The Story
James Mason and Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born”
Esther Blodgett (Judy Garland), who is a singer with the Glenn Williams orchestra, is discovered by aging movie idol Norman Maine (James Mason), one evening when she saves him from making a drunken spectacle of himself in front of an audience at a gala benefit. Later that same evening, now sober, Norman tracks her down and hears her sing, recognizing the extraordinary quality of 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 film success.
She marries Norman, and they experience a brief period of happiness, during which Norman even manages to stop drinking. But while the studio and its press agent, Libby (Jack Carson), begin concentrating on Vicki, Norman’s star continues to fall. He returns to alcohol and eventually has to be admitted to a sanatorium. After Norman humiliates both Vicki and himself in front of a national television audience on the night she wins an Academy Award, accidentally striking her in the face, Vicki begins to think that the only way to save Norman and their marriage is to give up her career. Norman’s final degradation comes after another drinking binge, when he is arrested and brought before a judge. In a heartbreaking scene in court, he is publicly reprimanded, and Vicki pleads for him to be released into her care. When she informs Oliver of her decision to end her career and devote her life to Norman, Norman overhears their conversation and finally faces the reality of the situation. Pretending to be well, he asks 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.
Judy Garland and James Mason in “A Star Is Born”
After Norman’s death, Vicki is totally despondent until her old friend and 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 where Vicki is the guest of honor, she gives full credit to her husband by stepping onto the stage and introducing herself 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 ever to 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 for The Country Girl, prompting the famous telegram from Groucho Marx calling the outcome “the biggest robbery since Brinks”.
Star Bios
Judy Garland was born Frances Ethel Gumm on June 10, 1922, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. Destined to become one of the great American entertainers of the 20th century, the daughter of vaudeville performers made her stage debut at the age of two and a half. At 13, she auditioned for MGM’s studio chief, Louis B. Mayer, who, impressed by her voice, signed her to a contract without requiring a screen test.
For her first feature film, 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) during the early years 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 to be plagued by weight problems. At the same time, the strain of work began taking its toll on her health, and before long she was dependent 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 through numerous personal appearances. Her most successful films of the 1940s included Meet Me In St. Louis (1944), The Clock (1945) and The Pirate (1948).
In 1947, while making The Pirate, she suffered a nervous breakdown and made her first suicide attempt. In 1950, after being fired from the MGM lot, she attempted suicide again. But she came back with record-breaking 19-week concert engagement at New York’s Palace Theater in 1951. 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 role in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment At Nuremberg (1961), followed by another fine dramatic performance in A Child Is Waiting (1963). In 1961, she also gave a memorable concert at Carnegie Hall - the hugely successful live album stands as a lasting record of one of the greatest concert events ever.
Her long-awaited weekly television series, The Judy Garland Show, premiered on CBS in 1963 but struggled with ratings and was canceled after just one season. She spent much of her final years in London, where she died on June 22, 1969.
Judy Garland was the mother of entertainer Liza Minnelli (born 1946).
James Mason was born on May 15, 1909, in Huddersfield (England). Born to a wealthy wool 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 films, but it was his portrayal of a wounded IRA gunman in Carol Reed’s Odd Man Out (1947) that brought him to the attention of international audiences.
Mason moved to Hollywood in 1947, although it was two years later that he made his American film debut in Max Ophüls’ Caught (1949). He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of Norman Maine in A Star Is Born, but lost to Marlon Brando’s Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront. During the 1950s, he appeared in a number of well-known films, including Julius Caesar (1953; as Brutus), 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (1954; as Captain Nemo) and, as a velvet villain opposite Cary Grant, in Alfred Hitchcock’s North By Northwest (1959).
In later years, he alternated between colorful supporting roles and leading character parts, such as Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (1962), in Georgy Girl (1966) and - best of all - as a brilliant but ruthless opposing counsel 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. After beginning his career as an assistant stage manager in 1918, Cukor worked as a stage manager and director in Rochester, New York, and in New York City before going to Hollywood in 1929, as the film industry was making the transition to sound.
In 1932, he directed A Bill Of Divorcement, which is remembered as Katharine Hepburn’s screen debut - she would appear in a total of ten of his films between 1932 and 1979, including two television productions. Among his films of the 1930s were several considered classics: Little Women (1933), David Copperfield (1935), Camille (1936), Holiday (1938) and The Women (1939).
In the years that followed, 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 often labeled a “woman’s director”, a description that rather unfairly overlooked his versatility.
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, in Los Angeles.
Quotes
(manually transcribed from video)
James Mason and Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born”
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.
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(“What’s in a name” - Esther picking up her first paycheck).
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.
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Tom Noonan and Judy Garland in “A Star Is Born”
(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. Finally, she pulls herself together and stands up.)
Esther: Will you wait for me?
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映画の邦題：『スタア誕生』1954年