A Star Is Born (1954 film)

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A Star Is Born

Directed by	George Cukor
Produced by	Sid Luft
Written by	William A. Wellman Robert Carson Dorothy Parker Alan Campbell Moss Hart
Starring	Judy Garland James Mason Jack Carson
Music by	Harold Arlen
Cinematography	Sam Leavitt
Distributed by	Warner Brothers
Release date(s)	September 29, 1954 (U.S. release)
Language	English
IMDb profile

A Star Is Born is a 1954 musical remake of the original 1937 film, directed by George Cukor and starring Judy Garland and James Mason. Musical highlights included "The Man That Got Away" and the "Born in a Trunk" sequence.

In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

In 2006 this film ranked #7 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals. The song The Man That Got Away was ranked number 11 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs list.

Garland had not made a movie since she had been humiliatingly dropped from her MGM contract in 1950, and this film was heavily promoted as a triumphant comeback. She was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actress for her tour-de-force performance and was heavily tipped to win. However she eventually lost to Grace Kelly (The Country Girl) in a shock result that famously prompted Groucho Marx to send Garland a telegram stating it was "the biggest robbery since Brinks".

The film was re-edited several times. Premiering at 181 minutes, the studio (Warner Bros.) cut the film by 30 minutes despite the objections of director Cukor and producer Sid Luft (Garland's husband). In 1983, all but 5 minutes of the cut footage was found and reinstated, but some of the footage had to be reconstructed using production stills. This was shown in many theaters and then released on home video.^[1]

James Mason and Judy Garland

The premiere of the 1954 film at the Pantages in Los Angeles was a major event with Garland, Mason, studio head Jack L. Warner, and Jack Carson (who emceed), and dozens of A-list stars attending. As the celebrities arrived at the theater, it was televised live and a kinescope film has survived.^[2]

Despite the film's success, Warner Brothers cancelled Judy Garland's contract and refused to make any further films with her. In her autobiography, Doris Day admitted that both she and Garland battled "nervous breakdowns" in dealing with the studio. It was 1961 before Garland again appeared in a film, playing a crucial, dramatic supporting role in Judgment at Nuremberg.