A STAR IS BORN: Blu-ray (Selznick International, 1937) Warner Archive

‘Wild’ Bill Wellman was one tough hombre. With an Irish temperament, a distinguished military career during WWI, early aspirations of becoming an actor, director and writer, and, a penchant for achieving perfection at whatever the cost, Wellman was the sort of trenchant and honest artiste Hollywood simultaneously dreads, yet could only hope for, toiling and roiling in the picture biz. After leaving Paramount in 1930, Wellman had made the Cook’s Tour of the Hollywood majors, churning out 35 pictures with only the occasional break-out into rarified art. Fiercely loyal to his friends, of which he counted producer, David O. Selznick among the lot, Wellman could be counted upon to raise hell for the sake of his own personal integrity. Arriving at Selznick’s then fledgling studio, Wellman brought with him two properties he hoped to develop – one, the script for It Happened in Hollywood (a.k.a. A Star is Born). Indeed, A Star is Born (1937) would be only the third movie produced by Selznick under his own banner, Selznick International. But the gestation of A Star is Born, long since has been clouded in shadowy details, steeped in the actual legacy and lore of Hollywood, its history already the stuff of darkly purposed fairytales and nightmares, derailed marriages, addiction, tragic deaths and unfettered gossip. Despite these lurid details, Hollywood had somehow managed to create a Teflon-coated and highly romanticized mythology about itself that withstood any such scrutiny from beyond its borders. Under this aegis, A Star is Born would gradually morph into Hollywood’s idealized grand tragedy, a story of heartache and success, set against the glitterati of Tinsel Town while exploring the nobility, romance and ultimate tragedy of stardom for its own sake.

Selznick would later claim the idea for the picture had been his while Wellman firmly argued he had brought the project to his friend, after working on it himself with writer, Bob Carson. In the original draft, Esther Blodgett hailed from Canada – just another star-struck ingenue who, on the advice of her beloved grandmother, makes good on her mooning desire to go somewhere and be somebody. Her matinee idol from afar, Norman Maine, turns out to be a drunkard whose career is already on the downswing. Yet, despite his personal failings, Maine and Blodgett fall in love and are married. As her career rises, his continues to spiral out of control until, he commits suicide after learning his wife intends to sacrifice her stardom to preserve the integrity of their marriage. Surrounded by heartless, toxic influencers, including producer, Joseph Grantham (a character played strictly for cynical laughs), Maine kills himself, leaving a distraught Esther to give up her career anyway and retreat back home. With this thumbnail sketch of the plot, Selznick likely viewed A Star is Born as his Cinderella story with caveats afforded the modern age, inescapable of its bittersweet ardor and misfortune. Ironically, much of the darkness that would intervene in these fictional characters’ lives was actually culled from Hollywood fact rather than fiction, particularly the hellacious spectacle of silent screen matinee idol, Rudolph Valentino’s funeral. Also paramount in Selznick’s mind was the recent self-destruction and death of John Gilbert, another silent hero felled by the introduction of sound. Indeed, Gilbert’s meteoric descend into alcoholic oblivion and premature death uncannily mirrored Norman Maine.

Relocating the early action from Canada to North Dakota, Wellman and Selznick continued to iron out the kinks in the story. Instead of observing Norman in a drunken brawl outside of the famed Brown Derby restaurant, Esther would now encounter a similarly inebriated Maine disrupting a concert at the Hollywood Bowl. From here, the permutations of A Star is Born would toggle between brokering the severity of its melodrama with a few light-hearted incidents of comedy. Joseph Grantham morphed in spirit and name into studio mogul, Oliver Niles and the character of the unscrupulous press agent, Matt Libby was created as Maine’s arch nemesis. Selznick’s latest pet project was chugging along with renewed momentum when his world – and indeed, the rest of Hollywood’s – was suddenly rocked by the untimely death of MGM wunderkind VP, Irving Thalberg, felled by a fatal heart attack, age 37. Selznick, who had greatly admired Thalberg as “the man who did more to raise the standards of motion picture production” was frankly appalled when mourners attending his funeral, including Thalberg’s wife, actress Norma Shearer, were besieged by fans, echoing the disgusting display that had transformed Valentino’s final rest into a 3-ring circus For a brief wrinkle, Selznick was gravely concerned recreating this moment in A Star is Born would seem as though he were raping his friendship with Thalberg for cheap publicity. He had nothing to fear here.

More concerning for Selznick was the fact he had yet to settle on a title for his pet project, turning to Kay Brown in his New York offices for counsel and advice. Selznick, who did not want the word, ‘Hollywood’ in his title, had come up with ‘The Stars Below’ as viable substitute. Instead, Brown wired back a suggestion put forth by Selznick’s financial backer, Jock Whitney – A Star is Born. This title had previously been used by author, P.G. Wodehouse for a short story. However, Wodehouse had no qualm about allowing Selznick to use it for his devices, even foregoing any remuneration for the honor.  Treading lightly on any and all comparisons between real life and its transparently reconstituted fiction, Selznick borrowed one scene wholesale from an account of the spiraling life of John Barrymore. It seems director, George Cukor, a close friend of both Selznick and Barrymore, had gone to visit the latter at his convalescence home where he was attempting to dry out from his chronic alcoholism. The scene Cukor described to Selznick was that of a seedy abode, curtains drawn, everything hushed, shabby and shuttered, and, in which Barrymore’s every gesture had been scrutinized by its staff. At this juncture, Selznick also elected to make a name change to Esther Blodgett’s stage persona, from Mona to Vicki Lester. Lastly, he altered the finale. Esther, after a brief retreat to North Dakota, is given an inspirational pep talk by her grandmother who convinces her to go back to Hollywood and begin anew with a stiff pioneer’s resolve.

Selznick next turned his focus to casting the picture, and to Technicolor – then, still highly experimental, and whose track record in Hollywood had not been great. Indeed, RKO’s first major attempt at Technicolor gloss for a feature film, 1935’s Becky Sharp (based on Thackery’s Vanity Fair) had been a box office disaster, while Selznick’s own, The Garden of Allah (1936) had not fared much better. Nevertheless, Selznick was adamant A Star is Born be shot in Technicolor. To this end, he assigned Lansing C. Holden as chief architect of the picture’s color design. As for casting; Selznick turned to Fredric March, the only actor outside of Barrymore who could portray Norman Maine’s self-destructive nature with an astute balance of empathic charm. For a time, Australian actress, Elizabeth Bergner and Hollywood’s home-grown Margaret Sullivan were each considered in the running for Esther Bloggett before Janet Gaynor came into focus. Gaynor’s fame, conceived as another darling from the silent period, had quietly begun to dim throughout the early talkie years. But Wellman, who had directed her in MGM’s Small Town Girl (1936), while encountering much opposition from his star, held no grudge now as he recognized the innate virtues Gaynor would likely bring to the role – the right combination of pleasantness and pluck to truthfully sell the part and make it her own.

A Star is Born was photographed by cinematographer, W. Howard Greene under Wellman’s usual breakneck pace, and, on sets designed by Lyle Wheeler with a second unit tackling the Herculean location shoot all over town, including Huntington Beach where Norman Maine’s suicide at sunset would take place. By December, Wellman had shot a whopping 122-mins. of usable film and was still not finished, leaving Selznick to deduce the project needed to be reigned in as he had no intension of releasing a movie longer than 90 to 100-mins. At this interim, Selznick contemplated shoring the North Dakota prologue, a decision narrowly averted when Hal Kern heavily campaigned for it to remain in the picture, citing that without it, Esther’s entire modus operandi for making her pilgrimage to Hollywood would be emasculated. Moreover, the show would lose the hard-won champion of Esther’s granny whom Kern considered the heart and soul of the piece. Selznick respected Kern’s opinion. So, granny stayed in. Shorn in the editing process, much of the backstage machinations at the studio to establish how Hollywood made movies, also a honeymoon sequence for Esther and Norman, now merely glimpsed in montage. At this juncture, with a good two weeks shooting still left to complete, Wellman fell ill with the flu. Selznick brought in Jack Conway from MGM to continue the work. Alas, Wellman and Selznick quickly concurred, Conway’s footage had been a mistake and Wellman, upon his return to the studio, began to reshoot it.

A Star is Born opens in North Dakota with starry-eyed farm girl, Esther Victoria Blodgett (Janet Gaynor) yearning for a more exciting life as a Hollywood actress. Although discouraged by her father (J.C. Nugent) who regards his daughter’s ambitions with general disdain, Esther's grandmother, Letty (May Robson) believes in the girl, offering her life’s savings to provide Esther with safe passage to the West Coast. Arriving in Hollywood, Esther tries to find extra work but quickly learns the casting agencies are overflowing with potential candidates and no longer accepting applications. Informed she has a one in 100,000 chance to succeed, Esther befriends Danny McGuire (Andy Devine) another patron at her boarding house and an assistant director also out of work. After McGuire gets a job, he and Esther celebrate, resulting in Esther’s first encounter with Norman Maine (Fredric March) – a man she has greatly admired from afar as major star, but whose alcoholism has already begun to get the better of him. Danny gets Esther a one-time waitressing job at a swank Hollywood party where she catches Norman’s eye while serving hors d’œuvres. Amused by her fresh-faced naïveté, Norman gets his producer/friend, Oliver Niles (Adolph Menjou) to give Esther a screen test. Impressed by what he sees, Oliver changes Esther’s name to Vicki Lester and offers her a contract. Fate again intervenes when the part of the female lead in Norman’s latest movie is filled by the newly rechristened Vicki, making her an overnight sensation.

Enchanted by her, Norman proposes. Vicki accepts and Norman resolves to turn over a new leaf and stop drinking. The couple elopes without publicity, much to the chagrin of cynical press agent, Matt Libby (Lionel Stander) who views Norman with general contempt.  After the briefest of happy honeymoons, Esther returns to the studio. Her popularity skyrockets. Alas, this brief absence has gravely hindered Norman’s already waning fame. His career tanks. Oliver attempts to offer Norman some guidance. However, his precarious sobriety put to the test, Norman now reverts to the bottle for solace. On Oscar night, Vicki wins the coveted Best Actress statuette. But her moment supreme is thwarted when a thoroughly stoned Norman intrudes, borrowing her acceptance speech to cynically admonish the industry for his downfall. The humiliation is made complete when Norman, in a gesture of desperation, inadvertently slaps his wife across the cheek. Checking into a sanatorium, Norman’s disruptive alcoholism is briefly abated until he encounters Libby, who now reveals his long-concealed venom towards him. In reply, Norman goes on a bender, resulting in a narrowly averted jail sentence when Vicki agrees to become her husband’s defacto custodian.

Informing Oliver of her intentions to give up her career to look after her husband, Vicki is unaware their conversation is overheard by Norman. Promising to return to their beach house after an invigorating swim, Norman instead commits suicide by drowning himself in the California surf – his body washing up a short while later. At Norman’s funeral, Vicki comes under siege from ravenous fans who tug at her mourning veil for a morose glimpse at her epic sorrow.  Seeing the ugly side of fame sours Vicki on ever returning to pictures. Electing to go home, Esther’s impromptu exit from fame and fortune is thwarted when Letty arrives in Hollywood, informing her granddaughter of a letter she received from Norman shortly after their marriage. In it, Norman sang his praises for Esther and extoled his deep and abiding love. Buoyed by the memory of those brief happy days together, Esther agrees to attend her premiere at Grauman's Chinese. Seeing her late husband’s footsteps in the famed landmark’s forecourt, Esther proudly steps up to the microphone and announces herself as “Mrs. Norman Maine.”

A Star is Born was, for its time, considered – even by Selznick – as his opportunity to rectify the oversights on the similarly themed What Price Hollywood? (1932), he had produced over at RKO-Pathé. The picture would be remade thrice more in the intervening decades under its own name; first, by Sid Luft for Judy Garland over at Warner Bros. in 1954 (still considered the definitive version of the story), then again, with a change of venue from Hollywood to the pop/rock scene, costarring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson in 1976, and finally, in 2018, similarly based and costarring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. In the original, Selznick elected – wisely – to keep the more comedic elements at bay, gingerly guided by John Lee Mahin, then, one of the hottest writers in Hollywood and borrowed by Selznick from his father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer over at MGM. Mahin concurred, A Star is Born ought to remain a great tragic love story. To this end, Selznick turned to composer, Max Steiner to write a melodramatic underscore that would augment the heartbreak and pathos. And while Steiner did, in fact, produce one of his most memorable offerings for A Star is Born, Selznick undertook to reorganize the cues to his own liking, a decision that insulted Steiner’s artistic sensibilities and immediately soured him on ever working for Selznick International again. Steiner would, however, be lured back into the fold, ultimately writing his most memorable score for Gone With the Wind a scant 2 years later. A Star is Born achieved its immortality as a sober and truthful tale of Hollywood almost from its premiere – a night, reportedly, to have left not a dry eye in the house. Nominated for all the major Academy Awards, it won none – Best Actress going to Luis Rainer over Janet Gaynor for The Good Earth, Best Actor to Spencer Tracy over Fredric March for Captains Courageous, and, The Life of Emile Zola as Best Picture. A Star is Born did manage to win for Best Story – the Oscar to Wellman who, either sarcastically or sincerely, offered his statuette in passing to Selznick, claiming he had re-written more of it than anyone else. A brief inkling of a lawsuit perpetuated by Samuel Briskin, president of RKO, suggesting Selznick had pilfered whole portions of A Star is Born from What Price Hollywood? was later, narrowly averted.

A Star is Born arrives on Blu-ray via the Warner Archive (WAC), in a reimagined and badly needed restoration I thought I would never live to see. In 2014, Kino Classics released their own Blu, cribbing from a print archived at George Eastman House. These, alas left much to be desired. The WAC re-issue is therefore cause for celebration. Important to note, there is a distinction between 30’s Technicolor and 40’s Technicolor – chiefly, in the texturing of the color itself. While 40’s Technicolor was pronounced with brazen hues to pop and saturate the screen, 30’s Technicolor is best exemplified by its creamier and velvety hues. Cribbing from a new 4K scan of original elements, WAC’s Blu perfectly captures the essence of that frothy and fabulous patina and replicates what was actually on the OCN, not the more garish representation as previously preserved from surviving prints. The subtler palette has been balanced to perfection, with exquisite contrast and gorgeous amounts of fine detail. The 3-strip process is perfectly aligned. Wow! Exponentially the use of Technicolor after A Star is Born grew from a mere 6 movies shot in it in 1936, to 16 by 1940. There likely would have been more in the hopper too, if only Technicolor had been able to keep up with the demand for manufacturing cameras and other equipment. The 2.0 DTS audio from vintage Westrex sounds excellent with zero hiss or pop. While I would have preferred a featurette on the actual techniques employed to achieve this wonderful restoration, WAC has fatted out the extras with 2 Lux Radio Theater broadcasts from 1937 and 1942, 3 classic short subjects, and 1 WB cartoon, plus an original theatrical trailer. Bottom line: one of the most sought-after movie classics finally arrives in pristine condition in hi-def. Thank you Warner Bros. and to Mr. George Feltenstein – the master of all he surveys. Dear George: can we please get Blu’s of This is The Army, Till The Clouds Roll By, Topper and Meet John Doe – classics from the WB/MGM stables also currently in public domain? Very, very highly recommended!!!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

5+

EXTRAS

3