SYNOPSIS

Norman Maine, a screen star whose alcoholism is beginning to interfere with his career, discovers Esther Blodgett, a singer with "that little something extra," star quality. He shepherds her through the birth of her career even as his own is falling apart, and as he does so, their love grows. But soon it becomes clear that his problems are ruining her life and Maine performs a final, desperate act to free Esther from her commitment to him.

Director: George Cukor
Producer: Sidney Luft
Screenplay: Moss Hart
Adapted from the Screenplay by Alan Campbell, Dorothy Parker and Robert Carson and the Story by Carson and William A. Wellman
Cinematography: Sam Leavitt
Editing: Folmar Blangsted
Art Direction: Malcolm Bert, Irene Sharaff
Music: Harold Arlen
Cast: Judy Garland (Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester), James Mason (Norman Maine), Jack Carson (Matt Libby), Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles), Tommy Noonan (Danny McGuire), Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery), Amanda Blake (Susan Ettinger), Irving Bacon (Graves), Strother Martin (Delivery Boy), Grady Sutton (Carver), Joan Shawlee (Announcer), John Saxon (Usher),
C-176 m.

Why A STAR IS BORN is Essential

A Star Is Born (1954) marks the apotheosis of Judy Garland's career, a multi-faceted role exploiting her talents for song, dance, comedy and tragedy alike as none of her other films ever did. In a sense, it was planned that way. Screenwriter Moss Hart drew on his knowledge of Garland and her career to re-structure the story for the 1954 version.

A Star Is Born marked the start of two profitable collaborations for director George Cukor. Special Visual and Color Consultant George Hoyningen-Huene, one of the nation's leading fashion photographers, and production designer Gene Allen would play a major role in shaping his directorial vision as he moved into directing in color. They would work with him on most of his later films, making notable contributions to the visual look of Bhowani Junction (1956) and Les Girls (1957) in particular.

Thanks to Huene and Allen's influence, and Cukor's immaculate taste, A Star Is Born was one of the first films to indicate how the CinemaScope process could be used artistically. Introduced only a year earlier, the wide-screen process had helped draw audiences to epics like The Robe (1953), the first film shot that way, but had stymied directors, who found the new image unwieldy. Director George Stevens suggested it was only good for photographing snakes. But by playing with color and composition, Cukor showed that it could actually enhance a film's effectiveness.

Ronald Haver's 1983 restoration of A Star Is Born was the first high-profile project of its nature, thereby raising public awareness of film preservation issues. It sparked a movement to rescue other lost films, with his innovative use of stills and soundtrack to fill in for scenes that no longer exist. Certainly, it opened new doors for film preservationists. Later projects that followed in the wake of Haver's A Star is Born restoration have included Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937), Raoul Walsh's Sadie Thompson (1928), Erich von Stroheim's Queen Kelly (1929) and Greed (1923-25).

Haver's search for missing scenes from the film, some illegally held by collectors, also increased public and industry awareness of piracy. In the year following the restoration's successful re-issue, legal action against private film collectors who had ignored the law and police raids on their homes increased significantly.

by Frank Miller