Screened as part of Autumn Events 2017

A Star is Born 1954

Directed by George Cukor NZIFF Autumn Events

Judy Garland in her last great musical role finds stardom while James Mason, superb as her champion and husband, fades from studio favour in this lush, emotional Hollywood classic.

May 13

Embassy Theatre

USA In English
190 minutes CinemaScope / DCP

Director

Producer

Sidney Luft

Screenplay

Moss Hart

Photography

Sam Leavitt

Editor

Folmar Blangsted

Production designer

Gene Allen

Art director

Malcolm Bert

Costume designers

Jean Louis
,
Mary Ann Nyberg

Music

Harold Arlen
,
Ira Gershwin
,
Leonard Gershe

With

Judy Garland (Vicki Lester/Esther Blodgett)
,
James Mason (Norman Maine)
,
Jack Carson (Matt Libby)
,
Charles Bickford (Oliver Niles)
,
Tom Noonan (Danny McGuire)
,
Lucy Marlow (Lola Lavery)
,
Amanda Blake (Susan Ettinger)
,
Irving Bacon (Graves)
,
Hazel Shermet (Libby’s secretary)
,
James Brown (Glenn Williams)
,
Lotus Robb (Ms Markham)

Elsewhere

Judy Garland (as a singer on the rise) and James Mason (as a fading matinée idol) personify Hollywood’s archetypal view of showbiz coupledom in this landmark musical drama from 1954. (Hello, La La Land.)

In fact, Mason, already a star in Britain, was really hitting his stride in Hollywood (and is superb in this film) while Garland’s personal struggles were already legendary. This was her first film in four years. But 16 years after `Somewhere Over the Rainbow’, she could still play a Hollywood newbie at the outset of this film and carry an audience with her. Her vulnerability and get-back-up valiance were integral to her appeal, never more so then when she sang. Her spellbinding rendition of Harold Arlen and Ira Gershwin’s ‘The Man That Got Away’ was selected by the American Film Institute as the 11th greatest song in American cinema history! Could they not have simply declared it the quintessential torch song?

George Cukor is justly remembered as Hollywood’s most simpatico director of the great female stars and you won’t doubt it watching A Star is Born. Though Moss Hart’s script is smart, the view of studio malfeasance in the life of the stars is not as damning as a behind-the-scenes tale starring Judy Garland might rightfully be. To quote the Time Out Film Guide, it’s “a glowingly nostalgic evocation of Hollywood knowhow and razz-matazz, with Garland's musical numbers blending effortlessly with the gala premieres, Oscar ceremonies, and privileged moments on set”.

Though the most expensive film they had ever made, A Star is Born was truncated by Warner Brothers on its initial release. Restored to its original running time in 1983, with stills bridging some moments of irretrievable footage, the film now arrives in a meticulous HD transfer that does the original Technicolor CinemaScope cinematography proud. 


Please note the film screens with a 15 mins intermission.