A Star Is Born, 1958, (Grade C-)

Director: George Cukor

Any Awards?  Yes, Lots of them Academy Awards; Golden Globes, BAFTAs --and multiple AFI top 100 lists 

CAST:  Judy Garland; James Mason; Jack Carson; Charles Bickford; Tommy Noonan; Lucy Marlow; Amanda Blake; Irving Bacon; Hazel Shermet. 

STORY (SPOILER ALERT) -- hard working singer has come along way--(having made it to being the lead singer with an orchestra), following her muse but she hasn't made it yet (her dream is to be a singer, record a record and get played on the radio) She is 'discovered' by a big-name drunken actor who says her dreams are too small.  She follows his lead--which include a few travails that result from his drinking-- and eventually becomes a BIG STAR. He agrees to quite drinking if she will marry him--and so they get hitched.  But his career falters.  He returns to drinking when he is accused of sponging off his wife.  She decides to give up her career to nurse him--he can't have that and commits suicide.  She is distraught and is going to give up everything until a buddy comes along and says she is doing her dead husband's memory wrong if she doesn't use the talent that he discovered.  So she goes back to work.

sez says: First be aware that this is a 3 hour movie...long.  And I am sure everyone was happy to see Judy Garland back in the movies after her long absence due to drugs and drink. This being esp so in a movie that deals with the ravages of drug/alcohol addiction.  (She being on the care taker side in the movie--as opposed to being the addict, as she was in real life.)  She has one scene where she tells her producer that she loves her husband and hates him too becasue he keeps making promises to quite and then doesn't..and the tears in her eyes and the intensity of her feeling are clearly not acting. She knows this situation well and brings the audience right into midst of this painful reality. That scene alone is --in my opinion-- why she--and this movie--got the awards it did.  I say that because the rest of the movie is just not all that good.  It is spotty. Some of her performances were o.k.--  The Man That Got Away, in the first half is the best. But you gotta like her singing more than I do to appreciate all of the songs.  And, Garland is a pathetic actor.  She did a really bad job in the first half as young woman--she became a more believable character in the second half--but you've got to watch a lot of ho-hum to get to the second half.  In sum, this is just  not my cup-of-tea.

MJC SAYS:  James Mason was credible as a has-been actor, but the movie is approx 2 hours too long.: