evanston_dad The story that would make it to the screen no less than three times over the years debuted in this Selznick International release from 1937.Everyone knows the story -- woman goes to Hollywood to make it big, makes it big, and then watches her famous has-been husband devolve into depression and alcoholism. It's a story that both glamorizes Hollywood and exposes the toll it takes on those who dare to survive in it.Janet Gaynor and Fredric March play the doomed couple, and William A. Wellman provides the direction. Technicolor was new at the time and it shows. W. Howard Greene received a special Academy Award for the film's color cinematography, but it's really a quite ugly film. The colors are muddy and murky, and the lighting choices are odd -- some scenes are so darkly lit it's literally difficult to see the actors, like a film noir in color."A Star Is Born" won the Academy Award for Best Original Story, which was written by Wellman and Robert Carson. Carson also snagged a nomination, along with Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell, for writing the screenplay based on that story, but lost to the year's Best Picture winner, "The Life of Emile Zola." In addition to its two writing nominations, the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director (Wellman), Best Actor (March), Best Actress (Gaynor), and Best Assistant Director, in only the fifth and final year that odd category would exist. As an Oscar buff, my favorite scene in the movie is the one set at an Academy Awards banquet, as it gives an indication of what the ceremonies were like before they moved to the more traditional theater settings we're used to now.Grade: B+

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . sometimes nicknamed as "The Razzies." Before Kanye West's parents were even born, another Space Cadet barged on-stage during a Tinseltown Awards Acceptance Speech to wrest notoriety from the Jaws of Acclaim. Alfred Hinkle, as one-time Oscar Gloater "Norman Maine," takes a dump during on his wife's Big Movement into the A-List, demanding that HE be crowned with not one, not two, but THREE Golden Raspberries for his Hat Trick of turning in the year's three worst performances by an actor in a leading role. During the interminable moments during which the tipsy celebrities gathered together wait for the band to drown out Norm's Drunken Rant, one half expects a Time-Traveling Wesley Snipes or Ice Cube to arrive from @Razziesowhite to shove Mr. Hinkle off his low horse themselves. (Speaking of which, with the not-so-Boffo Box Office for COLLATERAL BEAUTY, it seems that NOW would be the perfect time to rehash a fourth Big Screen version of A STAR IS BORN. This new Urban Edition would cast Will Smith as Norm, of course, and his Shrinking Violet Real Life spouse Jada seems perfectly suited to take on the Esther becoming Vicki role.)

cbays2011 i consider this one of the greatest films ever made.i watch it often for all of us who have ever dreamed of moving to Hollywood,its a great film,watching her in the movie makes me dream about being in the movies as i did as a boy,i often thought she played the part as best anyone could, and then i found out Judy garland was in a remake of it,haven't seen it yet, but gotta be one hell of a movie movie.well I've said what I've wanted to say and have to write four more lines before it will let me post it. cant wait to see the remake with Judy garland.i think ill find it on internet and watch it tonight. I've never taken 5the time to write a review before,but had to on this movie.

edwagreen Perhaps, it's because of the crackling of the film, but the 1937 version of "A Star is Born," doesn't hold a candle to the musical version of 17 years later.Janet Gaynor, as Esther/Vickie, doesn't hold a candle to Judy Garland's interpretation of the same role. Fredric March is wonderful, but even he was eclipsed by James Mason in the Garland version.Gaynor seemed rather too shy for the part and there is a total lack of dramatic intensity on her part which was sorely needed.The 1937 film was in black and white and this may very well have been appropriate to set the moody dramatic stage. With the musical version, you needed the necessary color to highlight not only the musical numbers, but the emotional heartbreak as well.