Movies
A Star Is Born (1954)
『スタア誕生』1954年
Fan page about the movie “A Star Is Born” (1954), directed by George Cukor, starring Judy Garland and James Mason.
The Story
Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), who is a singer with the Glenn Williams orchestra, is discovered by aging and slipping movie idol Norman Maine (James Mason), on the evening when Esther saves him from making a drunken spectacle of himself in front of a gala benefit audience. Later that same evening, and sober, Norman tracks her down and hears her sing, recognizing the qualities of true greatness in her voice. He decides to help this incredible talent get started in pictures. When the star of a major musical film walks out, Norman persuades Oliver Niles (Charles Bickford), the warm-hearted head of the studio, to cast Esther in the part. Esther Blodgett becomes Vicki Lester, and an overnight success in films. She marries Norman and they experience a brief period of happiness, during which Norman even stops his drinking. But while the studio and its press agent, Libby (Jack Carson), begin concentrating on Vicki, Norman’s star begins to fall. He returns to alcohol and eventually has to be put into an institution. After Norman humiliates Vicki and himself before a national television audience on the night she wins an Academy Award, accidentally slapping her in the face, Vicki begins to think that the only way to save Norman and her marriage is to give up her career. Norman’s final degradation comes after a three day drinking binge and a heartbreaking scene in a Los Angeles jail when he is publicly reprimanded by the judge and put into Vicki’s custody. When Vicki informs Oliver of her decision to end her career and devote her life to Norman, Norman overhears the conversation and faces the reality of the situation. Pretending to be well, he requests her to sing a song for him and tells her that he is going for a short swim. He walks into the sea and drowns himself.
After Norman’s death, Vicki is totally despondent until her lifelong friend, former band mate Danny (Tom Noonan) persuades her that Norman sacrificed his life so that she could fulfill her great potential. In the final scene at the gala benefit at which Vicki is the guest of honor, she gives full credit to her husband by entering the stage with the words, “Good evening, everyone. This is Mrs. Norman Maine”.
This is the greatest one-woman show in the history of motion pictures - a nakedly intense tour de force we are unlikely to ever see equaled. The near-autobiographical 18 minute “Born In A Trunk” sequence is one of Judy’s finest moments, as is the torch song “The Man That Got Away”, which she renders with incredible emotional power. She is well matched by James Mason, who turns in one of his greatest performances.
Garland was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to Grace Kelly in The Country Girl, resulting in the famous Groucho Marx telegram calling it “the biggest robbery since Brink’s”.
Star Bios
Judy Garland was born Frances Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, MN. Heading out to become the classic female American entertainer of the 20th century, the child of vaudeville performers made her stage debut at the age of three. At 13, she was auditioned personally by MGM’s production boss, Louis B. Mayer, who, impressed by her voice, signed her on a contract without a screen test. For her first feature, Pigskin Parade (1936) Judy was loaned out to Fox; then, returning to MGM, she stole the show from a star-studded cast in Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), when she sang “Dear Mr. Gable” to a photograph of the star. In Thoroughbreds Don’t Cry (1937), she was cast for the first time opposite Mickey Rooney, who was to become a frequent screen partner (nine times in all) in the juvenile phase of her career. Then came the film that made her a world-famous star, The Wizard Of Oz (1939), in which, as wide-eyed little Dorothy, she sang “Over the Rainbow” - an instant legend was born. Judy was still in her teens when she began being plagued by a weight problem. At the same time, the strain of work began taking its toll on her nervous system, and before long she was living on pills: pills to put her to sleep, pills to keep her awake, and pills to suppress her appetite. Meanwhile, Garland’s career continued to prosper, not only in the movies but also on radio and in numerous personal appearances. Her most successful films of the 1940s were Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), The Clock (1945) and The Pirate (1948). In 1950, after being fired from the MGM lot, she made her first suicide attempt, but she came back with record breaking 19 week concert engagement at New York’s Palace Theater. Then, in 1954, she returned to the screen, giving perhaps her finest performance, in A Star Is Born (1954). After that, she played a magnificent dramatic vignette in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment At Nuremberg (1961), and followed with another good dramatic performance in A Child Is Waiting (1963). In 1961, she gave a memorable concert at Carnegie Hall - the hugely successful live album serves as a memorial of one of the greatest concert events ever. Her long-awaited show on CBS television in 1963 had poor ratings and was canceled before the end of its scheduled run. A huge part of her last years was spent in London, where she died on June 22, 1969. - Judy Garland is the mother of entertainer Liza Minnelli (b. 1946).
James Mason was born on May 15, 1909, in Huddersfield (England). Born to a well-to-do British merchant, Mason studied architecture at Cambridge before deciding to embark on an acting career. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, he made his mark on British audiences in a number of English movies, but it was his impersonation of a rebel leader in Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) that brought him to the attention of international moviegoers. Two years later, Mason came to Hollywood, making his American film debut in Max Ophüls’ Caught (1949). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his Norman Maine in A Star Is Born, but lost to Marlon Brando’s Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront. During the 1950s, he was showcased in well-known movies such as Julius Caesar (1953; as Brutus), 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954; as Captain Nemo) and as a velvet villain opposite Cary Grant in Hitchcock’s North By Northwest (1959). In later years, he alternated between colorful supporting roles and character leads, such as in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962; as Humbert Humbert), in Georgy Girl (1966) and - best of all - as a brilliant but ruthless trial lawyer in Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982). James Mason died in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 27, 1984.
The Director
George Cukor was born on July 7, 1899, in New York City, NY. Beginning as an assistant stage manager in 1918, Cukor worked as a stage director and manager in Rochester, NY, and in New York City before going to Hollywood in 1929, at the beginning of the sound era in motion pictures. In 1932, he directed A Bill Of Divorcement, which is remembered as Katharine Hepburn’s screen debut - she would play in a total of 10 of his movies between 1932 and 1979. At MGM, he directed several movies considered as classics of the 1930s: Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Camille (1937), Holiday (1938) and The Women (1939). In years to come, he continued with The Philadelphia Story (1940), Gaslight (1943), Adam’s Rib (1949) and Born Yesterday (1950, the last great screwball comedy, starring Judy Holliday).. Due to his ability to constantly bring out the best in his performers, especially actresses, Cukor was labeled a “woman’s director”. In 1964, he received his only Best Director “Oscar” for My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. His last big-screen effort was Rich And Famous (1981). George Cukor died on January 24, 1983.
Quotes
(manually transcribed from video)
Norman: Do you always sing like that?
Esther: Like what?
Norman: The way you sang just now.
Esther: Why?
Norman: I never heard anybody sing just the way you do.
Esther: What do you mean - good or bad?
Norman: Do you ever go fishing - or do you like prizefighting? Have you ever watched a great fighter?
Esther: … I don’t …
Norman: I’m trying to tell you how you sing.
Esther: You mean, like a prizefighter or a fish?
Norman: Look, er … There are certain pleasures that you get. There are certain pleasures you get - little jabs of pleasure. When a swordfish takes the hook, or when you watch a great fighter getting ready for the kill, see? You don’t understand what I’m saying, do you?
Esther: No, not yet. Why don’t you try bullfight?
Norman You’re joking, but that’s exactly what I mean. If you had never seen a bullfight in your life, you’d know a great bullfigher the moment he sat foot to the ring - from the way he stood, from the way he moved - or, or a dancer. You don’t happen to know about ballet? That little bell rings inside your head, that little jab of pleasure. And that’s what happened to me just now. You’re a great singer!
Esther: Who, me?
Norman: Hasn’t anyone ever told you that before?
Esther: No, Mr. Maine, no one’s ever told me that before - and maybe you’re not quite as sober as we both thought you were. But thank you, anyway.
(“What’s in a name” - Esther picking up her first pay envelope).
Esther: Esther Blodgett, please.
Clerk 1: Go to ‘L’.
Esther: What?
Clerk 1: Go to ‘L’.
Esther: Now wait …
Clerk 1: Go to the window marked ‘L’. You’re listed under ‘L’.
Esther: … oh … thank you … (goes to next counter) Esther Blodgett, please.
Clerk 2: New here?
Esther: Yes.
Clerk 2: Just a moment … ok. Your name is Vicki Lester.
Esther: Huh?
Clerk 2: Your name is Vicki Lester.
Esther: What?
Clerk 2: Vicki Lester! (spells out:) V-i-c-k-i, L-e-s-t-e-r. Get it? Move on, please.
(Esther sits at home in agony after Norman’s passing. Danny McGuire is coming to pick her up for a gala appearance)
Esther: Hi, Danny.
Danny: You’re not dressed.
Esther: Dressed?
Danny: You’re doing that benefit at the Shrine. Come on, get dressed.
Esther: M-mm.
Danny: You told them you’d be there.
Esther: That was … that was before.
Danny: I know that it was before, but come on, get dressed.
Esther: No!
Danny: You’re just gonna sit here forever?
Esther: Yes! Tonight, and tomorrow night, and for as long as I like. I don’t want any of your whole reliefs. I know what you’re trying to do, and the best thing you can do to me is to just leave me alone! You and everyone else keep your sympathy. I don’t want it, not from you, or anybody.
Danny: Sympathy? That’s not what you’re getting from me, baby. You don’t deserve it! You know what a great monument to Norman Maine you are? He was a drunk and he wasted his life, but he loved you. And he took enormous pride in the one thing in his life that wasn’t a waste - you. His love for you and your success, that was the one thing in his life that wasn’t a waste, and he knew it. Maybe it was wrong to do what he did, but he didn’t want to destroy that - destroy the only thing he took pride in. And now you are doing the one thing he was terrified of. You’re wiping it out! You’re tossing aside the one thing he had left. You’re tossing it right back into the ocean after him.
Esther: … no! …
Danny: You’re the only thing that remains of him now, and if you just kick it away, it’s like he never existed. Like there never was a Norman Maine at all.
(Long pause. Esther is devastated.)
Esther: Will you wait for me?
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