart of a landlord. Jed Prouty’s reprehensible press agent would be a good fit in Sweet Smell of Success. Among the starlets glimpsed at bars are Carole Landis (One Million B.C.) and Margaret Tallichet (Stranger on the Third Floor).
